Covid-19 is building future pressures for children’s services

On 1 April I became ADCS President and I feel privileged to be able to represent colleagues and peers in this way.

Directors of children’s services are familiar with leading services in challenging circumstances but the pandemic is the biggest leadership challenge many of us will ever face. I am proud of the way the sector has risen to this challenge, keeping key services going and meeting the needs of children and their families, albeit in new, virtual and innovative ways. It’s been great to see collaborative working in these unprecedented times. There will be lessons and new ways of working we can take forward from the crisis. Councils continue to do what they do best acting as leaders of their local place, and we are seeing the reaffirmation of strong partnerships between councils and schools.

Our work as ADCS has at its core a country that works for all children and a top priority for us this year is maintaining visibility on the need to ‘level up’ society and make it more inclusive, so that children and young people feel a greater sense of belonging at home, in their community and in school. Urging government to address properly several longstanding issues affecting children’s lives including government inaction on child and family poverty and the woeful underfunding of our overstretched services remain high on our agenda. The current crisis is building future financial pressures for children’s services and councils are expressing concerns about their ability to balance budgets when this is over. Recent funding announcements are welcome, however more funding will be needed to help councils cope with the additional need for our help and support Covid-19 will undoubtedly create.

The pandemic has highlighted existing fragilities in the system, such as a shortage of placement options for children in our care, care leavers and children in need of specialist help and support. Working with government departments and our partners towards a national sufficiency strategy of placements for these cohorts is another priority for us this year. It’s our collective duty to find safe, suitable places for children and young people to live and to meet their needs in a holistic way so that they thrive, promoting important connections with their family and friends and providing help and support at the earliest opportunity is part of this.

Local authorities and their partners are already doing work around recovery thinking about how best to support children and families on the other side of this crisis. I fear the impact will be most profound for children and young people who are facing months of lost socialisation and learning due to school closures, concerns about exams and their futures and for some social distancing and lockdown measures will be exacerbating existing anxieties and mental health problems. When restrictions are lifted, it’s likely we will see huge spikes in demand for children’s social care, more children coming into care, increased incidences of children living with parental substance misuse, domestic abuse and parental mental ill-health and greater demand for child and adolescent mental health services. We remain committed to meeting the wide-ranging needs of children and their families and it falls on all of us to ensure children don’t pay the heaviest price.

I look forward to my year leading the Association, albeit on a virtual stage for the time being, and to working together with government and partners in the sector to ensure children are at the heart of decisions that affect their lives.

Jenny Coles, ADCS President 2020/21 and Director of Children’s Services, Hertfordshire County Council.

This column first appeared on the LGC website on 14 May 2020 | https://www.lgcplus.com/politics/lgc-briefing/covid-crisis-is-building-future-childrens-services-pressures-14-05-2020/

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ADCS response to OCC report on vulnerable children

Charlotte Ramsden, ADCS Vice President, said:

“We are concerned about the impact of Covid-19 on children and young people, particularly the most vulnerable. It’s important to recognise that lockdown measures will be affecting children in different ways and some who we would not usually consider as vulnerable will be presenting with new needs that we will need to meet, plus some who were already vulnerable will be facing additional challenges both now and in the future. We welcome recent funding announcements for children’s social care, but it’s likely more will be needed.

“Local authorities are reporting referrals to children’s social care as being lower than usual which is an obvious worry for us, but we are absolutely clear that where children and families need help and support we are here for them. Social workers are prioritising face to face contact with children most at risk, many schools and early years settings are keeping in touch with those they actively support and local safeguarding partnerships have been and continue to work hard to raise awareness of hidden harm. Our multi-agency partnership work remains in place but in new and challenging circumstances. Sources of information and advice are available if someone is worried about a child and we would encourage people to make use of that if needed.

“We understand many parents and carers will be worried about sending children to school because of the pandemic. Local authorities remain committed to increasing the number of vulnerable children attending school, where children aren’t attending school social workers and schools are keeping in touch with them and working hard to encourage attendance where safe to do so.

“Local authorities and their partners remain absolutely committed to keeping children and young people safe from harm and protecting their welfare. New, virtual and innovative ways of supporting children and young people that keep them at the heart of services have sprung up at pace across the country and this is something to be proud of.”

ENDS

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Comment: children’s social guidance new statutory...

Jenny Coles, ADCS President, said:

“Keeping children safe and protecting their welfare remains a priority for all local authorities during the pandemic. The Association is working closely with the government to address the challenges children and families face and to find sensible and, crucially, safe solutions to those we face with a reduced workforce, rapidly embedding new ways of working and what this means for our ability to meet all of our duties at this unprecedented time.

“We recognise the concerns raised about the statutory instrument affording some flexibilities to local authorities due to the outbreak of Covid-19, however, it’s important to recognise that all local authorities and their staff will continue working hard to ensure that we can fulfil our statutory responsibilities to children and young people, particularly the most vulnerable. The best interests of children and families remain at the heart of any decision made by local authorities.”

ENDS

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Jenny Coles Inaugural Presidential Address

Jenny Coles inaugural Presidential address

Jenny Coles became the ADCS President on 1 April 2020. It has not been possible for Jenny to make her inaugural speech in person at a reception to mark the start of her Presidency, instead Jenny has written an inaugural address and prepared a brief video message. Jenny’s address sets out the Association’s policy priorities for the Presidential year 2020/21. Our thanks to Vicky Ford MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families and to Jonathan Slater, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education for their supportive words which can be found below.

View Jenny Coles Presidential address (pdf)

To view the supporting ADCS press release, click here.

Video message from Jenny Coles

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Message from Vicky Ford MP​

“I’m delighted to welcome Jenny Coles as President of ADCS and Charlotte Ramsden as Vice President. The work that you and your colleagues do couldn’t be more important at this extraordinary time, which poses heightened levels of risk to many of our most vulnerable children. I want to say thank you to all who work in Children’s Social Care for your continued commitment and the quality of what you do, to DCSs for your leadership and to Rachel Dickinson for working so effectively in partnership with the Department over the last year. I look forward to a similarly strong relationship with Jenny and Charlotte in the coming year.”

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Video message from Jonathan Slater

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Jenny Coles Inaugural Address PR

“I hope Covid-19 makes us a kinder country, a country that works for all children”

Today, Thursday 23 April, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, published the written inaugural address of its new President for 2020/21, Jenny Coles, Director of Children’s Services, Hertfordshire County Council.

Jenny Coles used her address to outline the Association’s policy priorities for the coming year, with maintaining “visibility on the need to level up…society to make it more inclusive” so that children and young people, particularly the most vulnerable, feel a greater sense of belonging at home, in school and in their community topping the list.

Reflecting on Covid-19, Jenny Coles paid tribute to local government staff, public services and local politicians “for their amazing work” and acknowledged that there are “even greater expectations of local government” than usual because of the outbreak. The pandemic will likely “plunge even more children and their families into poverty” as many more families experience the “wholly inadequate provisions of the welfare state.” Keeping “poverty high on everyone’s agenda” will be a continuing priority for ADCS in the coming year, she said.

She went on to highlight some of the challenges that children and young people might face when we return to “benign times” and the pressures being “stored up” for already “severely stretched and woefully underfunded” children’s services. The implications of Covid-19 will be “most profound” for children and young people who are facing months of lost socialisation and learning due to school closures, for some social isolation will be “compounding and exacerbating their worries and anxieties”, she said. It’s possible we’ll see “huge spikes in demand across the children’s social care spectrum”, a backlog of new care applications and more children needing to come into care as well as increased incidences of children living with one or more of the ‘trigger trio’, parental substance misuse, domestic abuse and parental mental ill-health resulting in “even greater burdens on child and adolescent mental health services” which were “almost at breaking point” before Covid-19, she said. Local authorities and their partners will be grappling with these things and more as we continue our work around recovery.

That said, we’ve also seen the “extraordinary outpouring of gratitude for frontline carers” and the ‘hidden frontline’, from our social workers and foster carers to residential children’s homes workers and staff in residential school settings. We have seen clearly the vital role of the local authority as a leader of place “building, maintaining and strengthening local relationships in local communities” and the “reaffirmation of the strong partnerships that exist between the local authority and schools”, she said. She continued, “I sincerely hope the spirit of working together continues long after the pandemic is over in the best interests of communities but, crucially, in the best interests of children and young people… I also hope that the DfE will review its own internal structural arrangements to eradicate the artificial divide, which only exists in central government, between education and schools and children’s social care.”

On placements for children in care

“I am more determined than ever to work closely with DfE, other government departments and with providers to achieve a national sufficiency strategy of placements for children in care…I include in this the imperative of resolving our national and long-standing shortage of tier 4 placements for our most complex children and young people…This is not solely about providing a decent, safe placement in which to live, it’s about understanding wider support needs too – staying connected with family and friends, emotional support, physical and mental health support, an educational placement that encourages a sense of belonging. If the state is going to take a child or young person into care, we have a collective responsibility to try to meet a child’s needs holistically…Similarly, I am determined to ensure that a national placement sufficiency strategy considers carefully the accommodation and support needs of care leavers.”

On the care review

“It will be important for the Care Review to have a sharply focussed, clear aim of improving outcomes for children in care and care leavers. The aim of the review cannot be clouded by any sense of seeking to reduce the number of children in care per se; the trick is to make sure we have the right children in care, at the right time, in the right placement with the right support. Necessarily this will involve a careful look at the host of issues associated with ‘placements at distance’. In recent times we have seen an increased use of placements at distance, indeed we’ve seen increased use of unregulated and unregistered provision. To state the obvious if I may, both phenomena are driven by a lack of placement sufficiency in localities… I want to say again here that semi independent accommodation usually used by and for care leavers may be unregulated by Ofsted, but it is not the wild west where children are abandoned to their fate. These placements are locally monitored. There is some poor practice that we absolutely don’t want to see, but unless the state accepts that it (not just local authorities) has a role to play in ensuring placement sufficiency across the country then local authorities will continue to be stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

On children’s services funding

“The announcement of extra funding for children (and adult) social care is welcome. But I just want to say loud and clear, this is not yet job done for children’s services…We must work towards a sustainable long term funding settlement for children’s services. Before the pandemic, children’s services were woefully under-funded and stretched to the limit. The current crisis is significantly exacerbating that inadequate baseline of funding. The resources needed during the nation’s recovery from the pandemic will be eye-wateringly large. I’m sure that the government will invest in its citizens’ futures. I want to see unprecedented levels of investment in our children’s futures, please.

“We have a government with a large mandate…This gives the government the opportunity to change its approach – to stop chasing the next shiny new thing and instead invest in children’s services in a way that generates improved outcomes for children and families over a longer timeframe. Short term, single issue funding pots waste precious time in endless bidding rounds for small amounts of money when our core services for children and families are under-funded. I hope that the government will see that it cannot again allow public services to be denuded in the way they have been over the last decade.”

ENDS

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) Ltd is the professional leadership association for Directors of Children’s Services and their senior management teams in England.

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Comment: new school attendance data

Commenting on new school attendance data Jenny Coles, ADCS President, said:

“Data published yesterday by the Department for Education shows how many children and teachers attended education settings in the four weeks after the government announced schools would close for all children, apart from for our most vulnerable pupils and children of key workers.

“The data does show pupil attendance has gradually fallen from over 3% on 23 March to just under 1% on 6 April, it is encouraging to see that although pupil attendance was at its lowest during the Easter holidays there has been a very slight upturn in vulnerable children attending schools. However, it is clearly still a concern for us that not all children who are eligible are benefiting from attending school.

“Information for parents and carers which can be found on the DfE’s website states that vulnerable children who have a social worker are “expected to attend school”, unless they have underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk than others. The Secretary of State also made clear in his speech over the weekend that schools remain open for them and children of key workers. Local authorities and schools will continue to work with families to encourage children to attend where they are entitled to. Social workers are in touch with families directly so we hope to see numbers increase with time.”

ENDS

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ADCS responds to a weekend of new government announcements

Responding to a weekend of new government announcements, Jenny Coles, President of ADCS, said:

On Friday 17 April, the government published new guidance on financial support for early years and childcare providers:

“Both leaders of children’s services and early years providers have been clear that the level of funding attached to the government’s subsidised child care offer falls short of covering actual running costs, as evidenced by providers charging parents and carers top ups for food and activities, withdrawing from the scheme or going out of business. From the very outset of its pandemic response, the government recognised that access to reliable childcare was essential for key workers. Settings have remained open so that teachers, doctors, nurses and social workers could continue with their vital work and the most vulnerable children could retain some certainty and stability.

“Although we, like the government, are alive to the issue of double funding, such a significant change in official guidance at such a late stage may serve to push greater numbers of providers and settings into insolvency resulting in a chronic shortage of places once restrictions are eased. Access to childcare will be essential to rebuilding the economy, we urge the government to engage with us and providers to understand the impact of this changing advice in both the short and longer term.”

On Saturday 18 April the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government announced additional funding for local government:

“We welcome the provision of a further £1.6 billion in emergency funding for local authorities over the weekend. Covid-19 is affecting every area of our work and every single community so this money will contribute to our continued response to this crisis and our efforts to provide help and support to the most vulnerable children, young people and families.”

On Sunday 19 April the Secretary of State for Education announced a suite of measures relating to his Department’s remit:

“The news that laptops, tablets and internet facilities are in the process of being procured for the benefit of learners who do not have access to this equipment in their home is welcome. This will help them to access the new learning resources from the BBC and Oak National Academy, which were also announced by the Secretary of State for Education. We will continue to work with the Secretary of State, his staff and school leaders on the logistics of distribution in the coming days and weeks.

“The majority of children are not being seen regularly by teachers, school nurses, GPs, dentists or sports coaches due to lockdown, this means they and their needs are less visible. The government has provided £1.6 million to the NSPCC to boost access to its helpline for adults who are worried about the safety and wellbeing of a child or young person. Any steps to raise both the profile and awareness of the risk of harm some children face is welcome, it’s more important than ever that communities and neighbours look out for each other and for children’s best interests. I know local safeguarding partnerships have been and continue to work hard to raise awareness of hidden harm and sources of information and advice if someone is worried about a child.”

ENDS

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Comment: Covid-19 and safeguarding

Jenny Coles, ADCS President, said:

“Covid-19 is impacting on all of us, every family, every community and every public service. Local authorities have a central role in protecting our most vulnerable children and families so we are paying particular attention to how the outbreak is affecting them and working tirelessly to ensure they are safe and provided for.

“While some schools and other education settings may be closed, others remain open to our most vulnerable pupils and for this we are grateful but clearly it is concerning if the number of vulnerable pupils attending schools is lower than hoped for. Beyond education, schools provide a vital safety net for our most vulnerable learners and have a key role in identifying safeguarding concerns early. Local authorities are committed to increasing the number of vulnerable children attending school, social workers are in touch with vulnerable families directly and via their schools to encourage children to attend school where they are eligible and we hope to see numbers increase with time.

“Local authorities are prioritising face to face contact with those most at risk but we are aware that usual routes of safeguarding referrals are affected by the current lockdown. Locally systems are in place to ensure children are protected but now more than ever it’s important that communities and neighbours are looking out for each other where possible, and if a family needs some additional help in these unprecedented times, contact should be made with the local authority as soon as possible so this can be arranged.

“As ADCS, we are involved in daily discussions with the government to help find sensible practicable solutions to the challenges our members face, keeping children’s best interests centre stage.”

ENDS

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Comment: Covid-19 and vulnerable children

Commenting on a Newsnight feature on Covid-19 and vulnerable children, Rachel Dickinson, ADCS Immediate Past President, said:

“All councils will be dealing with the outbreak of Covid-19 by prioritising the needs of the most vulnerable. That said, this pandemic is shining a light, and in some cases exacerbating, existing fragilities in the system, such as a shortage of placement options for children in our care and longstanding challenges to recruit and retain enough social workers across the country. Our teams are working round the clock to ensure children and young people are safe and provided for but there are some very significant and practical challenges we’re working hard to overcome. Covid-19 is affecting every area of service, every team and every community. As social workers, and other key staff fall ill, or need to self-isolate, local authorities will redeploy existing qualified staff where possible and where it’s safe to do so, prioritising face to face work with children most at risk. The new Coronavirus Act contains provisions to make it easier for returners to take up social work roles and other key partners and agencies, such as Ofsted, are offering us access to their staff too.

“Of course, it is very worrying to hear that in some situations children are struggling to contact their social workers or afford basic necessities like food, this is not what we want to see. It’s vital that the needs of vulnerable children and families, including children in and on the edge of care, care leavers as well as families living in poverty continue to be met and that they are safe and provided for during the outbreak, all of those things are being worked through locally as fast as possible. The Association continues to log issues raised by our members in relation to Covid-19 and feed them into our regular discussions with the UK government to ensure that the needs and rights of children, young people and families remain high on the national agenda.”

ENDS

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Comment: Covid-19 and pressures on the workforce

Rachael Wardell, Chair of the ADCS Workforce Development Policy Committee, said:

“These are unprecedented times and the situation changes frequently so local authorities are working with all partners to build resilience and sustainability of our workforce and ensure that the needs of the children and families we work with are met. Local authorities were quick to respond to the risk around Covid-19 and mobilised the majority of their staff to work safely from home in line with the latest public health guidance, prioritising face to face work in situations where children are most at risk.

“In terms of specific workforce pressures on local authorities, these are similar to all other organisations working directly with the public, namely how we can continue to provide essential services as members of our workforce fall ill or need to self isolate, including our social workers.

“Given that we’re not able to recruit and retain enough social workers nationally already, any additional workforce shortages as a result of Covid-19 will be challenging. However, every local authority is following their business continuity plans which include contingency arrangements should this situation arise. Nationally, ADCS has been in discussion with Social Work England which is increasing the number of available social workers by inviting social workers who have left the register in the past two years to rejoin where they are eligible. Locally, most local authorities are preparing for and responding to workforce shortages by redeploying the qualified staff we already have to different roles where possible and where it’s safe to do so, as well as using agency social workers if necessary.”

ENDS

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Comment: Covid-19

Rachel Dickinson, ADCS President, said:

“Responding to emergency situations is one of most important things that local authorities do, and all councils will be dealing with the outbreak of Covid-19 as they would any other emergency by prioritising the needs of the most vulnerable. Local authorities will be in contact with their residents, providers, schools and others with updates on keeping themselves and others safe and to ensure they are aware of the latest government and public health advice available to us. It has been helpful having public health within local government as we respond to the outbreak.

“Clearly, this is a fastmoving situation. We recognise that guidance can’t be available to cover every situation, so it’s important that local authorities follow their business continuity plans in relation to essential services and exercise local judgement in response to local and individual circumstances, within the context of national guidance. It’s vital that the needs of vulnerable children and families, including children in and on the edge of care, continue to be met and that they are safe during the outbreak, all of those things are being worked through locally.

“ADCS is logging issues raised by our members in relation to Covid-19 and feeding them into our regular discussions with the Department for Education to inform government thinking and planning. One of the issues that has been raised with us is whether Ofsted inspections of social care settings will be put on hold to allow local authorities to concentrate on their local responses to the outbreak, and we are pleased the Secretary of State has confirmed all routine inspections of schools, further education, early years and social care settings will be temporarily suspended. We are also feeding issues into the Department around children’s residential settings and the use of emergency social worker registrants in response to potential workforce shortages as a result of Covid-19. Given the placements market for children in care is already overstretched we are working closely with all relevant stakeholders to ensure children are provided for. We will continue to work with the Department to try and ensure that the government’s advice becomes more tailored over time.”

ENDS

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ADCS response to the introduction of the Domestic Abuse Bill

Jenny Coles, ADCS Vice President, said:

“We welcome proposals to improve vital support for victims of domestic abuse and their families, however, too many of the measures outlined in the Domestic Abuse Bill are reactive rather than preventative. Further enhancements to the Bill will be necessary if we are to turn the tide on this endemic problem - we are committed to working with government and others to this end.

