New freedoms to help local areas support vulnerable children
23 Jun 2014 10:45 AM
Local authorities will
be given new freedoms to encourage innovation and achieve better outcomes for
vulnerable children.
Under new regulations, local
authorities will be able to delegate social care functions to mutuals,
community interest companies and other not-for-profit organisations to deliver
children’s social care. The details are outlined in the
government’s response to
the consultation on powers to delegate social care functions published
last week.
Children’s Minister Edward
Timpson said:
We want to offer local
authorities the freedom to deliver services differently in order to achieve
better outcomes for vulnerable children - to make the adequate good and the
good outstanding.
If we are going to achieve the
very best for our most vulnerable children, we must harness the expertise,
passion and drive of all those who want to serve children’s
needs.
The consultation looked at how
local authorities can bring in external expertise to broaden their options for
delivery, in turn delivering better social work practice and ultimately better
outcomes for children. At the moment this kind of innovation is only possible
in failing local authorities.
The new regulations, to be
introduced in autumn 2014, are a response to local authorities who have been
pressing for the freedom to try new approaches to improve services for
vulnerable children. For example, they will allow social workers to establish
specialist social work practices, such as focusing on FGM (female
genital mutilation) or teenage sexual exploitation, which could operate across
local authority boundaries and offer consultancy services
nationally.
Only bodies working on a
not-for-profit basis will be able to take on the functions. They will help
increase the capacity in the system and the diversity and quality of services
available.
In addition, any surplus may be
invested back into areas such as the delivery of social care and early help for
vulnerable children, not to private shareholders.
The accountability of local
authorities and role of Ofsted will remain unchanged. Ofsted will continue to
inspect all children’s services and issue judgements on the local
authority’s performance in meeting its duties.
Chief Social Worker for Children
Isabelle Trowler said:
As a profession we have talked
for years about the need to be more in control of our professional practice.
These new freedoms to encourage innovation give us a great opportunity to do
just that in partnership with local government.
We now need to be fully engaged
in this reform agenda and respond positively to these freedoms by helping local
authorities redesign services in ways that respond to the voices of children
and families who use them.
This work is part of a wider
programme to foster new ways of working in children’s services. The
government’s Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme makes an
offer of professional advice, practical help, and financial support to local
authorities and others with exciting ideas for improvement.
Background
- See the
full consultation response.
- The Children’s Social Care
Innovation Programme seeks to support the development, testing and spreading of
more effective ways of supporting children who need help from children’s
social care services. The programme is looking to provide financial and
non-financial support to organisations that have promising ideas for how to do
things differently. We have £30 million this year and a substantially
increased amount next year, if there are ideas to merit it. The programme has 2
focus areas - rethinking children’s social work and rethinking support
for adolescents in or on the edge of care.
- Next steps:
- government will lay the draft
regulations in Parliament next week
- they will be considered in both
the Commons and the Lords
- we hope to have approval in the
early autumn so that local authorities can make use of the new freedoms from
October onwards
Enquiries