“Upwards of two million men and women experience domestic abuse each year and it remains the most common reason children and families come to the attention of children’s social care. The Bill seeks to increase the reporting of this issue yet the necessary support services for victims, their families and perpetrators are lacking or entirely absent. Similarly, the funding package on offer does not reflect the scale, reach and severity of this issue given recent research puts the annual social and economic costs of domestic abuse at £66 billion. It’s the ultimate invest to save case – preventing domestic abuse in the first place will save money but, crucially, it will save lives. Women’s refuges are amongst the many vital services that have been affected by austerity, it’s important that any new duty on local authorities to provide accommodation is fully funded by government if it is to have the desired impact.”

ENDS

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Annual Conference 2020 FAQs Booking Information

Booking Information FAQ

When is the conference?

For directors of children’s services and chief executives of alternative delivery models, the conference opens with registration and lunch from 12noon on Wednesday 8 July. The conference opens to all members from 11am on Thursday 9 July, with registration open from 8:30am. The conference will conclude on Friday 10 July at approximately 1.30pm. A take-away lunch will be provided.

Why should I book?

The conference, exclusively for ADCS members, provides a unique opportunity to get together to share best practice, learning and experiences from across the sector. Unlike other events, we don’t have sponsors or exhibitors at our conference, allowing plenty of opportunities to network with colleagues outside of the main programme. If the conference appeals but you are not currently an ADCS member, please go to the website for further membership information.

Who is speaking?

The conference will include a series of keynote addresses, plenary sessions and workshops. To ensure the programme is topical and focuses on the key issues facing children’s services colleagues, it will not be available until closer to the conference. However, regular updates will be posted on the conference pages on the ADCS website and via the weekly ADCS ebulletin sent to all members.

What workshop sessions are there?

Again, workshops will be topical. Approximately three weeks prior to the conference, registered delegates will receive workshop information, encouraging them to select which workshops they wish to attend. Places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.There will be an opportunity at the conference to sign up to workshops, however, it is possible that some may be full by this time.

What is included in the price?

As the conference is primarily a residential event, we encourage members to stay overnight to make the most of the networking opportunities available. In addition to refreshments, lunch, and attendance at plenary and workshop sessions, the residential package includes bed and breakfast at The Midland hotel plus evening drinks reception and dinner.

Non-residential options are available.

If you wish to make your own alternative accommodation arrangements, we advise doing so as early as possible as Manchester is expected to be very busy during the week of conference and hotels will fill up.

How do I book?

All booking forms, completed with the delegate’s consent, should be returned to rebecca.denny@adcs.org.uk. You will receive an email confirming your booking and an invoice for payment will follow shortly after.

If you would like to attend the conference as a residential delegate, please return your residential booking form by 1 May to guarantee overnight accommodation at the Midland Hotel. Booking forms must be accompanied by a purchase order (requisition numbers/orders cannot be accepted) as we cannot confirm your conference place without one. If you are booking as an individual, and not through a local authority or Trust, a purchase order is not necessary.

Please be assured that all personal information will be handled in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2018.

How do I pay?

Payment must be made by cheque or via BACS; we cannot accept payment by debit card, credit card or LA payment card. Please email rebecca.denny@adcs.org.uk if you have any queries.

What if I need to cancel my place?

Cancellations received after 1 May 2020 will incur a 100% charge. Delegate replacements are permitted up to seven days prior to the conference but the replacement delegate must be an ADCS member.

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ADCS response to the Marmot Review: 10 years on report

Stuart Gallimore, ADCS Immediate Past President, said:

“Ten years on from the landmark Marmot Review, this report delivers a stark judgement on widening social and economic inequalities that are clearly impacting the health, wellbeing and life chances of this nation’s children, families and communities.

“The report finds that the health of the population has deteriorated over the last decade and in this time government policies have heightened inequalities. It states austerity is largely at the root of rising child poverty, growing rates of in-work poverty and falling life expectancies. We repeat our plea to this government that if austerity is going to end let it end for children first.

“Since 2010, funding for local government has been halved but need has not, and the report highlights the most deprived areas have lost the greatest amount. In order to manage demand, local authorities have had to cut or scale back on services that our communities rely on and that reduce future demand, such as children’s centres, youth services and libraries. These services are not just ‘nice to have’ they provide a lifeline to our most vulnerable families before they reach crisis point which is why early help and prevention should be at the heart of all policy decisions made in Whitehall.

“The report is clear that more can, and should, be done locally and nationally to enable everyone to thrive at every stage in their lives. ADCS members stand ready to work with government and others to build a country that works for all children but we cannot do this without proper, sustainable investment in children and the full range of services they rely on. The time for action is now.”

ENDS

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We need a clear national vision and strategy for youth services

The Civil Society Strategy (2018) recognises that youth work can have a transformational impact on young people’s lives but we have not yet seen a clear vision or strategy for youth services. Instead the National Citizenship Service (NCS) has been promoted as a flagship programme. Without a clear policy statement, one which recognises the wider benefits of youth work to both the individual and society, it remains somewhat adrift from wider children’s services, particularly education and schools.

There are many misconceptions about youth work amongst the public and I fear amongst our politicians and their policy makers. Youth work is rooted in the principles of building trusting relationships, improving wellbeing and promoting personal resilience. Sadly, the reach and scale of these services has been restricted by a decade of year-on-year budget cuts in many areas meaning school-based facilities, mobile units and dedicated neighbourhood youth centres have been lost. However, the community and voluntary sectors, including faith groups, continue to step into the space left by statutory services.

Youth workers don’t undertake a 9 to 5 role but make no mistake, they are skilled professionals. They make a valuable contribution to the safety and wellbeing of children and young people at risk of poor outcomes, or harm, by signposting them to information and support. Increasingly they are also engaged in targeted interventions in neighbourhoods experiencing high levels of anti-social behaviour, for example, or working with specific groups e.g. unaccompanied asylum-seeking children or LGBT groups. Detached youth work lends itself well to efforts to identify and disrupt sexual and/or criminal exploitation by targeting known hotspots.

ADCS has consistently called for the development of a comprehensive children’s workforce strategy. The need to recruit and retain the best staff to support children, young people and their families, is more pronounced than ever yet the number of degree-level youth work courses has fallen significantly in recent years. The youth work bursary and the development of a new suite of youth work apprenticeships led by the National Youth Agency are bright spots on the horizon.

The new government has pledged a significant investment in youth services over the course of the next parliament, this is welcome news but it’s important that we get real bang for our buck. The NCS, a four-week programme aimed at 16 and 17-year-olds and it currently accounts for around 95% of the government’s youth services budget. The NCS is now part of the wider youth services offer and participant feedback is largely positive. However, there is more that could be done to ensure NCS contracts dovetail with local youth services and providers reach out to the groups that could benefit from engagement the most. The need to self-fund some costs can be a barrier to some, and more could be done to help children in care and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities engage with the programme. All children and young people deserve the chance to access to good quality youth services, all year round, not just in the summer months.

Rachel Dickinson, ADCS President 2019/20 and Executive Director People at Barnsley Metropolitan Council.

This column first appeared on the CYP Now website on 28 January 2020 | More

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ADCS response to the government consultation on unregulated...

Rachel Dickinson, ADCS President, said:

“No child or young person should live in unsafe, unsuitable accommodation and we should all be doing our utmost to ensure that doesn’t happen. Ahead of the Care Review, this consultation is an opportunity for the government to truly recognise the pressures local authorities face when trying to find the right placement in the right place for a growing number of children and young people in our care and care leavers.

“Unregulated provision is usually used for 16-17-year olds as a stepping stone to independence, and occasionally in emergency situations following a placement breakdown or where a child has very complex needs and no other placement is available. If the proposal to ban the use of unregulated settings for under 16s is implemented, we would be interested to hear about what plans are in place to ensure this does not exacerbate capacity issues the sector is already facing, particularly in relation to finding placements for our most complex children and young people.

“Local authorities have a responsibility to make sure the unregulated provision they are using is suitable and take their own steps to locally regulate and quality assure settings. Examples include auditing staff DBS checks and conducting unannounced visits.

“Some young people thrive in semi-independent living arrangements, where good wrap around support is part of a highly tailored plan. However, we recognise and share the concern that this is not always the case which is why ADCS has been in dialogue with the DfE, Ofsted and others in relation to the use of these settings.

“We will carefully consider the proposals outlined and will be formally responding in due course after discussions with our members.”

ENDS

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ADCS response to the JTAI thematic report on child sexual abuse...

Rachel Dickinson, ADCS President, said:

“Tackling child abuse in all its forms is a priority for all local authorities but as the report states, sexual abuse in the family environment is “a very complex area”. A multiagency response is needed to both uncover and address this abuse and close working with schools, probation, health partners and the police is key. Children do not always feel able to tell someone they are being abused so we need to be aware of the signs and symptoms and how to respond effectively.

“The report notes that this topic remains taboo in families, in communities and amongst frontline professionals working with children and families. We all have a role to play in identifying, preventing and tackling child sexual abuse. The report highlights good practice in the areas that were inspected, however, it’s clear that much more needs to be done by all safeguarding partners to ensure we identify, protect and support children being abused within the family. Any potential national strategy should give specific consideration to boys, disabled children and children from certain ethnic backgrounds who can face additional barriers to disclosure.

“Our ultimate goal must be to prevent child abuse from taking place in the first place. It’s clear from the report that more data and research is needed to better understand the scale and prevalence of child sexual abuse within the family environment as is research on potential perpetrators. Better information sharing between agencies including with health, probation and school nursing staff, who often hold key information and insights, can only be a good thing for children and families. Awareness of child sexual exploitation has developed immeasurably over the past several years, in part because it has been talked about so much. There are future opportunities for a specific focus on child sexual abuse in the family environment through the training of social workers and increasing awareness amongst pupils via Relationships and Sex Education in schools. Beyond all this, we need to urgently tackle the social, cultural and moral issues at the root of this abuse so that all children can lead safe and happy childhoods.”

ENDS

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Comment: OCC report on CAMHS

Charlotte Ramsden, Chair of the ADCS Health, Care and Additional Needs Policy Committee, said:

“Poor mental health and wellbeing can have a lasting impact on a child’s life chances. Yet all too often children face difficulties in accessing services, wait months for support and reach crisis point as a result. The human and financial costs of this are huge and, crucially, this is not in children’s best interests. Our collective aim must be to ensure all children receive the right mental health support, in the right place, at the right time. This means investment in both specialist services for children and young people as well as services that support them earlier and prevent their needs from escalating.

“It is encouraging to see there have been some improvements in children’s mental health services in the past two years, but this does not mean job done. Overall, the quality of services across the country remains inconsistent. Clearly there is much more to do before we have a mental health system that works for all children and young people. Five years on from Future in Mind, now is an appropriate time to bring the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Taskforce together again to take stock and identify what still needs to be done to make the mental health and wellbeing system work for children. They cannot afford to wait a decade for a mental health system that puts them first.”

ENDS

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Comment: elective home education

Gail Tolley, Chair of the ADCS Educational Achievement Policy Committee, said:

“Education is a fundamental right for every child. We recognise that parents have the right to educate their children at home. Where they do, we want it to be a positive experience which equips children with the skills to realise their ambitions and we want to work with parents to achieve this.

“Our survey estimates that approximately 80,000 children were being home educated at some point during the 2018/19 academic year – this is only the children that we know of. Without a duty on parents to notify their local authority as well as powers to see both the child and their learning environment we have no way of knowing that they are receiving a suitable education, they are safe and their social and developmental needs are being met.

“We urge the government to respond to the ‘children not in school’ consultation as quickly as possible to deliver the legislative changes that children both need and deserve. The sooner we get a response the sooner new arrangements can be put in place but it’s absolutely crucial that any new duty to support parents who choose to educate their child at home is fully funded as a new burden.”

ENDS

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Comment: DfE’s adoption announcement

Rachel Dickinson, ADCS President, said:

“Adoption is just one means of securing permanence and stability for children in our care. Foster care, residential care, kinship care or special guardianship arrangements will be the right option for different children and young people. We must not over-simplify what are complex and life changing decisions, what is important is that the needs and best interests of each individual child remains at the forefront of decision making at all times.

“Local authorities will continue to support adoption, where appropriate. Ultimately, the courts will not approve an adoption unless this is the right decision for the child. ADCS would like to see a broadening of the debate about adoption to fully recognise the value of all forms of permanence and consider the care system as a whole.

“We welcome additional funding for Regional Adoption Agencies and the extension of the Adoption Support Fund, this will help us recruit more adopters and provide support for adopted children, children living with special guardians and their families. Given that most children in care live with foster carers the recruitment and retention of high quality foster carers who are able to meet the wide ranging needs of children in care is worthy of further focus, and crucially, investment from government too.”

ENDS

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Comment: separation of siblings in care

Charlotte Ramsden, Chair of the ADCS Health, Care and Additional Needs Policy Committee said:

“Local authorities work hard to keep siblings who are in care together wherever we can and recognise the importance of those relationships. There are many different reasons why this isn’t always possible including some situations where a child’s needs cannot be met with their sibling due to emotional or behavioural concerns or risks. Finding enough foster carers or adopters who are willing and able to take sibling groups continues to be a national challenge. Local authorities consider a range of things when seeking a suitable placement to maximise the ability of that placement to meet the child’s needs and protect their welfare, the child’s views and wishes are critical in this. In the case of siblings, we need to balance each child’s individual and sometimes conflicting needs and the capacity of the carer to meet them. The decision to separate siblings is never taken lightly. Where they cannot live together, siblings must be supported to understand the reasons for this, and there should be robust plans for meaningful contact between them, so long as it’s consistent with their welfare. Contact arrangements should be regularly reviewed to reflect the fact that children’s needs can, and do, change over time and clear contact plans should be made at the start of placements. When permanent placements are made local authorities may not continue to be involved long term but needs can still change over time including the arrangements for sibling contact and any carer can make contact with the local authority where they live if they need advice about how to manage the changes.

“ADCS would encourage those who believe they can offer children a stable and loving home and would like to find out more about adoption or fostering to come forward, particularly where they would be able to care for children in a sibling group. More placement choice can only be a good thing for the children in our care.”

ENDS

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Comment: Boarding school placements for children in care

Commenting on the use of boarding school placements for children in care Charlotte Ramsden, Chair of the ADCS Health, Care and Additional Needs Policy Committee said:

“For some children in and on the edge of care the right boarding school can provide a strong foundation in life, sometimes as an alternative to care, but it’s not suitable for every child. Children and young people’s needs vary so social workers will explore a range of options when considering how to best to support them. For most children in care a return home, fostering, adoption, or a placement with a family member is the best option. Research published last summer is helpful and suggests boarding school placements can improve social and educational outcomes for some children in some circumstances, but there are also many reasons why they may not be appropriate. For example, intense support to maintain a young person at home may be possible, more children are entering care older with complex needs which the school might not be able to meet and children can come into care at any point during the year which doesn’t fit neatly with academic years. Boarding schools typically have longer holidays so where planning a boarding school placement local authorities will need to consider appropriate wrap around support and holiday arrangements. Other things taken into account include the location and cost of the school, together with distance from home and the importance of maintaining local and family relationships. Local authorities will always work with vulnerable children and young people and their families to secure the best possible outcomes according to individual need and will also ensure the views of the young person are actively addressed in the plan.”

ENDS

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Comment: EPI report on children’s mental health services

Jenny Coles, ADCS Vice President, said:

“Poor mental health and wellbeing can have a lasting impact on a child’s life chances. This report describes a mental health system that is not serving our children and young people well enough, where children face a postcode lottery, significant waiting times and difficulties accessing the services they need. The report identifies the transition from child to adult mental health services as a major problem area, we would agree. While some child and adolescent mental health services are extending support to 18 and sometimes even 25, too many services stop at 16 leaving a gap in support before young people become eligible for adult services. ADCS welcomed the priorities set out for children and young people’s mental health in the NHS Long Term Plan, however, it was not sufficiently ambitious enough. Much more needs to be done to ensure children receive the right mental health and wellbeing support, at the right time, in the right place, whether it’s specialist provision or vital early help and preventative services. We want to see this government make children’s social, emotional and mental health a priority – the benefits extend beyond the individual to society as a whole.”

ENDS

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Comment: Funding for the Troubled Families Programme

Rachel Dickinson, ADCS President, said:

“Yesterday the government announced new funding for the Troubled Families Programme for 2020/21. The programme pays for a variety of things from family coaching and domestic abuse interventions to positive activities for children and young people. We know from evidence and experience that it is making a difference in children and families’ lives in lots of local areas. In many places this funding underpins the local early help offer. While this funding is welcome the future of the programme, beyond 2020/21, remains unclear and some councils may still have to make tough decisions about these vital services in the long term. Moreover, without a sufficient, long term financial strategy for our children’s services with prevention at its heart we continue to store up huge human and fiscal costs for the future.”

ENDS

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Comment: OCC report on out of area placements

Rachel Dickinson, ADCS President, said:

“Councils work hard to find suitable placements for children in our care by taking a partnership parenting approach with colleagues in health, schools and others to ensure children and young people get support when and where they need it. Being close to family, friends and school is obviously desirable but there are good reasons why a child might be placed further away, including their safety or if a very specialist placement is necessary to meet their needs. We try hard to take children’s views into account but, as Sir Martin Narey recognised in his review of residential care, finding ‘the right placement’ is more important than location. Many out of area placements are made in bordering areas and this can be a positive thing for children. This reality isn’t reflected well in the report and some of the figures lack context, kinship care and youth custody placements are included here.

“As the number of children in our care increases so too does our need for high quality placements, in the right places. The government has, at times, overlooked its own role in tackling the issues raised here. Placement sufficiency continues to be a key issue for virtually all councils across the country but there is no national strategy to recruit more foster carers, to increase capacity in children’s residential homes or to address geographic mismatch of placements. Local authority budgets have been halved since 2010 and this is impacting on our ability to develop new provision. Other challenges include the fact that councils cannot direct an academy school to admit a child in care as they can a maintained school meaning it can take several weeks or even months to secure a steady school placement.

“ADCS will fully engage with the government’s upcoming review of the care system, which we hope will address our concerns around placement sufficiency and the changing nature of the placement market more generally. The role of private equity firms and the level of profit being generated by some companies from the care of vulnerable children is wholly inappropriate and the level of risk now apparent in the system is very concerning.”

ENDS

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Trauma informed practice in schools and beyond

All behaviour is a form of communication. Children and young people may not have the words to describe what has happened to them, or are too scared to articulate it, but they’ll find a way to tell us, if only we take the time listen. Thinking of a child’s challenging behaviour as ‘bad’ disposes us to respond with a punishment. Thinking of them as distressed or struggling helps us to act differently. This is as true in a classroom setting as it is in a fostering placement or the family home following a traumatic event, say flooding. So, instead of asking, ‘what’s wrong with you?’ we should all take a moment to ask, ‘what happened to you?’

Lots of children and young people have been exposed to repeated and extended trauma in their short lives, from bereavement, neglect and family breakdown to being affected by serious and scary incidents such as the terrorist attack at Manchester Arena a couple of years ago. These events leave lasting effects, once the initial threat or harm has passed children can exhibit ‘survival behaviours’ to cope with new stressors. Children are more susceptible to stress as a result of traumatic experiences. In the longer-term unaddressed trauma reduces resilience, adds to developmental delays, may impact on the ability to form trusting relationships and increase the likelihood of engaging in risk taking behaviours, from running away to substance misuse.

In recent weeks new education policies and priorities have been revealed, apparently there is support for behaviour policies based on zero tolerance and the use of sanctions despite the knowledge this will penalise vulnerable learners. Fixed term and permanent exclusions have been rising since 2013/14 and learners receiving support from social care, those who are eligible for free school meals or children with special education needs and disabilities are significantly more likely to be excluded than their peers. The ink is barely dry on the findings of Edward Timpson’s review of exclusions yet the narrative from central government has hardened and worryingly may even include the use of reasonable force in classrooms.

So, I find my thoughts turning with increasing frequency to the disconnect between this apparent new policy direction and the relationship-based approaches used in wider children’s services. Trauma can manifest itself in the classroom as refusal, hostile or even threatening behaviours. We teach children that making academic mistakes in school is a valuable part of the learning process yet behavioural errors are somehow worthy of punishment. The benefits of all schools adopting trauma informed and restorative ways of working, showing empathy and building trusting relationships between learners, their families and teaching or pastoral staff are myriad.

We need to think differently and more inclusively for the benefit of children and their futures. Adopting restorative approaches and being alert to the impact of trauma on a child’s wellbeing and development isn’t a quick fix nor is it simply warm words. It requires cultural and organisational change, a real investment in staff development and the most precious resource of all, time.

Rachel Dickinson, President of ADCS 2019/20.

This column was first published on the CYP Now on 23 September 2019 - Link

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ADCS response to the Queen’s speech

Rachel Dickinson, ADCS President, said:

“There was relatively little in today’s Queen’s speech for children, and relatively little that was new. However, we are interested in engaging with the new Royal Commission on the criminal justice process and understanding how it will relate to children and young people who are in conflict with the law.

“The government reaffirmed its commitment to provide schools with a three-year funding settlement which is welcome, but we still await a sustainable settlement for local government.

“We are pleased that the Domestic Abuse Bill will continue its progression through parliament, but it does not go far enough for children. Growing up in an abusive household can have a devastating and lifelong impact on children’s lives. This is the most common reason why children come to the attention of children’s social care. In tackling this issue, we must maintain a strong focus on early intervention and prevention, working with both families at risk as well as with perpetrators.

“We had hoped that today’s speech would provide long term solutions to many of the issues affecting children and families today, such as child poverty. It did not. Poverty damages lives, it damages childhoods, and it damages the economic prosperity of this country. We urge the new government to be ambitious for children by introducing strategies that reduce child and family poverty as a matter of urgency.”

ENDS

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Comment: Quarterly family court statistics

Sara Tough, Chair of the ADCS Families, Communities and Young People Policy Committee, said:

“Local authorities and the courts have made some good progress in improving the timeliness of care proceedings down from an average of 50 weeks in 2011 to 26 weeks in 2016. However, these quarterly statistics show that average times have increased in recent years, to 33 weeks in July-September 2019. There are several reasons for this, for example the number and complexity of cases we are dealing with has increased and sometimes assessments must be completed for family members who have emerged during court proceedings. There is also a national shortage of judges which has an impact on timescales. That said, it’s important to note that we are performing better for children and families than we were eight years ago. Timeliness is important but it should never be put above securing the very best outcomes for each child and young person, even if this does fall outside of the 26 week time limit.

“Adoption can be the right thing for some children but it’s not suitable for every child – for some living with a special guardian, foster family or in residential care is the best option. Although the number of adoption applications has fallen it is reassuring to see that more children for whom adoption is the right option are achieving permanence via an Adoption Order.”

ENDS

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Yorkshire & Humber Regional Update - December 2019

The Yorkshire & Humber Regional Update

Work Plan

The 2019 work plan for sector-led improvement is being progressed and monitored. It has a particular emphasis on:

• Addressing key regional priorities including quality and sufficiency of placements

• Customised support for individual LAs with greatest need (front door health checks/every LA a PIP)

• An enhanced role for CXs and lead members through the Children’s Improvement Board

• A slimmed down self-assessment process

• Introduction of quarterly reporting using a web-based platform.

Regional Priorities

There has been a particular emphasis on quality and sufficiency of placements, including increased regional investment in a refreshed regional commissioning framework and a commitment to regular compilation and analysis of sufficiency information.

Quarterly Performance Reporting

The new arrangements are now in place. The report for Q2 was produced in early November. We are utilising ‘Tableau’, a web-based solution which is offering greater reporting flexibility. Further work is being undertaken on inclusion of workforce related indicators around caseload/ vacancies/ agency staff and experience.

Governance

There are new terms of reference for our Children’s Improvement Board with increased expectations of lead members and chief executives, giving it a more assertive role. Membership has been extended to include the LGA and there are further reflections on how best to engage the DfE.

Scrutiny and Challenge

Front door health checks (FDHC) have been introduced in 2019. A business process has been developed and teams comprising of staff with a deep understanding of the front door at various levels have been recruited to undertake the checks. We are aiming to complete six health checks in 2019/20, the first two of these in January 2020.

A business process for children’s mental health (CMH) peer challenge has been updated to ensure JTAI compatibility. This is in the process of being piloted in one LA area and will be evaluated in January 2020.

Our annual self-evaluation process has commenced. All LAs are engaged in completing a slimmed down self-assessment schedule which encompasses an expanded signatures of risk section. A regional event in January will enable each LA to receive peer scrutiny and challenge of their self-assessment.

Lead Member Network

There is an active lead member network which meets bi-monthly. Our most recent meeting was a joint one with lead members from the North East, which both groups agreed will be repeated annually.

Every LA a PIP

DfE funding has enabled us to pilot an approach which provides some financial support for LAs (other than PiPs) that exceed normal expectations in the provision of brokered support to others. The model is based on the premise that all LAs have the potential to provide improvement support to others. Our intention is to wrap a coordinated package of support around one or more LAs, drawing on PiP and other regional support. We have commenced activity with one LA and are in discussions with another. Scoping conversations are being led by PIP DCSs to draw upon their experience of negotiating improvement support to others.

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West Midlands Regional Update - December 2019

The West Midlands Regional Update

Children’s Improvement Board

Regional representatives (including lead members, chief executives and the DCS regional Chair, Helen Riley) embraced the opportunity on the 13 November 2019 to speak to the national Children’s Improvement Board and share our improvement journey as a region to date taking them through the roadmap of our priorities, a copy of which is available here. Our input was well received.

Regional Improvement and Innovation Alliance

The 14 directors of children’s services and three children’s trusts chief executives have confirmed their financial commitment to WMCS over the next 3 years. This followed an exercise led by Mutual Ventures which lead to an options appraisal presented to the network in September. The DCS network then confirmed their preferred future structure for WMCS which is a more formal, legally binding agreement to ensure shared liabilities. The new structure includes those aspects of the FutureSocial programme that the DCS network wants to pursue and an ongoing relationship with the Teaching Partnership.

NAAS

The NAAS regional phase 2 is now in full swing with growing numbers of social workers and their managers undertaking the assessment and receiving the recognition. The learning curve around capacity remains challenging both in getting councils and trusts to plan ahead so we avoid a ‘bottleneck’ at the end and working closely with Mott McDonald, (now confirmed for the continuation of the NAAS programme), to put on sufficient assessment centres.

SEND Regional Network

The DCS for Birmingham now leads the network focusing on three priorities:

• Being Ofsted ready

• High needs pressures

• Sharing best practice.

Presently the region has too many ‘Written Statements of Action’ and is determined to improve on performance across the region as a whole.

Education and Skills Network

The DCS network finally met with the Regional Schools Commissioner in October. The Education and Skills Network will now develop the relationship and agree on a mutual agenda. There will be an annual review with the DCS network to reflect on performance.

Regional Commissioning Hub

Recruitment to the hub roles is underway, a work-plan is being developed to ensure that the hub is focussed, from day one, on delivering the region’s strategic commissioning objective; better management of the market-place through the collaborative buying power of the councils and trusts leading to significant savings and improved quality for all.

Successful Bids

We were successful with two of the three applications for the Fostering Sufficiency Grant.

The LGA continues to support the region with our RIIA activity.

DCS Networking

The annual DCS residential programme took place on 26 and 27 November 2019, with a mixture of key speaker inputs and detailed group work aimed at reviewing regional priorities and strengthening our alliance.

LGA Lead Members Meetings (14 November 2019)

The region’s close relationship with the LGA continues. Following the election of new lead members in the May elections we supported their lead member training by sharing our RIIA journey.

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South West Regional Update - December 2019

The South West Regional Update

Regional Leadership Development Programme

The Staff College is delivering, with partners, a Leadership Development Programme for aspirant assistant directors in the South West region. The aim of the programme is to improve the strategic leadership skills of up to fifty managers who are the direct reports to assistant directors in each of the region’s fifteen local authorities. The first cohort of 21 commenced in October 2019. The programme will also include a coaching offer to participants.

Self-Assessment Peer Challenge

The date for the self-assessment peer challenge for 2019 will be Friday 6 December. The self-assessment framework has been reviewed with an additional self-assessment on ‘risk factors’ included. All local authorities are participating.

Strategic Children’s Sector-Led Improvement Group – RIIA Board

The Strategic Group, which has representation from the region’s chief executives, lead members, directors of children’s services and the LGA, has now become the Regional Improvement and Innovation Alliance board.

A leadership summit bringing together the chief executives, lead members and directors of children’s services from all of the region’s local authorities is planned for 12 March 2020. The leadership summit will review progress of the alliance and agree plans for 2021 and beyond.

Thematic Peer Challenge Programme for 2019/20

The programme for the coming year gives local authorities the option to choose the focus for their challenge from the themes that Ofsted use for focussed visits and JTAIs. There was a peer challenge workshop on 7 November in Taunton to assist local authorities in their preparation. Partners and themes are being confirmed, the programme is due to start early in the New Year and finish by July 2020.

Upcoming Regional Events

The following events have been planned:

• A regional SEND conference on 4 and 5 December

• An LGA run finance workshop on 5 December

• A regional Research in Practice event to explore practice in complex safeguarding to be held in Exeter on 5 February 2020.

Further regional workshops in the New Year include ‘Developing a more effective response to risk in adolescents’ and ‘Trauma informed practice’. A regional event to recognise ‘World social work day’ in March to be hosted in Bristol is also being planned.

Commissioning Group Project

The regional commissioning group has developed a project, led by Bath and North East Somerset, to gather intelligence through a ‘market position statement’ on the sufficiency of in-house fostering placements in all of the South West local authorities. The project has gained some external funding from the LGA. A draft report has been produced and it is planned that the ‘market position’ will be presented to representatives from all local authorities at a regional meeting in the New Year.

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South East Regional Update - December 2019

The South East Regional Update

Sector-Led Improvement

• The Regional Improvement Plan for 2019-20 with detailed annexes was launched at a regional summit on 22 March 2019

• The plan includes a £130,000 contribution from DfE alongside £162,500 subscription income, and an agreement for quarterly data sharing on the 18 nationally agreed datasets

• The plan has 10 priorities:

Actions that will address practice issues:

1. Collaborate to improve provision for complex LAC

2. Collaborate on increasing in-house foster placements

3. Collaborate on ways to promote educational inclusion with SE19 SEND group

4. Share and develop new models of social care practice that fit the times

5. Develop the regional quality assurance capacity

Actions that will develop leadership capacity and staff resources:

6. Build leadership capacity across the region

7. Workforce matters; recruitment and retention; agency

Actions that will underpin the cycle of self-assessment and peer challenge:

8. Data benchmarking

9. Annual self-assessment and triad peer challenge

Action to address the funding gap:

10. Increase political lobbying to address the funding gap

• The Plan follows a non-stigmatising approach to improvement: The assumption is that there is excellent practice in all authorities; and that all authorities have improvement needs

• Recently we have:

• Made excellent progress on our complex LAC project
• Begun our Nov-Jan cycle of triad peer challenges (13 November)
• Published The Staff College’s needs analysis for leadership development in the region
• Decided to invite the DfE RISL to our sector-led steering group (with lead member and CE reps present) and cease separate data liaison meetings
• Commissioned a review of the Memorandum of Co-operation on agency staff employment, which has recently come under pressure
• Launched new projects on Increasing In-house Fostering (DCS sponsor: Pinaki Ghoshal, Brighton and Hove); Improving the Quality of Audit (DCS sponsor: Steve Crocker/Stuart Ashley, Hampshire and IoW); Developing models of Social Work (DCS sponsor: Nikki Edwards, Bracknell Forest).

For further details go to www.seslip.co.uk or contact the Programme Manager Richard Tyndall 07880-787007 richard.tyndall@richardtyndall.co.uk.

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North West Regional Update - December 2019

The North West Regional Update

Quality Assurance: Practice and Principles

Following our first Quality Assurance Summit delivered in partnership with Ofsted earlier this year, we are developing a range of resources to support local authorities and their partners to maintain and improve their approach to QA in children’s social care. We agree that effective quality assurance has become an increasingly important measure of a local authority’s ability to evidence the impact of services for children and families. There are many different approaches across the region in how leaders secure this assurance, and this has informed our ‘practice and principles’ resource to summarise some of the measures most utilised by authorities. Drawing on good local practice and input from the inspectorate, the resource highlights the following:

• The central role of audit, including innovative ways of understanding the quality and consistency of practice

• The use of practice weeks to create opportunities for senior leaders to observe practice and make links between strategy and practice on the frontline

• Effective communication of the findings of QA activity helping to embed learning and encourage ownership

• Explicit links between training and development and QA to support wider culture change, and determine the impact

• The importance of the role of leaders in QA activity at all levels across partnerships.

We are further developing this workstream through an appraisal of externally commissioned QA activity and the commissioning of a ‘challenge toolkit’ to support targeted sector-led scrutiny. For more details or a copy of the NWADCS Quality Assurance: practice and principles resource, please contact Samantha Sirisambhand, Policy and Performance Manager, NWADCS at samantha.sirisambhand@stockport.gov.uk

Peer Challenge for Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) Local Areas

SEND peer challenges are an opportunity for local areas to understand whether they are achieving the best outcomes for children and young people with SEND by reflecting on their progress, in the implementation and embedding of SEND reforms in order to support improvement. Based on a methodology co-produced with parent/carer representatives, the flexible approach to peer scrutiny will, in some cases, aim to support readiness for SEND local area inspections or re-visits. In others it will support the post inspection review of continuous improvement and progress in relation to SEND. While a core model of two days on site will be the norm, there are also opportunities for a differentiated approach e.g. a desk top review of the local area SEND self-evaluation - ‘readiness check’ for re-visit. Piloted in two areas (one awaiting inspection, one awaiting revisit), a final process has been agreed and training for peers took place on 29 November. Ultimately the aim is to achieve better outcomes for children and young people experiencing SEND across the North West.

For a copy of the North West SEND Peer Challenge toolkit or details of our training approach, please contact Paul Bunker, Head of Children’s Sector Led Improvement, NWADCS at paul.bunker@stockport.gov.uk.

Children Educated Out of School

In response to the recently reviewed elective home education guidance, the Timpson Review of exclusions and our own data analysis, we have embarked on a coordinated programme of activity to review our practice and systems for children educated outside of school settings. Whilst still in its initial stages, we have engaged with Ofsted’s unregulated schools team as well as relevant local partners to identify a series of priority areas and inform the initial development of a ‘children educated out of school: practice and principles resource’. We have identified the following workstreams to be addressed:

• Identification including definitions and data sharing

• Oversight and monitoring

• Suitability including intervention and enforcement

• Safeguarding

• Specific groups including looked after children, children with SEND, and gypsy/Roma/traveller children

• Understanding exclusion particularly the use of ‘nurture’ or ‘inclusion’ units.

We are keen to engage with other regions in this area and happy to share our forming work. If you are interested in working collaboratively across regions, please contact Paul Bunker, NWADCSpaul.bunker@stockport.gov.uk

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North East Regional Update - December 2019

The North East Regional Update

Quality Assurance and Performance

We have established a new regional QA and Performance group as part of the NE ADCS network. The aim is to strengthen the role and impact of QA and performance activity in sector-led improvement across children’s services and create better join-up. An early task for the group will be to support and add rigour to the annual ‘Directors’ Challenge’ process.

Elective Home Education

The regional education group is carrying out some work to create a regional picture of LA approaches to monitoring elective home education. We are also hoping to carry out some regional analysis of LAs’ responses to the ADCS EHE survey.

Extra-Familial Harm and Exploitation

The Children’s Safeguarding Network is undertaking a mapping exercise to understand the current arrangements in place across the region to respond to concerns relating to extra-familial harm and exploitation. The exercise aims to understand strategic and operational responses to CSE, child criminal exploitation (including county lines), youth violence, gangs and modern slavery/trafficking in each local authority area, with a view to identifying opportunities to strengthen practice.

Agency Social Work MoU

We have carried out a review of our MoU relating to agency social workers, which has been in place for over two years. As a result of the review we have revised the capped rates, incorporated the use of project teams into the agreement and strengthened the escalation process.

Care Leavers and Council Tax Exemption

In response to a request from our Regional Children in Care Council, we are exploring council tax exemptions for care leavers and how this might apply across LA boundaries for care leavers who no longer live in their ‘home’ local authority area.

Applied Research Collaboration

The North East and North Cumbria Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) is now live. This research network, funded by the National Institute of Health Research for five years, is a partnership between HEIs and a range of care organisations which aims to improve outcomes in health and social care through high quality research on local priority issues.

DCS changes

The region welcomed Kathryn Boulton who took up the post of DCS in Redcar and Cleveland at the end of September.

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Greater London Regional Update - December 2019

The Greater London Regional Update

The London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA)

During 2019, London has made significant progress in the development of its Innovation and Improvement Alliance. Notably: –

• All 33 London authorities are returning data to enable quarterly benchmarking

• Every London authority has contributed to sector-led improvement work through peer challenge or through involvement with one of the thematic groups

• The first peer review has been undertaken, on adolescent safeguarding

• The ALDCS LIIA website has been launched

• Thematic priority groups are now well-established with developing work plans across all four areas: finance and resources; vulnerable adolescents; workforce; and special educational needs and disabilities.

An annual summit is planned for March 2020.

Funding Pressures in Children’s Social Care and High Needs

London DCSs are working with London councils, chief executives and finance directors to understand better the financial pressures facing children’s social care budgets and the High Needs Block. A members event was held in September to share the findings of work undertaken and shape London’s priorities for collaborative working. For the next phase, a working group is being set up to look at high cost placements, workforce and collaboration with the NHS in London in respect of achieving consistency in the health component of EHCPs.

Admissions

London primary schools received 96,598 applications in total this year, a 0.08% decrease compared to last year, according to figures published by the Pan-London Admissions Board. 97 per cent of children due to start primary school in London this September have been offered a place at a preferred school. There is growing concern about decreasing rolls at primary schools in some parts of London although this year’s numbers show a relatively small overall decrease. ALDCS continues to support boroughs with places planning, to ensure that all boroughs can meet rising need, particularly in secondary and special schools, as well as cope with reductions in demand at primary in some boroughs.

New Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements

In order to maintain a level of consistency across London and to facilitate communication across local areas, the new arrangements are either called Safeguarding Children Partnerships or Safeguarding Children Boards. Links to the new arrangements are available here. The London Safeguarding Children Board has agreed to have an executive of the three safeguarding partners at a pan-London level and ALDCS is represented on this executive. Engagement with the wider partnership will continue but in a different format. However, there are delays to implementing these changes as a result of difficulties securing senior level attendance from police and health services at the executive.

Children in Custody

A multi-agency working group, chaired by a DCS, is working with the MPS to reduce the number of children held in police custody. The group shares data on police requests for accommodation with local authorities on a regular basis. This sharing of data has enabled feedback on cases between custody suites and emergency duty teams thereby improving the police and local authority response to children held in custody. A protocol for London, which supplements the Home Office Concordat on children held in police custody, went live on 10 June. ALDCS has also asked local authority commissioners across London to develop approaches to the co-commissioning of non-secure alternative accommodation for children denied bail – there is insufficient demand for places for any one borough to address this issue.

There are pilots across a number of London boroughs to develop the safeguarding response to children when they are arrested. Examples of approaches taken include: custody suites contacting children’s social care as soon as a child arrives in custody; children’s social care visiting every child in custody in order to carry out an assessment and employing youth workers in custody suites to work with children and their families as they are arrested.

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East Midlands Regional Update - December 2019

The East Midlands Regional Update

This quarter has been an interesting one for the East Midland region as inspection processes have had a quite noticeable impact upon our levels of collaborative activity. Over three quarters of the region’s local authorities have either received ILACS in this period or have been heavily involved in follow-up from recent inspections or preparation for forthcoming ones. All of this consumes significant leadership capacity.

As reported previously, the EM RIIA plan is used as the coordinating framework for almost all of our joint work between LAs in support of children’s services. LAs are currently in the process of refreshing/updating their regional self-assessments and will submit them for the scrutiny of our LA-triad peer challenge process in the new year. This annual cycle will update the plan of our collaborative work to:

• Identify brokering priorities for LA-to-LA support

• Establish joint work opportunities to address common themes

• Create focus for the priority themes of our regional networks and groups.

No substantial new work streams have therefore been instigated within this quarter, but on going activity continues on a wide range of fronts, including:

• Collaborative price management controls for purchasing from the independent market

• Development of a sub-regional framework for placement procurement

• Development of effective practice and assessment relating to child exploitation

• Re-commitment to tackle the quality and price of agency social work

• Mapping the most effective practice/schemes that increase the supply of LA social workers

• Audit case moderation and joint quality assurance

• A new group and work-stream for service managers supporting care leavers

• Development of an Early Intervention Practitioner L4 Apprenticeship

• Training for IROs and CPC chairs in contextual safeguarding, modern slavery and care planning.

In the coming months we look forward to the contribution that will be made by:

• Sharing effective practice that develops in-house fostering

• A series of good practice visits between LAs on their priority themes.

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Eastern Regional Update - December 2019

The Eastern Regional Update

Regional Self-Assessment and DCS Peer Challenge

• The 2019 annual self-assessment process concluded in June. A six-month status update challenge will be conducted before the end of the year and this will include a six-month data review

• A workshop has been held to review the template used for self-assessment to ensure that it remains current/relevant to changing needs.

Regional Priorities

• Regional priorities were agreed by the DCS group at the peer challenge event. A meeting is planned with the chairs of all the regional networking groups to disseminate the priority areas and establish each group’s contribution to them. The priority areas are:

• Outcomes for children in need and early help
• Children not in school and vulnerable learners
• Serious youth violence
• Managing the placement market through regional alliances
• Middle and frontline leadership and management
• Continual improvement through self-assessment
• Peer challenge and review
• Sharing good practice

• A regional conference was held in September to focus on the priority area of serious youth violence; this combined national, regional and local best practice. We continue to seek opportunities for further regional collaboration to tackle this issue

• A leadership and management training programme is being constructed by a regional working group in conjunction with The Staff College, targeting heads of service and team managers.

Peer Review and Inspection

• Peer reviews continue to provide challenge and support in targeted, thematic areas of service

• They have been undertaken across social care, education and SEND services with others planned for the coming year

• The focus of education service peer reviews, which are being conducted across the region, is on school exclusions.

Data Benchmarking

• The regular quarterly tartan rug report highlights comparative performance across all LAs in the region against a range of performance measures

• A performance benchmarking report for 2018/19 has been published for the region; it pulls together data from the tartan rug alongside nationally published data across children’s social care

• The next regional benchmarking exercise will focus on assessment factors.

Network Highlights

• The regular regional networks continue to be held, together with the re-establishment of a workforce, resourcing and development group for workforce leads across the region

• A regional conference has been held for the leaving care group with a focus on developing local offers

• The corporate parenting steering group (CPSG) is developing ideas for a regional conference on placement stability

• A regional leaders’ event for chief execs, lead members and DCSs is being planned and is likely to be scheduled in early 2020.

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RS and SPI Policy Committees Update - December 2019

Resources & Sustainability and the Standards, Performance & Inspection Policy Committees

The Resources & Sustainability and the Standards, Performance & Inspection Policy Committees met jointly in London on Tuesday 24 September. Initially the group was joined by representatives from the DfE to discuss emerging plans for a family justice themed peer review which has grown out of some wider work undertaken by the Family Justice Board (FJB) exploring volume and variation in public law activity. The FJB believes that a new peer review could be an effective way of moving locally developed best practice around the system. The group noted that there is a lot of sector-led improvement activity already happening in regions and felt there would need to be a more distinct and defined offer in order to secure buy-in. It was felt a focus on neglect could add real value and that this should be discussed with regional improvement and innovation alliances directly (RIIAs).

The group was then joined by a consultant who is undertaking a piece of work for the LGA on out of area housing moves for people of all ages. Here there was a focus on the families of children and young people who are known to children’s social care to be ‘in need’, including those with no recourse to public funds. This growing practice is driven by the shortage of suitable and/or affordable houses in parts of the country and can lead to gaps in vital support and services. The LGA is exploring ways of encouraging the spread of best practice when moving families out of area alongside a potential notification system. The committee agreed this is an important issue which urgently needs addressing and noted that government departments, in particular the Home Office, are also responsible for moving families around the country. Further work will continue, and views are being sought from a wide range of stakeholders, including children’s services.

Next, the group discussed the sufficiency of care placements and the changing nature of both the fostering and residential markets as acquisitions and private equity investment become more commonplace. A lot of children’s homes and independent fostering providers are merging and at a faster rate than seen before. Beyond concerns about the level of risk building in this market and the impact a provider failing might have on children’s outcomes, other patterns are emerging which again are giving concern. For example, when independent fostering providers merge, their market share goes up but the number of foster carers appears to go down. For local authorities that are purchasing placements, this net loss to the system is keenly felt in terms of choice and cost. The group agreed we need to revisit these interlinked issues again in the future, particularly in relation to greater options for collaborative commissioning.

The final update on the day related to a brief overview of the government’s recently announced review of SEND. It was noted that the recent spending round announcement included an additional £700 million for local authorities to alleviate pressures on SEND budgets, this is some acknowledgement of the crisis in this provision but this not insubstantial sum will almost be entirely swallowed up by existing deficits. The group discussed some of the key themes and messages that would be helpful for the Association to play into engagements with the review team, this included bringing independent special schools into the state sector, greater oversight of pupil exclusions and a review of the contribution of health

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EA and HCAN Policy Committees Update - December 2019

Educational Achievement Policy Committee and Health, Care & Additional Needs Policy Committees

The Educational Achievement Policy Committee and the Health, Care & Additional Needs Policy Committees met jointly in Manchester on Friday 20 September. For the first item, the group was joined by Suzanne Lunn, Deputy Director for SEND at the DfE, to provide an update on national developments around SEND. There has been renewed focus in this area with various inquiries underway and the government has launched a SEND review which will look at a range of issues. The group stressed the importance of better join up at the national level between the DfE and DHSC and it is hoped that the SEND leadership board will help better connect the two departments in areas such as joint commissioning. The group also discussed the need for greater inclusivity in mainstream schools in supporting pupils with SEND and noted that MATs must be involved in any joint working or conversations to improve this. Suzanne explained that there is now a commitment to developing the new SEND code of practice by 2020 for implementation from April 2021.

Following this, Ian Lewis from NHS England joined the group to provide an update on the NHS Long-Term Plan with an overview of progress made to date and priorities for the future. As part of his update Ian reported that over 180 Mental Health Support Teams are in the process of being established; Local Transformation Plans will continue for at least another year; and there is a focus on extending current service models to create a better offer for 0-25 year olds that reaches across mental health services and does not just focus on transition periods. The group fed back that recruiting practitioners to keep pace with demand has been difficult in some areas. Further, our definition of the mental health workforce can differ from the NHS definition; we need to know where other roles fit into the system, such as Family Support Workers and SENCOs.

The group was then joined by Lynsey Burridge, NAVSH Chair, to discuss the role of the Virtual School Head (VSH) one year on since its remit was extended to support previously looked-after children. Lynsey explained that many VSHs have taken on extra responsibilities due to LA pressures but have not received additional resourcing and this has acted as a barrier to VSHs meeting their new duty. Going forward, the Children in Need review recommended further expansion of the role of the VSH to include children ever known to children’s social care. The group warned that there is a risk of ever expanding the cohort who are supported by the virtual school and we must be clear on the remit of the role.

Finally, the group was joined by Richard Caulfield from the Association of Colleges (AoC) to discuss some of the pressures in the FE sector, particularly in supporting vulnerable children and young people, some of whom may have been excluded from mainstream school. FE colleges share some of the same challenges as LAs, such as supporting young people who have SEND, are home educated, or have been in alternative provision. However, as colleges are funded to teach students for 15 hours per week, this can leave some young people who are vulnerable to youth violence and exploitation with significant amounts of free time during which they could potentially be exposed to risk. The group highlighted that a lack of funding for FE is a big issue for children’s services where there are clear common pressures; these do not stop at Year 11.

The group also discussed the first substantive draft of the ADCS health position paper, the Timpson Review of School Exclusions and links to SEND and received an update on ADCS discussions with the CVAA on the adoption inter-agency fee.

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WD and FCYP Policy Committee Update - December 2019

Workforce Development and the Families, Communities & Young People Policy Committees

The Workforce Development and the Families, Communities & Young People Policy Committees met jointly in London on Friday 27 September. The group was joined by Nicola McGeown, Principal Social Worker at East Sussex County Council, for the first item to speak about the use of social media in social work. East Sussex is developing a policy around this and Nicola noted that while they are focusing on safety online, the use of social media covers a range of areas which they are looking at, for example communication with young people and threats to social workers online. The group welcomed Nicola’s input in an area that is still being explored and noted that current publicly available guidance is not always relevant.

The group was then joined by Patrick Myers to discuss the Reducing Parental Conflict (RPC) programme and workforce aspirations. The programme is focused on co-parenting and eligibility for the programme has been widened so that an estimated 1.2 million children are currently eligible. Patrick explained that the role of the wider workforce in this space is key, particularly school staff. It is important that the workforce is able to adopt a relational approach to improve child outcomes through parental behaviours. The practitioner training module is important in achieving this; however, members of both committees expressed some concern over the quality of the training materials and the prescriptive nature of the training. Further, members were frustrated at what is seen as another example of a small amount of government funding for a single piece of work when long-term, sustainable funding is needed.

Next, the group was joined by Donna Molloy from the Early Intervention Foundation and Dr Maria Neophytou from Impetus to discuss the Youth Endowment Fund. They have received a £200m endowment from the Home Office to be spent over 10 years. Donna and Maria gave some context around the types of interventions that are effective in reducing parental conflict such as skills-based and family-focused programmes. The first funding round for 1-2-year grants opened at the end of May and closed on 23 July for projects looking to expand their interventions. The last funding round received a very high number of bids for grant applications with the majority coming from charities or social enterprises. Only 25 of the 446 bids were recommended to be taken further with successful bids announced in October. The group welcomed the funding for innovation work but again stressed the need for long-term, sustainable funding.

Other areas of discussion included serious youth violence and knife crime, an update on safeguarding reforms and statutory guidance for LAs providing youth work.

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Comment: ONS gender pay gap figures

Rachel Dickinson, ADCS President, said:

“Social workers fulfil an important role on behalf of society, they are at the heart of systems that protect children from harm and support families facing challenges, such as poverty, domestic abuse, poor parental mental health and substance misuse. It’s important that social workers are properly recognised and remunerated for their part in keeping vulnerable children and young people safe from harm. As leaders of children’s services we are committed to achieving a diverse workforce through encouraging more people well-suited to the role to choose social work as a career.”

ENDS

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Priorities for the next government

On the campaign trail for the general election we’ve heard politicians talking about all sorts of things from Brexit to investing in our NHS and schools (all important areas). However, I’m more interested in whether the next government will transform election rhetoric into reality by improving the day-to-day lives and outcomes of children and families.

In 2017, ADCS published ‘A country that works for all children’. It highlighted several policy issues from the impact of austerity to an increasingly fragmented approach to public services, overlaid with rising levels of child poverty that are cumulatively having a negative impact on children and families. Two years on, the messages in the paper remain relevant. The premise that ‘all children and families should be able to thrive, not just survive’ is something all our politicians should be able to get behind.

The following things need to be (very) early priorities for whoever forms the next government:

By 2022, the number of children living in poverty is set to increase to 5.2 million, the highest level since records began. The costs for children experiencing poverty are demonstrable and well-documented, poverty and inequality are intrinsically linked to poor health outcomes. But poverty is not inevitable, an ambitious national child poverty reduction strategy could reverse the trends of rising poverty and increasing inequalities in this country.

Prevention is better than cure, but it costs money. Although we welcome recent funding announcements including a new three-four year settlement for schools, we still await a sustainable settlement for local government. Since 2010, our funding has been cut in half yet need has not. We are being forced to make counterintuitive decisions like cutting services that communities value and reduce future demand e.g. children’s centres and libraries. A preventative approach to improving children’s outcomes must come from the top, by this I mean central government must fund local authorities properly and sustainably to enable us to keep children safe and to provide support to children and their families before they reach crisis point. Children’s services are not, nor should we be, a blue light service.

Putting children at the heart of all policy and spending decisions benefits us all by creating happier, healthier communities and reducing future demand for the NHS and adult social care too. A greater focus on wellbeing and resilience in schools will similarly have benefits inside the classroom and beyond.

Jenny Coles is ADCS Vice President 2019/20 and DCS in Hertfordshire County Council.

This column was first published on the LGC website on 21 November 2019 - link

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Comment: Latest DfE children looked after statistics

Rachel Dickinson, ADCS President, said:

“The figures show that local authorities continue to safeguard and protect children and young people in their local areas, despite facing a 50% reduction in our budgets since 2010 and significantly increased demand. The statistics don’t show the many cases where local authorities are working intensively with children and families to enable them to stay together safely. Our ability to work with children and families at the earliest opportunity to prevent them from reaching crisis point is being diminished by an estimated £3.1 billion funding gap in children’s services by 2025. Reductions in other public services, child poverty and increasing instances of domestic abuse and poor parental mental health in our communities is also impacting on this goal. We still await a long-term funding settlement that transcends parliamentary cycles. The next government must recognise that the benefits of investing in children expand beyond the individual to society as a whole.”

ENDS

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Comment: Principal Social Worker survey

Jenny Coles, Vice President of the ADCS, said:

“It’s fair to say the children and family principal social worker, or PSW, role is slightly different in each local area, partly as a result of central permissiveness and partly as a result of the local context, from the size of the authority and the workforce structure to how closely children’s and adult services work together. In essence this advanced practitioner role is about promoting good practice, providing a clear link between the frontline and senior leaders as well as influencing the development of social work practice. PSWs are committed to making a difference, I know they do this in many local areas and this is reflected in the findings of this survey.”

Ends

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Changes to Statutory Youth Work Guidance - Consultation Response

ADCS response to consultation on changes to statutory youth work guidance

View response

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Reflections on the Children Acts 1989 & 2004

This year marks 30 years and 15 years respectively since the Children Acts 1989 and 2004 received Royal Assent. The 1989 Act marked a turning point in children’s rights legislation in England and Wales. It introduced comprehensive change concerning the welfare of children. Central to this was the idea that children’s wishes and feelings must be taken into account when making decisions that affect them. Traditionally, parents were seen to have rights over their children, but the Act reversed this stating that children had free standing right. These welcome child centred principles remain at the heart of all local authorities do.

It is important to celebrate the successes of the Acts. Children are safer now than they were 30 years ago for example. However, many of the challenges faced by children, their families and the services they rely on today could not have been foreseen by the legislators such as the levels of pressure currently in the system or the use of Section 20 voluntary accommodation arrangements for unaccompanied migrant and asylum-seeking children arriving in this country with no family ties.

Over the past decade, the preventative principles underpinning the ‘89 Act have been eroded by austerity, chronically underfunded children’s services and rising need. We continue to call on government to work with us to reclaim and resource the core principles of prevention in the Act, backed by adequate new funding.

The 2004 Act went further to create, amongst other things, the concept of a clear, single point of professional accountability for children and young people’s outcomes in the director of children’s services (DCS). A single individual uniquely centred in the local place in which they work, to bring together different parts of the systems in the best interests of children. It also provided the legal underpinning for the Every Child Matters outcomes framework.

To mark the anniversary of the Acts we have invited the ADCS President, Vice President and Past Presidents to reflect on the Children Acts of 1989 and 2004, the successes and what has changed since they became law.

View the reflections

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President’s Speech NCASC 2019 - Press Release

ADCS President’s address at the National Children and Adult Services Conference 2019

Addressing delegates at the National Children and Adult Services Conference in Bournemouth Rachel Dickinson, President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), today said:

On the Children Acts 1989 and 2004

“The potent combination of austerity; rising demand; fewer resources and a government whose attention for almost four years has been largely focussed elsewhere, endangers the ambitious intentions of the Acts. There is still much to do if we are to become a country that works for all children. In this context, the system leadership role of the DCS to ensure a relentless focus on the lived experiences of children and to speak loudly for change, has never been more important.”

On funding

“We are still waiting for a long-term funding settlement. I don’t just mean a three or even a five-year comprehensive spending review. I’m talking about the need to invest substantially and bravely in children’s services – investment that transcends parliamentary cycles and general election rhetoric. We must move away from the current piecemeal approach to funding. Small, ad hoc, short-term pots of funding from central government in response to single issues, made available for some but not all local areas, are particularly unhelpful.”

On demand pressures

“Increasing pressures in children’s and adult social care need to be funded properly, but not at the expense of other key local government services that help create prosperous, independent and resilient communities. These wellbeing and Place-based services that improve the lives of local people, helping them to live a good life, as well as prevent demand growing exponentially in our social care services…Local authorities can, and do, join these services up locally to deliver improved outcomes for communities, but we need the right, long-term resources to continue doing this.”

On the education system

“I strongly believe that the government’s education reforms have completely lost sight of inclusion. Let’s not forget that state-funded schools are community assets. The new school inspection framework is shining a light on the use of formal and informal exclusions and will hopefully help to turn the tide on rising exclusions…but I think it’s time to review head teachers’ powers to exclude pupils unchecked.”

On the role of private equity in care placements

“…the entry of private equity into the provision of fostering and residential care placements is a relatively recent development and a source of considerable worry for ADCS members. The level of profit being generated by some companies from the care of vulnerable children…is difficult to reconcile as austerity continues to bite in local government. However, the level of risk now apparent in the system is my overriding concern.”

On unregulated settings

“The use of unregulated and of unregistered placement settings is rising because of the lack of placement capacity in registered and regulated provision. There has been a clear lack of appetite amongst successive governments to lead a joined-up response to help local authorities collectively to provide and commission flexible responses that can meet the most complex adolescent need. Many councils are investing in the recruitment and retention of in-house foster carers. This is a big task that government could help with – but, as the age profile of our children in care population changes, we will need different kinds of placements.”

On care leavers

“…over 100 councils in England already exempt their care leavers from paying council tax until age 25. If your council has not yet made the decision can I urge you as good corporate parents to give it some serious thought as you set your budgets locally. If every council in England was to do this, then care leavers who live out of borough, or even out of region, would not be disadvantaged by their postcode.”

On the new ADCS health position paper

“Tomorrow, ADCS will launch a position paper on children’s health and wellbeing. That paper describes children’s health as being poorly served, there are some shocking failures to deliver timely health care, linked to both demand (poverty and the stresses of modern life) and service failure…the health service is simply not doing well enough for children.”

ENDS

Notes:

• The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) Ltd is the professional leadership association for Directors of Children’s Services and their senior management teams in England.

• The full speech can be found here

• The ADCS Elective Home Education 2019 survey mentioned in the speech can be found here

• ‘A health care system that works for all children’, the new ADCS position paper mentioned in the speech, will be published on www.adcs.org.uk on Thursday 21 November.

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ADCS President’s Speech - NCASC 2019

ADCS President 2019/20, Rachel Dickinson, delivered her keynote speech to the National Children and Adult Services Conference on 20 November 2019 in Bournemouth.

Download speech (pdf)

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Comment: Allegations of abuse and neglect in custodial settings

Jenny Coles, ADCS Vice President, said:

“Children and young people in custody are vulnerable, many have complex and overlapping health and social care needs. It’s vital that these children are kept safe and that staff in custodial settings are trained and equipped with specialist skills and knowledge, including in the safe use of restraint, to properly support the children in their care. Restraint should only be used where absolutely necessary and should be reasonable and proportionate to the circumstances; it should never be used to deliberately inflict pain on children. Local authorities take our safeguarding duties very seriously and will investigate all allegations received. Local authorities work with partners right across the safeguarding and youth justice system from police, probation and health services to education settings and urgently require the necessary levers to address welfare concerns arising in secure settings to ensure that children’s needs are properly met. We’re in discussion with the YJB about the health, safety and wellbeing of children and young people in the youth justice system as well as the oversight and governance of these nationally commissioned services operating in local areas.”

ENDS

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Comment on the use of data in children’s social care

Steve Crocker, Chair of the ADCS Standards, Performance & Inspection Policy Committee, said:

“The intelligent use of data is really important to local authorities. This report rightly highlights the burden placed on us in terms of national data collections, the significant lag in the publication of this data impacting on its usefulness and our diminishing capacity to collect and analyse data as specialist staff continue to be lost as a result of falling budgets. However, what is missing from this analysis is an insight into the work done locally via regional improvement and innovation alliances, such as benchmarking and peer challenge, and other sector-led innovations like the ‘children looked after analysis project.’ This project brings together social care and education data in real time to allow virtual school heads to put in place bespoke support to help children in care achieve better outcomes and its development was sector-led. Projects such as this highlight the value of data to authorities that can be nimble and work in real time with accurate data to improve the quality of services to, and outcomes for, vulnerable children.”

ENDS

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Comment: Secretary of State announces support for care leavers

Commenting on investment and programmes to improve support for care leavers Jenny Coles, ADCS Vice President, said:

“Young people leaving care have to start living independently and navigating adulthood much earlier than their peers and may not have the family or support network to help them. Councils are doing lots of things to support care leavers from council tax exemptions to creating apprenticeships to support them into employment. The investment and programmes announced today will help to make a difference in the lives of our care leavers, the creation of a Care Leaver Covenant Board will helpfully bring a national cross government focus to the issues affecting care leavers. Initiatives such as Staying Put and Staying Close are welcome and help to prepare young people for independence, however, there is currently a shortage of foster carers and more children coming into care, so our need for carers continues to grow. A national foster carer recruitment strategy would undoubtably help with this. “

ENDS

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Comment: Education Select Committee’s SEND report

Rachel Dickinson, ADCS President, said:

“This report shines a light on some of the systemic challenges that local authorities face as we work hard to implement a complex and underfunded system of reforms. The 2014 reforms rightly raised expectations, required partners to join up holistically to meet the needs of children and young people and extended support from birth to 25 years. However, children’s services were not adequately funded to meet these expanded duties.

“Despite record levels of spending in the SEND system there is growing frustration and dissatisfaction too. This is because funding alone will not solve the system-level challenges we now face in meeting our statutory duties. Issues include: a school accountability system focused on academic attainment above inclusion which means some pupils with low level needs are being pushed out of the mainstream system into costlier, often independent specialist provision as well as the lack of a national workforce strategy. Having the right workforce to meet the needs of children and young people is essential and therapists are an important part of this, but there are shortages elsewhere in the wider workforce that act as a barrier to achieving an inclusive education system.

“Under the reforms local partners are required to develop joint commissioning arrangements to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND. However, it can be challenging for local authorities to engage health partners at a local level. ADCS believes the Departments for Education and Health and Social Care should lead by example, particularly in relation to funding arrangements to reflect their joint duties towards this cohort.

“We are pleased the Committee supports the need for local authorities to open new maintained special schools and welcomes the greater focus on inclusion in the new school inspections regime – the level and quality of SEN support should be a limiting factor in terms of inspection outcomes. Any future inspection framework to measure how local areas are meeting the needs of children and young people with SEND needs to clearly define what good looks like to facilitate the spread of good practice.

“Our shared endeavour must be on improving the experiences and outcomes of all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and ensuring no child is left behind.”

ENDS

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Comment: Adoption Support Fund

Charlotte Ramsden, Chair of the ADCS Health, Care and Additional Needs Policy Committee, said:

“The Adoption Support Fund allows children who are adopted and those cared for by special guardians and their families to access a range of valuable help and support so that they can overcome any challenges they might have and the whole family can thrive. While we welcome the news from the Secretary of State that the Adoption Support Fund will be extended to 2021 and that additional investment in Regional Adoption Agencies will enable increased recruitment of adopters, we still don’t know the future of the Fund beyond next year. It’s important that the Fund is sustainable in the long term to ensure funding of vital support services that families rely on. Feedback from those who have received support shows that it is valued and necessary. The Fund will hopefully encourage more people who want to adopt to do so and know that support will be available.”

ENDS

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ADCS response to the Queen’s Speech

Jenny Coles, ADCS Vice President, said:

“It’s disappointing that the Queen’s speech did not provide long term solutions to many issues affecting children and families today, such as child poverty. For almost four years now ‘Brexit’ has consumed the time, focus and energy of national politicians at the expense of addressing some serious domestic social policy issues. We would urge the government to put children and families at the top of their agenda.

“We are pleased the government has reiterated its commitment to providing £1 billion for children’s and adult social care next year, however, three times this amount is needed to plug the funding gap children’s services will soon face. Without proper and sustainable investment in children and the services they rely on we are only storing up huge human and fiscal costs for the future.

“On serious youth violence, the government has reaffirmed its commitment to placing a duty on public bodies to collaborate, this duty already exists for children and is the basis of our safeguarding system. Moreover, the measures outlined in the speech do nothing to address the reasons why a young person might carry a knife or why some children are more at risk of being drawn into criminality. Evidence demonstrates a clear link between inequality and high rates of violence.

“It is right that all young people have access to an excellent education and any additional funding for schools is welcome. But beyond funding there are many barriers to achieving a high performing and inclusive education system including rising numbers of learners being excluded from schools, curriculum reforms, increased accountability and a high stakes inspection regime that must be addressed.

“We are pleased the government has committed to progressing the Domestic Abuse Bill, however, the proposals as they stand must focus more on prevention and clearly reflect the scale, reach or severity of this issue. Domestic abuse affects millions of men, women and children each year, our own research shows it is the most common reason why children come to the attention of children’s social care. If we are to turn the tide of this endemic problem, we must work with children and families at risk of domestic abuse as well as with perpetrators to prevent domestic abuse from occurring in the first place.”

ENDS

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Comment: HMI Prisons and HMI Probation youth resettlement report

Stuart Gallimore, ADCS Immediate Past President, said:

“Sadly many of the messages in the report are not new and the outcomes of too many children and young people leaving custody remain poor in terms of entering education, finding employment and rates of re-offending. Their transition back into the community is a shared endeavour; it’s important that their needs are met in a joined-up and holistic way while they are in custody and when they leave to enable a full and successful reintegration into society.

“The report recognises that resettlement can be a scary time for some children and young people and planning for their release should ideally start as soon as they start their custodial sentence so that the services and support they need are available when and where they need them. Where appropriate children and young people should be involved in this process.

“Finding suitable accommodation is often one of the main difficulties we face in this area of work due to a national shortage of housing, particularly social housing and a shortage of all types of placements for children in our care. The recommendation in this report for a national scheme to pay retainers on suitable accommodation a minimum of one month before a child or young person’s release is worthy of further discussion.”

ENDS

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ADCS response to the Youth Endowment Fund announcement

Stuart Gallimore, ADCS Immediate Past President, said:

“The Early Intervention Foundation, which is involved in the fund, has a wealth of experience in working closely with the sector to enable an evidence-based approach to our work with children and families. It’s vital that future policies are rooted in expert advice and scarce public funds are maximised, therefore, more evidence of what works to help children and families earlier before they reach crisis point is much needed. While additional support and investment in preventing children and young people from being drawn into crime and violence is a positive thing not all children will benefit from today’s announcement. We urgently need proper, sustainable and equitable investment in all children that enables local authorities to meet their needs now and in the future. The government’s current approach to funding is not conducive to this agenda, for example, children’s services face a £3.1 billion funding gap by 2025 and there are several small pots of funding for some local authorities to trial different ways of working but the next logical step never materialises - the national roll out of successful programmes, with adequate funding from government to match. This would not only enable us to improve children’s life chances and outcomes it’s a smart fiscal policy too. Helping children and families earlier before their needs escalate, reducing pressure on high end, more costly services. We hope the Treasury recognises this in time for the Spending Review.”

ENDS

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Out of area placements

Charlotte Ramsden, Chair of the ADCS Health, Care and Additional Needs Policy Committee, said:

“Finding the right placement for children in care and keeping them safe is a priority for all local authorities. Whilst placing children close to their community, family and friends is preferable there are good reasons why a child might be placed further away including where there are concerns about their safety or their needs can’t be met locally. As Sir Martin Narey recognises in his review of residential care ‘the right placement’ for a child is more important than location.

“We recognise there is sometimes an issue with the notification process when a child is placed out of area and as an Association we host a range of resources on out of area placements on our website including a list of relevant contact details for all local authorities to help facilitate the process as well as regional protocol and guidance documents.”

ENDS

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Yorkshire & Humber Regional Update September 2019

Work Plan

The 2019 work plan for sector-led improvement is now in place. It has a particular emphasis on:

• Customised support for individual LAs with greatest need

• An enhanced role for chief executives and lead members through the Children’s Improvement Board

• A slimmed down self-assessment process

• Introduction of quarterly reporting using a web-based platform.

Quarterly Reporting

The new quarterly reporting arrangements are now in place and the quarter one report has been produced. The web-based solution, ‘Tableau’, is now being utilised, offering greater reporting flexibility and we have liaised with the East Midlands (another Tableau user), to share learning. Further work is being undertaken on inclusion of workforce related indicators.

Governance

There are new Terms of Reference for our Children’s Improvement Board with increased expectations of lead members and chief executives, giving it a more assertive role.

The SLI Executive (a subgroup of DCSs) has a stronger role than previously in scrutinising intelligence about performance, reviewing Ofsted reports, quarterly performance reports and outputs from health checks/peer challenge in order to identify areas of strength and risk/concern.

Scrutiny and Challenge

Front door health checks (FDHC) have been introduced in 2019. A business process has been developed and teams to undertake the health checks are now being recruited. FDHCs are targeted on LAs self-identifying ‘front door’ as a particular area for development (six to be undertaken in 2019 – the first of these in Autumn 2019).

A business process has been developed and piloted for a children’s mental health (CMH) peer challenge. The impending CMH JTAI activity brought this into sharper focus and DCSs and CCG commissioners have been reminded of the opportunity to engage. The business process is being modified to ensure it is JTAI compatible.

Leadership Development

Demand continues to be high for our regionally developed and regionally run leadership programmes, with 60 participants on the 2019 Aspirant Leaders Programme and 30 for the Senior Leaders Programme. Both programmes are now underway.

Lead Member Network

There is an active lead member network which meets bi-monthly. Our next meeting is a joint one with lead members from the North East.

Every LA a PIP

DfE funding has enabled us to pilot an approach which provides some financial support for LAs (other than PiPs) that exceed normal expectations in the provision of brokered support to others. The model is based on the premise that all LAs have the potential to provide improvement support to others. Our intention is to wrap a coordinated package of support around one or more LAs, drawing on PiP and other regional support.

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West Midlands Regional Update September 2019

Regional Improvement and Innovation Alliance

We are moving into the third year of our collaboration programme, which includes the RIIA and aims to continue to improve the support and challenge that we can offer each other to achieve higher levels of performance and better outcomes for children, young people and families. It is pleasing that as a region we now have more ‘good’ than ‘inadequate’ authorities but there is much to do if we are to meet the ambitions we set ourselves in 2016 to achieve by 2021.

Public Mutual

Mutual Ventures undertook an options appraisal for the future structure of West Midlands Children’s Services (WMCS) which has led to the presentation of an outline business case for LA DCSs and trust chief executives to consider at their meeting on the 6 September. All agree that there is the need for a more formal arrangement and the options for this are: a joint venture contractual model; a joint venture corporate model; or remaining as is with a legally binding agreement to ensure shared ownership/liability.

FutureSocial

FutureSocial remains a key focus for the DCS network developing alternative delivery methods under the three key headings:

• Workforce: Recruitment, retention, sustainability and management of agency provision

• Quality and Performance: Developing best practice across all aspects of social care

• Leadership and Management.

The innovation funding continues until March 2020, however, there will also be a continuation of some of the core aspects beyond this time built into the future operation of WMCS. Each council and trust is working through their funded continuing professional development action plans.

NAAS

The NAAS pilot plans are well underway. There is a dilemma regarding the assessment centres that are managed centrally in that we have been given a target for 25% of the children’s social care workforce to undertake the assessment but have been allocated too few assessment centre places to meet this. Having motivated colleagues to undertake the assessment voluntarily we are in danger of letting them down if they have to wait a long time for their assessment. The second issue is one of declaration. Those participating are volunteers and do not have to disclose to their council or trust if they have passed the assessment. If this scheme is to be rolled out both the capacity and declaration issues will need to have been resolved.

SEND Regional Network

WMCS has now taken over the running of the network and the DCS for Birmingham has agreed to lead on this for the DCS network. There is a growing concern over the high needs budgets and a number of councils and trusts have received ‘written statements of action’ status from Ofsted.

West Midlands Safe Centre

We have been successful with our bid for the creation of a Safe Centre to be built in the West Midlands but are waiting to find out how much funding is available from the DfE secure estates team for both the design and build stages. A meeting scheduled for 18 September, chaired by Sir Alan Wood, will provide greater detail.

Education and Skills Network

The DCS network is meeting with the recently appointed Regional Schools Commissioner in October to work through mutual agendas including issues around home education, pupils missing from schools, and school exclusions. Education and skills are a key priority for the West Midlands as we are a region with poor social mobility.

Regional Commissioning Hub

The hub is being established and staff recruited with the intention that it will be self-sufficient within three years. This will be achieved through better management of the marketplace and the collaborative buying power of the region’s councils and trusts.

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South West Regional Update September 2019

South West Regional Summer Summit - Building Regional Improvement Capacity and Improving Practice Leadership

This year’s summer summit included a range of workshops enabling South West local authorities to share an example of their good practice:

• Bath and North East Somerset: Improved responses to adolescent risks by the establishment of a specialist service - Adolescent at Risk Service – ART.
• Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole: Learning from Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole: what has worked to reduce NEETs & Not Knowns.
• Bristol: Strengthening families and reducing our children in care population.
• Cornwall: Meeting the new challenges for corporate parenting guidance and extended duty for care leavers.
• Dorset: Using business intelligence to develop and deliver our early help offer.
• Gloucestershire: How ambassadors make a difference to services in Gloucestershire.
• North Somerset: Bright Spots survey - delivering on what’s important to our children and young people.
• Plymouth: Implementing the national post-qualifying standards and using NAAS as a vehicle for practice improvement.
• Somerset: Working with partners in child exploitation.
• South Gloucestershire: Deep dive quality assurance – achieving consistently good QA.
• Swindon: Approach to working with alcohol dependent parents.
• Torbay: Developments in the front door – how the partnership response is supporting a turnaround in troubled families work.
• Wiltshire: SEND service developments – improving outcomes for children and young people.

The summit also launched the new Regional Leadership Development Programme specifically aimed at those reporting to assistant directors of children’s services. Nearly 70 people attended the summit from the region’s 14 local authorities. Feedback from participants was very positive.

Regional Leadership Development Programme

The Staff College will be delivering, with partners, a leadership development programme for aspirant assistant directors in the South West region. The aim of the programme is to improve the strategic leadership skills of up to fifty managers who are the direct reports to assistant directors in each of the region’s 15 local authorities. The programme, which will commence in October 2019, will include some ‘coaching and mentoring’ elements in addition to the learning events.

Self-Assessment Peer Challenge

The date for the self-assessment peer challenge will be Friday 6 December 2019. The self-assessment framework has been reviewed with an additional self-assessment on ‘risk factors’ included. All local authorities are participating – the date for completed submissions is 12 October 2019.

Strategic Children’s Sector-Led Improvement Group – RIA Board

The strategic group, which has representation from the region’s chief executives, lead members, directors of children’s services and the LGA, has now become the Regional Improvement and Innovation Alliance Board.

A leadership summit bringing together the chief executives, lead members and directors of children’s services from all of the regions’ local authorities is planned for 12 March 2020. The leadership summit will review progress of the alliance and agree plans for 2021 and beyond.

Thematic Peer Challenge Programme for 2019/20

The programme for the coming year gives local authorities the option to choose the focus for their challenge from the themes that Ofsted use for focussed visits and JTAIs. The plan is for all local authorities to participate with the exception of those judged inadequate by Ofsted. There will be a peer challenge preparation workshop on 7 November 2019 in Taunton – all local authorities have a place for their peer challenge lead.

Workforce Development – Frontline Regional Partnership

The first cohort of South West Frontline participants has now completed a five-week programme of learning, a readiness to practice portfolio and a law exam. The participants are now ready to begin their two-year journey with their local authorities, starting on Monday 2 September. There are 45 participants in 12 units across eight local authorities in the South West. In addition,12 consultant social workers have been recruited to support the participants with their learning. Frontline has received much positive feedback about the quality of the candidates across the region applying for the CSW posts.

Commissioning Group Project

The regional commissioning group has developed a project, led by Bath and North East Somerset, to gather intelligence through a ‘market position statement’ on the sufficiency of in-house fostering placements in all of the South West local authorities. The project has gained some external funding from the LGA. It is planned that the ‘market position’ will be presented to representatives from all local authorities at a regional meeting in the autumn.

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South East Regional Update September 2019

Sector-Led Improvement

• The Regional Improvement Plan for 2019-20 with detailed annexes was launched at a regional summit on 22 March 2019

• The plan includes a £130,000 contribution from DfE alongside £162,500 subscription income, and an agreement for quarterly data sharing on the 18 nationally agreed data items

• The plan has ten priorities:

Actions that will address practice issues:

1. Collaborate to improve provision for complex LAC

2. Collaborate on increasing in-house foster placements

3. Collaborate on ways to promote educational inclusion with SE19 SEND group

4. Share and develop new models of social care practice that fit the times

5. Develop regional quality assurance capacity

Actions that will develop leadership capacity and staff resources:

6. Build leadership capacity across the region

7. Workforce matters; recruitment and retention; agency

Actions that will underpin the cycle of self-assessment and peer challenge:

8. Data benchmarking

9. Annual self-assessment and triad peer challenge

Action to address the funding gap:

10. Increase political lobbying to address the funding gap

• The plan follows a non-stigmatising approach to improvement: the assumption is that there is excellent practice in all authorities; and that all authorities have improvement needs

• Recently we have:

o Been successful in attracting a DfE grant of £73,350 for our complex LAC project

o Published an independent review of our Triad Peer Challenge events and confirmed dates for the November round of challenges

o Commissioned The Staff College to conduct a needs analysis for leadership development

o Held our first quarterly data sharing meeting with DfE

o Commissioned a review of the Memorandum of Co-operation on agency staff employment, which has recently come under pressure

o Offered support and assistance to the London regional sector-led improvement effort.

For further details go to www.seslip.co.uk or contact the Programme Manager Richard Tyndall 07880-787007 richard.tyndall@richardtyndall.co.uk

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North West Regional Update September 2019

Considering Transition for Young People with Learning Difficulties

With a growing cohort of children and young people whose needs are being met through an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), the common challenge of transition to adulthood is of growing importance in the region. As part of the response to this, later this month we will work with our colleagues in North West ADASS to bring together statutory directors of both children’s and adults’ services – including those who deliver both these functions. The session, supported by NWADCS, NWADASS and NHS England, will focus keenly on transition to define:

• Key joint challenges, including transition experience, market shaping and the cost of care

• Level of ambition and the potential for meaningful joint work

• Aims of any joint working, including potential outputs and outcomes expected.

Our intention is that this new way of working, along with our current co-production of a specialist education flexible purchasing system (FPS) which is underway with parent/carer forums across the region, will help create the conditions for an improved and more sustainable experience of transition.

Understanding the Changing Nature of Children’s Services’ Markets

In a context of increased demand and cost, sub-regional collaboratives within the North West brought together two workstreams with agreement to formalise outputs in an analytical resource. Greater Manchester’s work which identified structural challenges in regulating and monitoring providers who deliver at scale, signalling private equity as a driver of company growth and gaps in ownership data. And, market reform work in Liverpool City which identified the growth of private equity finance and growth by acquisition in the increasing costs for residential care. Officers brought these two work streams together to jointly explore the implications of the early analysis which highlighted the following:

• Market oversight, company ownership and debt: Private equity finance is driving a model of adding value to companies through ‘growth by acquisition, financed through increased indebtedness’. Two of the largest providers in fostering and residential care have cumulative debts of £0.76 billion, equivalent to more than £5 million per LA in England

• Impact of private equity in fostering: Private equity models have shifted focus to ‘growth by acquisition’ placing estimated values on each fostering family between £50,000- £125,000 and delivering a larger market share with reduced capacity. Whilst increasing the value of the remaining households, it is hypothesised that the switch of the growth model is a driver in the decline of mainstream foster carers

• Impact of private equity in residential: Increasing consolidation is not leading to reduction in capacity yet has seen prices increase significantly with growing need meaning any decline in performance is not limiting demand or reducing financial returns. There is currently no legislative framework by which Ofsted inspects and holds providers accountable on the efficacy of the organisation as a whole. Provider failure could have a profound impact on children.

For further information, we are happy to provide the full report, ‘The changing nature of company ownership, private equity and the impact on the services delivered for children’ and the Executive Summary, ‘Changing Nature of Children’s Services Markets’.

Responding to the Changing Nature of Children’s Services’ Markets

As part of a wider response to the issues outlined above, colleagues in Greater Manchester are developing small, multi-LA clusters to tackle market shaping collaboratively as a means of forging better working relationships with local suppliers and increasing the number of children placed close to home communities. The cluster approach allows a focus on local provision and partnership working, with sufficient scale to support effective matching and encourage provider investments. The clusters for residential represent around 130 – 140 placements each. This will ultimately include the consideration of differentiated purchasing for local provision and issues of social value to ensure children’s spend is kept within the local economy and centred on delivering for children. The piloting of this approach in fostering is focused around our more complex children in residential who are ready for a family environment. This model is distinct as it enables commissioners to act as ‘stewards’ of working relationships and focusses on behaviours and approaches which will develop services and placements over time. It prioritises long-term collaboration to support more considered matching, providing a balance between local supply and sufficient volume to merit IFA investment.

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North East Regional Update September 2019

Regional Learning Event

In July we held our second annual regional learning event focused on sharing learning from recent inspection experiences in the region. A session on SEND was attended by local authority staff and health partners and there was also a session on ILACS and focused visits.

Young Ambassadors

The North East has five young ambassadors who are care experienced young people, funded by the 12 local authorities to support the work of the regional Children in Care Council (CiCC). They attended our directors’ branch meeting in July to share an update on their work, which includes monitoring how well each LA is implementing the regional CiCC priorities for LAC and care leavers.

Workforce

The first cohort of social work apprentices in the region will start in September, providing a further route for new entrants into the profession. We are now exploring the use of apprenticeships for social work managers. The regional workforce strategy was recently reviewed and priorities for 2019/20 are:

• Recruitment and retention of social workers and social care staff at all levels and developing the wider social care workforce

• Continuing to manage agency supply, demand, cost and quality

• Leadership and management development.

Peer Audit

A peer audit process has been in place in the region since last year. Authorities work in peer networks of three to carry out case file audits. Each of our four peer networks has now completed some peer audits and in September we will carry out a review of the learning from those that have taken place.

Lead Member Network

Over the last year we have reinvigorated the regional lead members network, which is now meeting quarterly, supported by the LGA Children’s Improvement Advisor for the region. We are currently planning a cross-regional workshop with lead members from the Yorkshire and Humber region, which will take place in October and focus on LAC and edge of care.

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Greater London Regional Update September 2019

London’s Response to the Regional Improvement Alliance Approach

Director leads have begun convening thematic workshops to delve deeper into the four priority areas - finance and resources; vulnerable adolescents; workforce; and special educational needs and disabilities. These workshops will lead to the development of a more detailed work programme. At the meeting of ALDCS on 15 July, directors heard about the progress that had been made following the thematic workshops on SEND and adolescent safeguarding.

Boroughs continue to submit their signed memorandums of understanding.

Funding Pressures in Children’s Social Care and High Needs

London DCSs are working with London councils, chief executives and finance directors to understand better the financial pressures facing children’s social care budgets and the High Needs Block. ISOS published their report, Under Pressure, looking at cost drivers, effective practice in managing pressures and potential for collaborative solutions. ALDCS is liaising with partners to take recommendations forward, particularly around joint commissioning.

Admissions

London primary schools received 96,598 applications in total this year, a 0.08% decrease compared to last year, according to figures published by the Pan-London Admissions Board. 97 per cent of children due to start primary school in London this September have been offered a place at a preferred school. There is growing concern about decreasing rolls at primary schools in some parts of London although this year’s numbers show a relatively small overall decrease. ALDCS continues to support boroughs with places planning, to ensure that all boroughs can meet rising need, particularly in secondary and special schools, as well as cope with reductions in demand at primary in some boroughs.

New Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements

All London boroughs published their new arrangements by the deadline of 29 June. In order to maintain a level of consistency across London and to facilitate communication across local areas, the new arrangements are either called Safeguarding Children Partnerships or Safeguarding Children Boards. Links to the new arrangements are available at https://www.londonscb.gov.uk/london-scb-contacts/. The London Safeguarding Children Board has agreed to have an executive of the three safeguarding partners at a pan-London level and ALDCS is represented on this executive. Engagement with the wider partnership will continue but in a different format.

Children in Custody

A multi-agency working group, chaired by a DCS, is working with the MPS to reduce the number of children held in police custody. The group shares data on police requests for accommodation with local authorities on a regular basis. This sharing of data has enabled feedback on cases between custody suites and emergency duty teams thereby improving the police and local authority response to children held in custody. A protocol for London, which supplements the Home Office Concordat on children held in police custody, went live on 10 June. ALDCS has also asked local authority commissioners across London to develop approaches to the co-commissioning of non-secure alternative accommodation for children denied bail – there is insufficient demand for places for any one borough to address this issue.

Pan-London Secure Settings Project

ALDCS continues to work with NHS England (London region) to explore a new collaborative solution to the provision of secure children’s home capacity in the region. Discussions have progressed to the point of completing an options appraisal and recommendations are now subject to wider engagement with stakeholders, including political leaders.

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East Midlands Regional Update September 2019

Sector-Led Improvement Headlines (RIIA)

While it is recognised that this activity is reported elsewhere, the RIIA is being used in this region as the all-encompassing framework for our collaborative joint work. Our cycle of self-evaluation and peer challenge will begin again during the autumn term and alongside this the joint work between the nine LAs is being organised to contribute to four over-arching priorities:

• Managing increasing levels of demand and need at a time of reducing financial resource, including SEND pressures and placement sufficiency

• Social Work recruitment and managing the workforce (MoU)

• Protecting children at risk of exploitation

• The quality and effectiveness of practice that improves outcomes.

Early Intervention Practitioner L4 Apprenticeship

The EM regional workforce leads group, led by Derbyshire colleagues, continues to make progress to create a level four apprenticeship, having now received the support of the board of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. This qualification, once it is launched, will complement the existing level five and level six diplomas in early intervention and family support.

School Partnership Inclusion Case Studies

Commissioned by our Regional Education Summit, we are in the final stages of producing an anthology of case studies of schools and partnerships that are working to increase school inclusion and reduce or eliminate exclusion. The anthology is being launched later in September and will be available to download at www.emsyh.org.uk/summit

QSW MoU

The region continues its commitment to develop the regional MoU for social work as a main tool in the drive to improve workforce quality, price and supply. A renewed work programme is being commissioned from the regional HR leads group to add the growth of imaginative ‘supply side’ solutions alongside a re-fresh of current price regulation activity.

Parental Conflict

All nine LAs in the region have pooled the DWP grant for parental conflict and have recruited a regional lead to provide strategic leadership and drive the agenda. With guidance from the strategic coordinator, all LAs have completed an EIF planning tool and are in the process of agreeing a programme of activities that will enable a joined-up approach across the region.

UASC

Four out of nine of the region’s LAs are now at or very close to the 0.07% threshold with a steady increase in regional numbers from spontaneous arrivals, national transfers and ‘children’ passing through the adult dispersal centre within the region. LAs use a combination of dedicated UASC teams and integrated processes and the region also benefits from the role of a regional officer to manage UASC pressures.

Mental Health Connections with NHS

The spike of mental health need in the 10-20 years-old cohort continues to provide a significant challenge to all partners. The EM DCS group is supporting steps with the NHS regional field force to look to bridge any gulf between the NHS approach to mental health issues and local government activity. The region is keen to use the momentum of the trailblazer sites to establish multi-agency approaches that build upon, and not duplicate, existing systems.

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Eastern regional update September 2019

Regional Self-Assessment & DCS Peer Challenge

• The 2019 annual self-assessment process has concluded, with a status update planned for the autumn

• Self-assessments that were submitted by each local authority were moderated by another authority within the region. Moderation comments were shared prior to a DCS peer challenge event that was held at the end of June

• A workshop has been arranged to review the template used for self-assessment to ensure that it remains current/relevant to changing needs.

Regional Priorities

• The regional priorities are currently under review by the DCS group (following the peer challenge event) and a meeting is planned with the chairs of all the regional network groups to disseminate the priority areas and establish each group’s contribution to them

• For each priority a DCS sponsor and an AD lead will be invited to steer an action plan

• A regional conference is being held in September to focus on the serious youth violence priority area; this will combine national, regional and local best practice and seek opportunities for further regional collaboration to tackle the issue

• A leadership and management training programme is being constructed by a regional team in conjunction with The Staff College, targeting heads of service and team managers.

Peer Review & Inspection

• Peer reviews continue to provide challenge and support in targeted, thematic areas of service

• They have been undertaken across social care, education and SEND services and others are being planned for the coming year.

Data Benchmarking

• The regular quarterly tartan rug report continues to highlight comparative performance across all LAs in the region against a range of performance measures

• A performance benchmarking report for 2018/19 has been published for the region; it pulls together data from the tartan rug alongside nationally published data across children’s social care.

Network Highlights

• The regular regional networks continue to be held, together with the re-establishment of a workforce, resourcing and development group for workforce leads across the region

• Meeting schedules for 2020 have been booked for all the regional groups

• A regional conference has been held for the leaving care group with a focus on developing local offers

• A regional leaders’ event for chief executives, lead members and DCSs is being planned and is likely to be scheduled for January/February 2020

• Andrew Bunyan, our LGA advisor, will be facilitating some regional work on residential care alternative provision, to look at whether we could do something different so that we can approach the DfE with a plan and estimate of cost

• The group provided the troubled families team at DfE with data to show how much extra cost would be accrued by social care if the troubled families funding was dropped

• The group has arranged for some work on budget pressures to be carried out by finance leads across the region, coordinated by Hertfordshire.

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ADCS response to the APPG report on missing children

Rachel Dickinson, ADCS President, said:

“Finding the right placement for children in care and keeping them safe is a priority for all local authorities. Whilst placing children close to their community, family and friends is preferable there are good reasons why a child might be placed further away including where there are concerns about their safety or their needs can’t be met locally. The child’s voice is critical but choosing the right placement can, at times, conflict with their wishes. As Sir Martin Narey recognises in his review of residential care ‘the right placement for a child is more important than location.’

“Any increase in the number of out of area placements must be viewed in the context of a 24% increase in the number of children in our care over the past decade, a shortage of foster carers and placements in residential children’s homes, as well as a mismatch between the location of these placements and need. That local authority budgets have been halved since 2010 but need has not cannot be overlooked either as this is impacting on our ability to develop suitable, local options for children and young people. ADCS strongly cautions against the view that all young people in out of area placements or unregulated provision are badly placed or left without support, indeed there are some excellent providers of services and the report does not recognise the important work they do.

“Safeguarding is everyone’s business and local authorities, the police, health services and schools, who share our legal safeguarding duty, and the community must work together to keep children safe, particularly if a child is new to the area. Any increase in children going missing is a concern for local authorities. This can often be a symptom of wider problems in a child’s life and is not restricted to children in care. However, we must pay special attention to this cohort, given local authorities’ particular responsibility for these children and their additional vulnerability. This is a complex area of policy and practice and it is important that we all work together to keep children and young people safe rather than pointing fingers at one another.

“The suggestion in this report that local authorities are acting as ‘recruiting sergeants’, is wholly inappropriate and we are in dialogue with the report authors directly.”

ENDS

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Children are this country’s future

Despite us being one of the richest economies in the world, widening inequalities in the UK are plain to see if you open your eyes. Figures and experience show child poverty is increasing as is homelessness. Holiday hunger clubs, food banks and food donation points in our supermarkets are helping families to make ends meet, according to the Office for National Statistics, the gap in life expectancy between the richest and poorest areas in England and Wales has widened too.

There are things we should celebrate; the UK is one of the safest places in the world for children to grow up and we are better at recognising the vulnerability of children and young people who are being exploited than we were a few years ago. Though, at our peril we ignore increasing disparities in our society.

In April, the Social Mobility Commission warned in its state of the nation report that social mobility has ‘stagnated’ and inequality will remain entrenched from ‘birth to work’ without urgent action from government. More recently, the Education Policy Institute’s annual education report highlighted stark differences in the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and their wealthier counterparts. Some progress has been made in narrowing the attainment gap in primary school but disparities in attainment remain between certain ethnic backgrounds, pupils with special educational needs and disabilities remain significantly behind their peers at every stage of education too. At the current level, the study suggests it will take over 500 years to close the GCSE attainment gap in English and maths between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.

The issues above deserve more attention from our politicians, as does the perilous state of children’s services funding. Ahead of the Spending Round there have been a series of funding pledges to address pressures in the NHS, schools and the police, but there has been no mention of children’s social care, although adult social care seems to be high on the Prime Minister’s agenda. It makes moral, and financial, sense to support children and families as and when their needs arise but we cannot do this if we are forced to spend what little resource we have on acute interventions too late in a child’s life. We urge the Treasury to think of investment in children and their families not as a burden but as potentially life changing. Children are this country’s future, investing in them is the only way to put ‘our country on the road to a brighter future’.

Rachel Dickinson is Executive Director People at Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council and ADCS President 2019/20.

This column was first published in The MJ on 29 August. | https://www.themj.co.uk/Children-are-this-countrys-future/214490

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Review of SEND launched

Rachel Dickinson, President of the ADCS, said:

“The 2014 reforms were ambitious, rightly raising expectations and extending support from birth up to 25 years, however, there is growing frustration and record levels of dissatisfaction despite record spending. We therefore welcome this review, which follows confirmation of an 11% uplift in funding to support learners with special educational needs and disabilities in 2020/21 earlier this week. £700 million is a lot of money but by itself it will not address the systemic challenges we now face in the delivery of our statutory duties, particularly in relation to 19 – 25 year olds requiring education, health and care plans. This older cohort is growing faster than many others and children’s services have not yet been funded to meet their needs.

“Local authorities, schools, health commissioners and providers have worked hard over the last five years to turn these reforms into a reality. Central government departments and agencies monitored our progress closely but have, at times, overlooked their own role in facilitating local efforts. Sufficient capital funding has not been made available for new special school places leading to a growing reliance on the costly independent sector and a national workforce strategy never materialised. As a result, we have shortages of education psychologists, special educational needs teachers, speech and language as well as occupational therapists. Health partners have been slow to adapt to the 0 – 25 agenda, particularly mental health services, resulting in widening inequalities in access across the country. It’s important that children, their families, professionals, practitioners and all relevant government departments take part in this process. It offers us an opportunity to work together to bring forward a plan of action to fully realise the ambitions that underpin the SEND reforms and provide the support children and young people truly deserve.”

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Spending Round 2019

Rachel Dickinson, President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, said:

“Today’s funding announcements offer some short-term respite for children’s services but few reassurances about the future. This is at least some recognition of the concerns ADCS, and others, have been consistently raising about the growing pressures faced by children and families as well as the public services that support them in times of difficulty.

“Local government funding has fallen by half over the last nine years but need has not. A failure to invest in children’s futures is only storing up fiscal and human costs for the future. What’s missing from today’s announcements, and what must be a feature in the next full spending review, is meaningful and sustainable investment in helping families early, when issues first arise thus averting the need for the state to become deeply involved in family life. Youth workers, children’s centres and family support workers are not simply nice to have, they are part of a valuable safety net that prevents children being harmed.

“We cautiously welcome the investment in education at primary, secondary and at FE level as well as the additional funding to support learners with special educational needs and disabilities and await further detail about timings and allocations. Today’s funding pledges come at a deeply uncertain time and we dearly hope these commitments will still stand regardless of the outcome of the latest ‘Brexit’ crisis. Children’s voices are not easily heard in Westminster but we will continue to champion their rights and to call for the government to invest fully in their futures, not just offer them the bare minimum levels of resourcing and support.”

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Messages for the new PM and SoS for Education

At the time of writing the new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has announced a string of new ministerial appointments including a new Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson MP. It is vital that we all work together to secure the best outcomes for children and families and a country that works for all children. This includes making the case to the Treasury, ahead of the Spending Review, that it pays to invest in children and their education, in both human and monetary terms. The Department for Education’s (DfE) own research (Dec 2017) on the potential economic value to the UK of reducing the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers in England to the same levels as in London estimates this could lead to an overall financial benefit of around £12 billion.

A preventative approach to improving children and families’ outcomes should be the golden thread running throughout all government policy. We will need to invest in both child protection and early help services but in time we will reap the rewards. Evidence supporting this case includes: recent research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies highlighting how investment in children’s centres has improved children’s health and is saving the NHS millions and the latest national evaluation of the Troubled Families Programme suggesting it has reduced the proportion of children in care. If we can reduce the need for more acute and costly interventions why wouldn’t we?

Reducing deprivation and the resulting child poverty must also be an overarching policy consideration this government. Poverty is a risk factor for children and young people, evidence clearly shows that childhood disadvantage affects children’s ability to learn and leads to future poverty – children with low qualifications are five times more likely to be unemployed as an adult. We urgently need a national strategy for this national problem.

As systems leaders, the role of directors of children’s services extends far beyond the services we manage, commission or deliver. We are responsible for ensuring the system as a whole works for all children and young people in our localities and seek to persuade our partners to align their priorities with ours. We believe there should be an equivalent in central government acting as an advocate and systems leader helping to ensure children are at the heart of all policy decisions (perhaps a ‘Department for Children and Families’).

These issues (and more) require recognition from the Prime Minister and ministers and action.

Rachel Dickinson is Executive Director People at Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council and ADCS President 2019/20.

This column was first published in The MJ on 6 August 2019. | https://www.themj.co.uk/Prevention-is-the-key-to-ensuring-our-childrens-future/214351

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Research on direct payments for disabled children and young...

Commenting on research by the University of Leeds and CEREBRA on direct payments for disabled children and young people and their families Charlotte Ramsden, Chair of the ADCS Health, Care and Additional Needs Policy Committee, said:

“Children’s services are under significant pressure following a decade of year on year cuts to local authority budgets and rising need for our services. We face a £3.1 billion funding gap by 2025, just to stand still and there is mounting evidence concluding that there is not enough money in the system to meet the level of need that exists in our communities. We recognise the value of effective direct payment systems and seek to encourage these using our Local Offer arrangements. Without sufficiently funded children’s services, the principles underpinning direct payments for disabled children and young people and their families, such as greater control and choice over their own care and support, are potentially at risk.”

ENDS

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OCC Stability Index 2019

Commenting on the Stability Index 2019 Jenny Coles, ADCS Vice President, said:

“Achieving stability for every child in care is a top priority for local authorities as is ensuring children are safe and high-quality placements are available when and where they are needed. The number of children in our care has risen by 24% in the last ten years (ADCS Safeguarding Pressures 6) yet there has been no national government strategy to recruit more foster carers or address the nationwide shortage of residential placements, undermining local and regional efforts to minimise placement instability. The reasons why children are coming into care older and their needs are becoming more complex will vary, from greater professional and public awareness of child criminal and sexual exploitation, improved multi agency responses to safeguarding children rather than criminalising them and more unaccompanied asylum seeking children in our care to the continued impact of the Southwark Judgement in relation to local authorities’ responsibility for homeless 16-17 year olds.”

ENDS

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Comment: cost of the NAAS so far

Rachael Wardell, Chair of the ADCS Workforce Development Policy Committee, said:

“It is difficult to predict what the eventual national cost of the NAAS might be, however, in the context of austerity and rising demand for our services ADCS continues to question whether the £18.4 million the government states it has spent on the NAAS so far represents good value for money. Instead this funding would be much better directed at frontline and early help services which are experiencing a real strain on resources, and in the retention of social workers.”

ENDS

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Community Care survey on social work training and career...

Rachael Wardell, Chair of the ADCS Workforce Development Policy Committee, said:

“In a job as challenging and complex as social work, professionals will always need training and support to develop the skills needed to make positive and enduring changes in children and families’ lives. Local authorities are doing lots of things to help create the conditions for great social work to flourish like ensuring social workers get the support they need, have manageable workloads, and receive regular, reflective supervision where they can raise issues about their work, including their professional development and training needs. There is good practice by local authorities in this space and this is evidenced in Ofsted inspection reports, but without clear routes to progression and opportunities for their development, social workers may feel like they have to leave their current job or the profession as a whole, and this is absolutely not what we would want. Without enough, high quality social workers who are valued and well supported in their role we as directors of children’s services cannot do our job which is to ensure all children in our local area thrive.

“We need to listen to our staff about what would make a difference to them and most directors are conscious of what they’d like to do more of in relation to the workforce challenges we face. However, the current financial context for local authorities is tough, since 2010 our funding has been halved but need for our help and support has not. A lack of resources in the system and rising need for statutory services is likely to be affecting the amount local authorities can spend on anything other than statutory services, despite us knowing that in the long term investing in the workforce is the right thing to do. We hope government heed the messages from the survey too.”

ENDS

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Annual Conference 2019 Presentations

​Presentations and Speeches from Annual Conference 2019

PLENARY SESSIONS

Rachel Dickinson - Presidential Address

Nadhim Zahawi MP - Minister’s Address

Transitional Safeguarding

Further reading:

• RiP Transitional Safeguardingbriefing
• Contextual/ Complex / Transitional Safeguarding briefing
• Making Safeguarding Personal

Andi Brierley

Charlie Taylor - Youth Justice Board

Ofsted

Barnsley Youth Voice

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WORKSHOPS

Workshop A – Inclusivity in education

Workshop B – Learning from SEND inspections

Workshop C – Working together to prevent suicide

Workshop D – Funding for Children’s Services

Workshop E – Investing in the early help workforce

Workshop F – Early years and life chances - TO FOLLOW

Workshop G – Promoting emotional wellbeing

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Annual Conference 2019 Presidential Address

Rachel Dickinson’s Presidential Address to the 2019 ADCS Annual Conference - 4 July 2019.

View speech

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President’s Speech Annual Conference 2019

“We want all children and young people to thrive not just survive, in a country that works for all children”

Leaders of children’s services are committed to working with the Department for Education to achieve a much needed “joined up approach” between the various government departments with responsibility for different aspects of children’s services policy, the President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services said today in Manchester.

Rachel Dickinson used her speech at the ADCS Annual Conference, attended by senior leaders in children and young people services and the Children’s Minister, to reflect on several breakthroughs in children’s rights legislation including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Children Acts of 1989 and 2004. Central to these things is the idea that children’s views, wishes and preferences must be taken into account when making decisions that affect them, but there has been “little evidence of that from our national politicians over the last three years in their quest to achieve Brexit”, and serious domestic social policy issues remain, she said.

Rachel Dickinson continued, one of the most significant principles underpinning the 1989 Act is the welfare of children is paramount, but many of the modern-day challenges faced by children, their families and the services they rely on were unforeseen by those who drafted the Act, 30 years ago. Organised criminal and sexual exploitation, digital dangers and a rise in unaccompanied asylum seeking children, “form part of the new landscape” facing children and families today in addition to a “lack of affordable housing, insecure work” and increasing poverty, she said.

Local authorities have never been “adequately resourced to identify, safeguard, protect and provide other services for children in need and their families” she said before inviting the Minister and the Department for Education, together with ADCS members “to reclaim and resource the core principles of prevention in the 89 Act” and stated that this needs to include “re-visiting the expectations of social work as envisioned by the Act particularly in relation to Section 17”. If we don’t “the most vulnerable in society will continue to bear the brunt of the impact of cuts to local government funding and there will be even fewer social workers available to help”, she said.

On education reforms

“The government’s education reforms have completely lost sight of inclusion. Education is a right for all, not a privilege for some. It’s also an important protective factor in childhood and beyond…The new school inspection framework should shine a bright light on the use of formal and informal exclusions and will hopefully incentivise or better still reward inclusivity and turn the tide on rising exclusions…but I wonder if it might be time to review head teachers’ powers to exclude pupils.”

On special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) pressures

“I know Minister that you understand the sheer scale of the SEND challenges and that an additional £250 million is nowhere near enough, but it’s not just about funding. It’s also about addressing the mis-aligned incentives across partners, it’s about doing something to balance parental preference and the dire state of resources in Tribunal decision-making. Local authorities have all of the responsibilities for maintaining high needs expenditure within budget but no levers with which to affect this. I urge you Minister, in the strongest of terms, to consider a re-booting of local authorities powers to enable us the best strategic commissioner for SEND that we possibly can be.”

On early help and prevention

“Short term cashable savings from early help are not realistic. It’s extremely difficult to make meaningful interventions in the lives of children and their families when mum and dad are worrying about where the next square meal is coming from and whether the rent is going to get paid this month.”

On mental health services

“There’s very little point in vastly improving the early identification of low-level mental health needs when there are no services available to meet those needs. The NHS Long Term Plan simply must reflect the key importance not only of commissioning adequate mental health services for children, but also for speeding up access to diagnostic, therapy and treatment pathways in children’s wider health services.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

• The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) Ltd is the professional leadership association for Directors of Children’s Services and their senior management teams in England

• The full speech can be found on www.adcs.org.uk

• The ADCS discussion paper on serious youth violence and knife crime mentioned in the speech can be found on www.adcs.org.uk

• Under Section 17 Children Act 1989, a child will be considered in need if: they are unlikely to achieve or maintain or to have the opportunity to achieve or maintain a reasonable standard of health or development without provision of services from the local authority; their health or development is likely to be significantly impaired, or further impaired, without the provision of services from the local authority; or they have a disability.

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Yorkshire & Humber Regional Update June 2019

Work Plan

The 2019 work plan for sector-led improvement is now in place. It has a particular emphasis on:

• Customised support for individual LAs with greatest need

• An enhanced role for chief executives and lead members through the Children’s Improvement Board

• A slimmed down self-assessment process

• Introduction of quarterly reporting using a web-based platform.

Quarterly Reporting

The new quarterly reporting arrangements are now in place. The first reports have been produced, the format/value of which will be reviewed in June. Our intention is to extend the reports to include workforce related indicators.

Regional Priorities

There is a strong emphasis on the theme of ‘quality and sufficiency of placements’. A report was commissioned which digs deeper into the detail of volume/spend by locality and region and includes recommendations for action, which are now being considered by ADCS.

An external partner has been commissioned to facilitate some ‘blue sky’ thinking with DCSs about identifying and addressing priorities beyond those identified through self-assessment.

Peer Challenge

37 LA/LSCB children’s services peer challenges have been completed (as of 30 April 2019).

Whilst the ‘core’ three-day peer challenge business process remains at the centre of peer challenge activity, various new peer challenge business processes, which were developed and piloted in 2018 remain on offer for 2019. We have also introduced new front door health checks which will be applied proportionately (six to be undertaken in 2019 – the first of these in autumn 2019).

Leadership Development

Our ‘Senior and Aspirant Leaders Programmes’ have supported the development of over 500 managers over a six-year period. Demand continues to be high, with 60 participants on the 2019 ‘Aspirant Leaders Programme’ and 30 on the ‘Senior Leaders Programme’.

Lead Member Network

There is an active lead member network which meets bi-monthly. The network has recently secured some funding from LGA to further support lead member development and is currently co-producing activity with the SLI coordinator and LGA children’s services regional lead.

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West Midlands Regional Update June 2019

Public Mutual

We received a grant to help us with ensuring that West Midlands Children’s Services (WMCS) has the right infrastructure to manage the growing business. Mutual Ventures are undertaking an options appraisal to be presented to the DCS network in July with the preferred option turned into a business case for September and potential implementation from 1st April 2020.

Managing Risk and Demand

We are working closely with the MHCLG to make the case for continuing support for early help and targeted support as part of the Spending Review activity.

We are also looking at how we might work with CPAG following the successful Cliff Edges / New Horizons conference that brought together S51 Officers, Chief Executives, DCS, ADASS and DPH. A second conference is planned for September to also include Directors of Place continuing the focus on whole family approach and the economy. This set against the need to change the current poor social mobility that exists across the region.

FutureSocial

We recently attended the Social Work Show in Manchester and engaged those attending with our ‘fortune-tellers’ activity.

The NAAS pilot plans are well advanced with each local authority planning their programmes of support for those social work professionals who want to take up the opportunity to get accredited as part of their continuing professional development. This opportunity is only offered to permanent staff in line with the national ADCS agreement.

Migration Fund

With almost all funds now distributed we are now focused on the training and a thorough evaluation to measure the performance and impact of the interventions. The online information, advice and guidance for all package is being finalised and should be available in July on the WMCS website.

West Midlands Safe Centre Feasibility Study

The announcement to the design phase for the successful bids is imminent.

WMCS and the LGA

We have a strong relationship with LGA in the West Midlands including being involved in training days for lead members of children services. The recent local government elections included 27 out of the 33 local authority areas in the region.

Formation of a Regional Commissioning Hub

All fourteen LAs and the two Children’s Trusts have invested in the hub whose aim is to have a strategic market engagement, a regional needs analysis leading to better sufficiency and value for money. Our aim: “West Midlands places for West Midlands children”.

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South West Regional Update June 2019

The South West Regional Update

South West Regional Summer Summit - Building Regional Improvement Capacity and Improving Practice Leadership.

This year’s summer summit is scheduled for Wednesday 26 June 2019 and will include good practice workshops from every South West local authority. Themes of the workshops will include:

• Improved responses to adolescent risks

• Strengthening families and reducing the children in care population

• Using NAAS as a vehicle for practice improvement

• Using business intelligence to develop and deliver the early help offer

• Young people presenting on their work as ambassadors

• Delivering on what’s important to our children and young people.

Other workshops will touch on SEND, quality assurance, integrated place-based services and reducing NEETs.

Each local authority will have four places available to them, the target audience are DCS/ADCS, heads of service, service managers, principal social workers, and those reporting directly to assistant directors across children’s services. The summit will also launch the new Regional Leadership Development Programme (further details below) for which there will be an input from The Staff College as well as an opportunity to shape the programme.

Regional Leadership Development Programme

The Staff College is scoping a Leadership Development Programme for aspirant assistant directors in the South West region. The aim of the programme is to improve the strategic leadership skills of up to fifty managers who report directly to assistant directors in each of the region’s fifteen local authorities. The programme, which is due to start in autumn 2019, will include some ‘coaching and mentoring’ elements in addition to the learning events.

Self-Assessment Peer Challenge 2019

The date for the self-assessment peer challenge will be Friday 6 December 2019. The self-assessment framework has been reviewed with an additional self-assessment on ‘risk factors’ included.

Strategic Children’s Sector-Led Improvement Group – RIIA Board

The strategic group, which has representation from the region’s chief executives, lead members, directors of children’s services and the LGA, has now become the Regional Improvement and Innovation Alliance Board. The methodology for the regional ‘early warning system’ is being consulted on and established.

Thematic Peer Challenge Programme for 2018/19.

The theme this year is ‘improving outcomes for children in need of help and protection’. A programme of six challenges will take place before the end of July 2019. The programme is being organised through the Principal Social Worker Network and regional co-ordinator.

Workforce Development – Frontline Regional Partnership

A new Frontline programme has been established in the South West starting in the summer of 2019. Eight South West local authorities are participating in the programme and providing 12 units of four students: Gloucestershire (3), Swindon (2), Bristol (2), South Gloucestershire (1), Wiltshire (1), BaNES (1), Somerset (1), N Somerset (1).

Commissioning Group Project

The regional commissioning group has developed a project, led by Bath and North East Somerset, to gather intelligence through a ‘market position statement’ on the sufficiency of in-house fostering placements in all of the South West local authorities. The project has gained some external funding from the LGA. It is planned that the ‘market position’ will be presented to representatives from all local authorities at a regional meeting on 17 July 2019 in Taunton.

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South East Regional Update June 2019

The South East Regional Update

Sector-Led Improvement

• The Regional Improvement Plan for 2019-20 with detailed annexes was launched at a regional summit on 22 March 2019

• The plan includes a £130,000 contribution from DfE alongside £162,500 subscription income, and an agreement for quarterly data sharing on the 18 nationally agreed data items

• The plan was drawn up in part on the experience of four ‘Triad Challenge’ days held in February (two more due later in the year), and in part on surveys and feedback from across the region

• The plan has ten priorities:

Actions that will address practice issues:

1. Collaborate to improve provision for complex LAC

2. Collaborate on increasing in-house foster placements

3. Collaborate on ways to promote educational inclusion with SE19 SEND group

4. Share and develop new models of social care practice that fit the times

5. Develop regional quality assurance capacity

Actions that will develop leadership capacity and staff resources:

6. Build leadership capacity across the region

7. Workforce matters; recruitment and retention; agency

Actions that will underpin the cycle of self-assessment and peer challenge:

8. Data benchmarking

9. Annual self-assessment and triad peer challenge

Action to address the funding gap:

10. Increase political lobbying to address the funding gap

• The plan follows a non-stigmatising approach to improvement: the assumption is that there is excellent practice in all authorities; and that all authorities have improvement needs.

• Recently we have:

o Commissioned ADCS to evaluate our Triad Peer Challenge events

o Commissioned The Staff College to conduct a needs analysis for leadership development

o Submitted written representations to the DfE’s consultation on its Leadership Development Programme

o Submitted a bid to the DfE’s complex LAC commissioning call for projects

o Held a joint AD education/SEND lead meeting

o Completed our preparation for sharing quarterly data with DfE

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North West Regional Update June 2019

The North West Regional Update

The response to our agreed annual priorities for collaborative activity is beginning to take shape as we progress our plans. Building on strong partnerships, including with Ofsted and the Regional Schools Commissioner, will be a common characteristic of our approach to driving regional collaboration and improvement activity in 2019/20. Our priorities are organised into three areas, reflecting the sub-groups of NWADCS and Ofsted remits as detailed below:

Education and School Improvement

• Improve progress and attainment at Key Stage 4

• Secure greater inclusion

• Diminish differences for disadvantaged learners.

Safeguarding and Vulnerable Children

• Safely reduce LAC and improve achievement of permanence

• Understand and embed impactful children in need intervention

• Enhance the response to risk and needs of vulnerable adolescents, including care leavers.

Special Education Needs/Disabilities

• Address the variability in quality of EHC Plans

• Increase the inclusivity of local schools, including SEN Support

• Improve transition and preparation for adulthood.

Regional collaboration in 2019/20 will be characterised by a combination of analysis, collaborative projects and practice sharing. Practice sharing will increasingly be delivered in a targeted focused way, through an adapted approach to our Better for Children seminar programme. These will include input and, for the first time, involvement as participants from Ofsted regional team of inspectors. As we move through the first quarter of 2019/20, the following workstreams are forming part of our initial actions:

Education and School Improvement

• Inclusion analysis – a high-level analysis of inclusion data has been completed, highlighting the range in use of not only fixed period and permanent exclusions, but also the use of Special Schools and Alternative Provision. This is being utilised to identify emerging practice, such as the Committed to Inclusion Mark, and shape more in-depth analysis of trends, including exclusions for children with SEND

• Learning from Strategic School Improvement Fund (SSIF) projects – with projects from early rounds of SSIF funding beginning to demonstrate impact and crystallise transferrable learning, we are working with relevant partnerships to shape a rolling programme of practice sharing. This will include a strong focus on disadvantaged learners, English and maths

• Sub-regional projects – utilising legacy funding, our School Improvement Partnership Board has approved the first of a series of sub-regional projects with matching funding awarded to the Greater Manchester Learning Partnership. Based on a model of working with ‘triads’ of schools – the project will provide for school leaders, including those not currently designated as System Leaders to work in new collaborations to innovate.

Safeguarding and Vulnerable Children

• High Risk Placements – adopting consistent regional solutions to the growing challenge of ‘high risk’ placements for young people is a key strand of our work to improve experiences of Looked After Children. Our initial work will draw on novel data collection to better understand common factors prevalent in high risk placements and identify commissioning practice which mitigates risks and secures improved outcomes for young people

• Placement with parents distance travelled exercise – building on our region-wide audit of cases where children were subject of care orders and placed with their parents in 2017, a distance travelled tool is being developed to assess the impact of our strategy for partnership action. Cases previously audited and similar, more recent, cases will be considered using the tool to act as a ‘control’ group

• Common appreciation of permanence – working with Ofsted HMI as part of our evolving partnership, we are hosting a regional forum to establish a ‘common appreciation’ of permanence for the North West. Utilising a bespoke research review under our regional partnership with Research in Practice, the forum will bring together strategic managers and practitioners to share practice and propose characteristics of good permanence planning to shape and improve practice.

Special Educational Needs/Disabilities

• SEND Commissioning – led by Cheshire East, working in partnership with our regional commissioning service – Placements North West – we are progressing planning for a SEND Regional Purchasing System. Working with providers and parents/carers we intend to co-produce a collaborative purchasing system to meet the needs of children/young with creative and innovative service provision

• DCO/DMO Networking – working with our partners in the health economy is key to our plans to address pressing challenges with the quality and impact of services for children with SEND. A new network for designated clinical/medical officers is providing a systematic mechanism for the key officers in local areas to coordinate support and challenge activity. The network seeks to identify barriers and agree common solutions to improving effectiveness of provision for children and young people with SEND

• SEND Peer Challenge – building on learning from other areas, we are currently working across LA, Health and Parent/Carer partnerships to develop a model of SEND ‘Peer Challenges’. We will be piloting a new approach to providing external, peer assurance in June – taking a ‘design by doing’ approach in one local area. Based on some core operating principles, the challenges will include a mandate for peers to challenge local areas on aspects requiring improvement and scrutinise areas of good practice.

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East Midlands Regional Update June 2019

The East Midlands Regional Update

Regional Priorities

Our RIIA peer challenge conversations have assisted with the identification of strategic priorities for the region for the coming year:

• Effective commissioning

• Tackling social care recruitment and retention

• Improving practice methodology

• Protecting young people at risk of exploitation

• Improving QA

• Learning from reflective supervision

• Developing safeguarding partnerships

• Reducing parental conflict

• Increasing participation of Children Looked After

• Improving education outcomes for Children Looked After

• Reducing SEND pressures and improving outcomes for SEND

• Increasing school inclusion

• Contributing to teacher recruitment and retention.

The region has a clear understanding of its challenges, priorities and actions, all of which have been captured in a comprehensive RIIA improvement plan that will enable a system approach to drive further regional improvement in children’s services.

Regional Adoption Agency

We work collaboratively in the region to improve opportunities for children to be matched with their forever families. Planning for the East Midlands Regional Adoption Agency (EMRAA) is progressing in the following three areas:

• A Regional Adoption Agency (D2N2 - incorporating Derby City Council, Derbyshire County Council, Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council)

• A regional partnership (L3R- incorporating Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council, Lincolnshire County Council and Rutland County Council)

• Two Voluntary Adoption Agencies (CORAM and Faith in Families).

The D2N2 RAA went live on 1 April 2019 with a public launch which started on 28 May 2019. Our activities include:

• Media releases and case studies of adoption success stories for local outlets including TV, radio, press

• Organic social media from Adoption East Midlands social media accounts, shared on partner organisation accounts

• Recruitment events; promotion on partner organisations’ channels (staff newsletters, public emails, digital screen ads).

Parental Conflict

East Midlands’ local authorities have taken a creative approach to utilising the available grant from DWP in regard to parental conflict. Funding has been pooled to promote a system approach that both supports constructive challenge within local and regional partnerships and drives interventions that will increase effective parenting and improve outcomes for children and families whilst reducing the negative impact of conflict between parents on their children. We are in the process of appointing a project manager who will lead on this work, with a focus on maximising the benefits and planning for the long-term sustainability of the approaches that demonstrate positive impact.

Regional Data Platform

We have continued to build on the development of regional infrastructure for data sharing and analysis. The social care indicators have now been complemented with key education and inclusion, early years, SEND and a CSE data set. The regional data platform supports a high challenge, high support improvement framework where data is purposefully utilised in network groups and partnership approaches to safeguard children and young people better and continuously improve outcomes for children and their families in East Midlands.

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North East Regional Update June 2019

Regional Priorities

DCSs have agreed five regional priorities with two cross-cutting themes which will be the focus of activity over the next 12 months. The priorities are:

• Workforce sufficiency

• Quality of practice

• Inclusive education

• SEND

• Commissioning.

The cross-cutting themes are system leadership and outcomes for children and young people. Improvement plans are being developed for each priority and will be taken forward by lead directors and regional networks.

Applied Research Collaboration (ARC)

Last year NE ADCS was approached by Newcastle University to support a bid for the North East and North Cumbria to become an Applied Research Collaboration (ARC), a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded partnership between universities and organisations in the health and care system, which focuses on improving health and care outcomes via high quality research and evaluation. Work is underway to plan for a future ARC and we hope to hear the outcome of the bid shortly. If successful, funding of nine million pounds will be awarded for five years, with match funding from HEI and care system partners and the work of the ARC beginning in October 2019.

Regional ‘Narrative’ and ‘Deep Dive’ Activity

North East DCSs are often asked why rates of statutory involvement in children’s services in our region are high in comparison with other regions. We are working on a regional narrative to set out what we currently know in relation to this and wider outcomes for children in our region, and the areas where we think further research and analysis may be useful.

We are also carrying out some detailed work to explore the data around the recent increase in LAC rates in the region.

Ministerial Meetings

DCSs in the region will be participating in a short video conference call in June with Nadhim Zahawi to update the Minister on the work of our RIIA, Tyneside Alliance PiP and other areas of good practice from within the region.

Learning from Inspection

We are planning to hold a regional learning event before the summer to share learning from recent inspection activity and focused visits in the region with a particular focus on SEND and ILACS.

DCS Changes

There will be some changes in the region with Margaret Whellans, DCS in Durham and Barbara Shaw, DCS in Redcar and Cleveland having announced their intention to retire later this year. John Pearce, the current DCS/DASS in South Tyneside, will become the new DCS in Durham.

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Greater London Regional Update June 2019

London’s response to the Regional Improvement Alliance approach

Director leads have begun convening thematic workshop to delve deeper into the four priority areas - finance and resources; vulnerable adolescents; workforce; and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. These workshops will lead to the development of a more detailed work programme. At the meeting of ALDCS on 13 May, directors heard about the progress made in respect of SEND following the thematic workshop held the previous week.

Boroughs continue to submit their signed Memorandums of Understanding, and directors have now agreed to make a financial contribution to the work of the London RIA.

Funding Pressures in Children’s Social Care and High Needs

London DCSs are working with London Councils, Chief Executives and Finance Directors to understand better the financial pressures facing children’s social care budgets and the High Need Block. ISOS has been commissioned to undertake qualitative field work in 14 boroughs, looking at cost drivers, effective practice in managing pressures and potential for collaborative solutions. ALDCS, with the research partners, participated in a roundtable in May to review the emerging findings and help shape conclusions. The final report is due to be published in early summer.

Admissions

London primary schools received 96,598 applications in total this year, a 0.08% decrease compared to last year, according to figures published on National Primary Offer Day 2019 by the Pan London Admissions Board, the body with overall responsibility for co-ordinating school admissions in the capital. 97 per cent of children due to start primary school in London this September have been offered a place at a preferred school. There is growing concern about decreasing rolls at primary schools in some parts of London although this year’s numbers show a relatively small overall decrease. ALDCS continues to support boroughs with places planning, to ensure that all boroughs can meet rising need, particularly in secondary and special schools, as well as cope with reductions in demand at primary in some boroughs.

New Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements

ALDCS is monitoring the implementation of the new safeguarding arrangements and, in January, Directors discussed the changes they are proposing locally. ALDCS has committed to maintaining the London Child Protection Procedures and was represented at a meeting organised by the London Safeguarding Children Board of senior leaders from the three safeguarding partners. At this meeting there was a discussion of the implications of the changes and whether there are other issues, beyond the maintenance of the London Procedures, which would benefit from a consistent approach.

Children in Custody

A multi-agency working group, chaired by a DCS, is working with the MPS to reduce the number of children held in police custody. The group shares data on police requests for accommodation with local authorities on a regular basis. This sharing of data has enabled feedback on cases between custody suites and emergency duty teams and raised awareness and understanding of the issues, thereby improving the police and local authority response to children held in custody. A protocol for London, which supplements the Home Office Concordat on children held in police custody, has been finalised and circulated to Directors and will go live on 10 June. ALDCS has also asked local authority commissioners across London to develop approaches to the co-commissioning of non-secure alternative accommodation for children denied bail – there is insufficient demand for places for any one borough to address this issue.

Pan-London secure settings project

ALDCS continues to work with NHS England (London Region) to explore a new collaborative solution to the provision of Secure Children’s Home capacity in the region. Discussions have progressed to the point of completing an options appraisal and recommendations are now subject to wider engagement with stakeholders, including political leaders.

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Eastern Region Update June 2019

Regional Self-Assessment & DCS Peer Challenge

The annual process for regional self-assessment and peer challenge is nearing culmination. Self-assessments have been prepared by each local authority. These are being moderated, and comments fed back, by volunteers from a different authority within the region prior to a DCS event which will be held at the end of June.

Regional Priorities

Work continues on improvement activity linked to the regional priorities. Additional grant funding has been secured from DfE to support work on:

• Serious youth violence – the planned regional conference has been postponed until September so that a fuller programme can be pulled together

• Leadership training and management succession planning.

Peer Review & Inspection

Peer reviews provide challenge and support in targeted, thematic areas of service. Following the completion of two new frameworks, a two-year programme of peer reviews is being constructed.

Data Benchmarking

• A quarterly tartan rug report for quarter four 2018/19 has been completed

• An annual datapack has been produced; this regional performance report brings together a range of intelligence relating to the region’s performance across children’s services. It includes data for each of the 11 LAs in the region, how they compare with their statistical neighbours (where applicable) and against regional and national averages.

Network Highlights

• A regional ‘Leaving Care’ conference is being hosted in July

• A SEND annual conference is being held in June

• A new regional group for leads of the ‘Early Help Service’ is being constituted

• A regional leaders’ event for DCSs, lead members and chief executives is being planned for September

• A regional approach to continuing healthcare and engagement with CCGs is being looked at in addition to a support network for Liquid Logic, which a lot of authorities in the eastern region are using

• A social work recruitment MoU has led to a three-million-pound saving in 2018 over 2017.

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Review of children in need

Jenny Coles, ADCS Vice President, said:

“We welcome the focus of this report on closing the gap in outcomes for disadvantaged children and young people and their peers and the key role education plays in achieving this. The greatest gift we can give to our children is a good education that enables them to thrive. However, it’s important to recognise the wider context in which children live and the barriers they might face to success. Increasing numbers of children are coming to our attention due to domestic abuse, poor parental mental health and substance misuse, and soon child poverty in this country is expected to exceed five million. If children’s social and emotional needs aren’t met, if their families are struggling to afford basic things, such as food and rent, then how can we expect them to be ready to learn?

“Supporting children in need is a multiagency endeavour; it’s vital that all partners including local authorities, schools, health services and others work together to meet the unique needs of children in a joined up, holistic way. This Review has highlighted good practice by local areas in this space. It would be helpful if this could be mirrored at a national level.

“Many children face challenges in their lives, however if their educational outcomes are good and they are able to make progress at school then that provides a valuable cushion against poorer social outcomes in the long run. In its interim report, the government stated is preparedness to change policy where the evidence shows that is what is needed; the evidence is clear there is not enough money in the system to meet the level of need that exists in our communities. Local authorities are having to cut early help and other services our communities rely on, such as children’s centres, and more directly the removal of the Education Services Grant, is compromising our ability to meet the needs of children and families earlier, before they escalate. Cuts in other public services including schools and the police are impacting on children’s outcomes too. This report contributes to the growing evidence base on how disadvantage affects the future of young people. The most worthwhile action government can take to improve outcomes and life chances for all children, including those in need, is to provide long term, sustainable funding for the education and services they and their families rely on, with a strong focus on prevention.”

ENDS

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OCC report on advocacy for children

Jenny Coles, ADCS Vice President, said:

“Children in care should be made aware of their rights, feel they are active participants in the decisions made about them and their lives, and there should be meaningful consideration of their views and wishes before, during and after decisions are made about their lives, such as where they will live. A wide range of professionals advocate for children in care and care leavers, from social workers and virtual school heads to independent reviewing officers and personal advisors, and children in care councils across the country give young people the chance to have a say about the things that matter to them and to shape and influence services for the better. Friends and family can act as advocates too. Children in care also have the right to make representations and complaints to the local authority regarding their care arrangements via independent advocacy.

“Thirty years on since the Children Act 1989 received Royal Assent it is helpful to remind ourselves of the key principles underpinning this legislation not only in relation to a child’s right to advocacy, but also of our preventative duties which have never been sufficiently funded to enable us to work with children and their families earlier, addressing needs as and when they arise. This is compromising our abilities to improve their lives and life chances.”

ENDS

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AC19 Programme

ADCS Annual Conference 2019 - Programme Outline

Draft: Last edited: 17 June 2019

DCS Only Sessions: Wednesday 3 - Thursday 4 July

The first 24 hours of this event are for Directors of Children’s Services (DCSs) only, with DCS only sessions taking place between approx 12:45pm and 6pm on Wednesday 3 July (registration and lunch open from 11:45am); and 8:45am and 10:30am on Thursday 4 July (registration open from 8:00am).

Please contact rebecca.denny@adcs.org.uk for more information on the DCS only programme.

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Thursday 4 July

Time	Session
11:00am	Safeguarding - open to all ADCS members
12:15pm	Lunch and networking
1:45pm	President’s Address: Rachel Dickinson - event opens to press and other stakeholders as well as ADCS members
2:15pm	Ministerial Address: Children’s Minister, Nadhim Zahawi MP
3:15pm	Andi Brierley - Child in Care / Care Leaver Specialist
4:30pm	Workshop Sessions x 4:
	A: Inclusive education
	B: Learning from SEND inspections
	C: Working together to prevent suicide
	D: Funding for children’s services (workshop full)
6:00pm	Close
7:30pm	Drinks Reception
8:00pm	Networking Dinner

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Friday 5 July

Time	Session
9:00am	Workshop Sessions x 3:
	E: Investing in the early help workforce
	F: Early years and life chances
	G: Promoting emotional health and wellbeing
10:45am	Charlie Taylor, Chair of the Youth Justice Board
11:45am	Ofsted Panel session
12:45pm	Barnsley Youth Council
1:15pm	President’s Closing Remarks
1:30pm	Close of Conference.

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Poverty in the UK

Responding to the publication of a new report on poverty in the UK by Prof. Philip Alston on behalf of the United Nations, Rachel Dickinson, ADCS President, said:

“We welcome Professor Alston’s impactful report which shines a light on disgraceful levels of child poverty and describes the bleak reality for many. An estimated four million children live in poverty in this country today, the majority are from working families. This is soon set to exceed five million. Behind these appalling statistics are vulnerable children and young people who are going to school hungry and unable to learn. Families are being forced to make tough decisions every day between eating or keeping warm and are unable to play a full part in our society.

“Local authorities are ambitious about improving children and families’ lives and outcomes, but our ability to do this is being impeded by a 50% reduction in our budgets and rising levels of need in communities. We are increasingly using money from reserves or diverting funding away from resources and assets our communities rely on, such as children’s centres, youth services and libraries, which provide a safety net for children and families before their problems reach crisis point. It’s a vicious cycle.

“Poverty damages childhoods; it damages life chances; and it damages the future economic prosperity of our country. We cannot go on as we are, the stakes are too high. A national focus on tackling both the symptoms and root causes of poverty is long overdue, we urge government to lead this endeavour from the front as a matter of urgency. We need a cross party, cross departmental strategy that extends beyond a single parliamentary term. If we do nothing we will look back in shame.”

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Use of unregulated settings

Commenting on the use of unregulated care settings, Charlotte Ramsden, Chair of the ADCS Health, Care and Additional Needs Policy Committee, said:

“Unlike children’s homes, which are registered with Ofsted and inspected regularly, minimum standards for unregulated 16 plus provision are not set out in law. If used well they can provide appropriate and flexible options but we recognise and share the concern that this is not always the case. It requires local authorities to make sure a young person’s needs are matched to the service and authorities must take their own steps to ensure that needs are met and that the accommodation is suitable. This should be done via a proper plan as well as quality assurance and monitoring. This will include health and safety considerations, auditing staff DBS checks and assessing the suitability of landlords, plus conducting unannounced visits and providing support plans for young people. Local authorities may also choose to work together to hold providers to account and address poor practices by putting in place improvement plans or ceasing to commission services where previously identified actions have not been resolved.

“We recognise the role unregulated provision can play within the care placement market and the flexibility it offers when linked to a clear plan based on the needs of a young person and a clear support plan. There is a distinction to be made between using it as part of a considered move compared with using it to deal with a crisis when no other accommodation is available. Total regulation would limit this flexibility so we are keen to see all providers take their responsibilities seriously and welcome increased expectations around standards and transparency as to how those will be delivered.”

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New support for victims of domestic abuse

Rachel Dickinson, ADCS President, said:

“Domestic abuse can happen to anyone, anywhere and it can be fatal. Upwards of two million men and women experienced domestic abuse last year and it remains the most common reason why children and families come to the attention of children’s social care. We welcome proposals to improve vital support for victims and their families, however, any new legal duty must be fully funded if it is to have the desired impact. Moreover, today’s announcement remains reactive rather than preventative, as do many of the proposals outlined in the government’s draft Domestic Abuse Bill. If we are to turn the tide of this endemic problem, we must maintain a strong focus on early help and prevention, working with children and families at risk of domestic abuse as well as perpetrators. We are committed to working with government and others to this end. Recent research puts the annual social and economic costs of domestic abuse at a staggering £66 billion – preventing domestic abuse in the first place will not only save money but, crucially, it will save lives.”

ENDS

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Halting knife crime is a multi-agency endeavour

Barely a day goes by without hearing about another senseless act of violence or loss of young life due to knife crime. Knife crime isn’t limited to a particular place, ethnicity or gender. It can result in life-changing injuries – or be fatal. These incidents have a devastating impact on victims, their families and the communities where they live, and beyond.

I am pleased the Prime Minister has acknowledged that we cannot “arrest” our way out of this situation. Our members are clear, this must be treated as a safeguarding concern – many of the young people caught up in criminal activities are being exploited themselves. Government has made some funding available for the police and projects aimed at reducing youth violence, but much greater investment in our children and young people is needed if we are to make a difference. A consultation which proposes a duty on specific organisations is currently underway, but is this the right solution? It is likely to exacerbate the pressures already facing frontline professionals, including social workers, and it certainly won’t address the reasons why a young person might carry or use a knife in the first place.

Life is getting harder for growing numbers of young people and their families due to the unintended impact of austerity and a series of welfare reforms. Local authorities have worked hard to manage reducing budgets against the tide of increasing need but this has been at the expense of non-statutory parts of the system and other community services. Hundreds of youth centres have closed reducing the availability of positive activities. Add to this staggering levels of child poverty and stubbornly high numbers of young people not in education, employment or training leaving young people with nowhere to go, making them more susceptible to exploitation.

Tackling knife crime is a multi-agency endeavour; local authorities, the police, schools and health services as well as the voluntary sector and the public, have a vital role to play in keeping young people safe. Treating serious youth violence as a public health issue, by which I mean tackling its causes as well as its consequences, makes absolute sense. Learning lessons from others about how they’ve tackled similar issues will be important but we must also look closer to home, at the changes needed in our own country to ensure it works for all children.

The task may not be straightforward, but every young life is precious and must be protected.

Rachel Dickinson is Executive Director People at Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council and ADCS President 2019/20.

This article first appeared in the MJ on 16 April 2019 | https://www.themj.co.uk/Halting-knife-crime-is-a-multi-agency-endeavour/213424

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ADCS DCS Update - 2019

This report can now be found at: https://adcs.org.uk/leadership/article/adcs-dcs-update-2019

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ADCS President’s Speech 2019

ADCS President 2019/20, Rachel Dickinson, delivered her inaugural speech on Thursday 11 April 2019.

View speech

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EU Settlement Scheme Home Office Guidance

EU Settlement Scheme - Home Office Guidance for Local Authorities & Health and Social Care Trusts

The EUSS LAC information pack is currently being revised by the Home Office.

Colleagues should refer to the mainstream guide available at https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families

The Settlement Resolution Centre also has a designated telephone number for those who are helping others to apply to the scheme;

Telephone: 0300 790 0566

Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays), 8am to 8pm

Saturday and Sunday, 9:30am to 4:30

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Comment: Safeguarding of children missing from care and out of...

Stuart Gallimore, ADCS President, said:

“Finding the right placement for the children in our care and keeping them safe from harm is a priority for our members, however, it is important to note that the issue of out of area placements is not as straight forward as often suggested. Sir Martin Narey recognises this in his review of residential care. Whilst children remaining close to their communities, friends and wider family is the preferred option, this is not always in their best interest and a child may be placed further afield where, for example, their needs can’t be met locally or for safety reasons. Local authorities consider many factors as part of this process, including the needs of the child, the support they require, their views and preferences as well as availability, geography and cost. The number of children in care has increased by 24% over the past decade yet there is a national shortage of foster carers and a growing disconnect between the location of residential children’s homes and need which continues to be a challenge for us. Homes are increasingly opening in regions where housing is cheaper which is contributing to this complex picture.

“It takes the concerted effort of all safeguarding partners, including local authorities, the police, health services and schools as well as the wider community, to identify children who are at risk of harm and disrupt and prosecute those who seek to exploit them. It is important to recognise that running away is often a symptom of a wider problem, we rely on all agencies and the public to look out for all children and respond to their behaviour appropriately, recognising their vulnerability. Our ultimate goal must be to work together to address the root causes of why children go missing in the first place and to keep them safe from harm.

“ADCS will be responding formally to this call for evidence in due course.”

ENDS

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Comment: PAC report on children’s social care

Responding to the Public Accounts Committee report on children’s social care Stuart Gallimore, ADCS President, said:

“Local authorities are committed to improving children’s lives and outcomes but there is simply not enough money in the system to meet the increasing level of need in our communities. No one can underestimate how hard we have worked to make savings but this has been at the expense of the very services that are designed to prevent children and families’ needs from escalating and reduce future demand. Despite the significant financial and demand pressures we face Ofsted’s latest annual report acknowledges an improving picture in the quality and overall effectiveness of children’s services across the country.

“Some level of variation in levels of demand, activity and spend between local authorities is to be expected and this is driven by factors largely out of our control but central government can, and must, make a difference by tackling the wider social determinants that fuel demand, such as deprivation and the prevalence of domestic abuse, parental substance misuse and poor mental health. A child poverty reduction strategy would be a good place to start. The issue of variability should not be used to suggest there is scope for more efficiencies because there is not. Even high performing, well-run, low spending councils, like my own, simply have nowhere left to go. Collectively, children’s services overspent by more than £800 million in the last financial year and face a funding gap of £3 billion by 2025, just to stand still. It is crucial that a compelling case is made for our services to be properly resourced ahead of the Spending Review and we would be happy to work with the DfE on this on behalf of children. Children’s services urgently need to be put on a sustainable financial footing, or I worry about the nature and type of services we will be able to provide to vulnerable children and their families.”

ENDS

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Comment: National evaluation of the Troubled Families Programme

Stuart Gallimore, ADCS President, said:

“Troubled Families funding pays for a range of things like family coaching, domestic abuse interventions and positive activities for children and young people. Some of the government’s claims to date about the success of the programme have been challenged but I am under no doubt that it is getting real results in lots of local areas. This is a complex area of work, many of the families we work with are facing multiple issues, such as poor mental health, substance misuse and domestic abuse, but the evidence suggests the programme is making a positive difference to the lives of many children and families. Whole family and multi-agency working is also being strengthened. The pressures we face in children’s services are such that much-needed funding for this programme is currently propping up our efforts to act early and offer support before families reach crisis point. The looming cliff edge of this funding ending in 2020 is very real, and very worrying. We need urgent assurances from government about the future of the programme.”

ENDS

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