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Sector-led improvement initiative for local
authorities, backed by £20 million
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Launch of new What Works Centre for children’s social
care
A multi-million pound government initiative to improve the lives
of vulnerable children and families has been announced today by
, Minister for Children and
Families.
In a speech to the National Children and Adults Services (NCAS)
conference in Bournemouth, Minister Goodwill announced up to £20
million for a new programme to help all councils improve their
services – with a sharp focus on making sure those at risk of
failure can make vital improvements.
The programme will give councils the tools they need to build
stronger services for our most vulnerable children. This
includes:
- Tailored peer support for local authorities, bringing in more
councils to the successful Partners in Practice programme;
- The testing of ‘Regional Improvement Alliances’, made up of
neighbouring local authorities. Alliances will see councils
challenging each other on standards, agreeing local improvement
priorities, and sharing best practice, in order to deliver more
for children and families.
In his speech at the NCAS conference today, Minister Goodwill
said:
There is nothing more important than the safety and wellbeing
of children. Yet, too many young people, and their families,
are being let down by poor quality services – or worse, left at
risk of harm. That is why we must take decisive action where
performance is not good enough.
Our interventions programme is yielding real results: 36 local
authorities have been lifted out of intervention since 2010 and
we are seeing a positive impact from the independent children’s
social care trusts that we have set up in Doncaster and Slough.
My commitment is that we will build a self-improving system,
one that spots where challenges are emerging, and quickly puts
the right support in place.
In addition, the Department for Education has announced
that Nesta will set up its
new What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care, with a focus on
improving outcomes for children who are at risk of, or suffering
from, abuse or neglect.
The Centre will develop a powerful evidence base that supports
best practice on the frontline.
This is a key part of the government’s commitment to ensuring
experts and practitioners across the country learn from the
latest best practice.
Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive of Nesta, said:
This new What Works Centre is a great opportunity to support
improvement in children’s care – and ultimately to improve the
lives of many children who deserve better.
Nesta and our partners Social Care Institute for Excellence
(SCIE), the Alliance for Useful Evidence, FutureGov and
Traversum will be working very closely with frontline
professionals, listening, learning and adapting to feedback and
evidence throughout this set-up phase. We’ll also draw on the
experiences of other What Works Centres on how to gather
evidence, but even more importantly, how to make it useful and
used.
Working in partnership with the Association of Directors of
Children’s Services (ADCS) and the Local Government Association
(LGA), the Department will also test new Regional Improvement
Alliances. These will enable local authorities to assess their
own performance, and to challenge the performance of regional
peers. Alliances will become the backbone of the new improvement
system, with the aim of setting one up in every region by April
2018.
Five councils will now begin taking the National Assessment and
Accreditation System forward in its first phase (alpha), with a
further 12 -13 in the second phase (beta).
The Department for Education has today invited local authorities
with a good or better Ofsted judgement overall and across all
sub-judgments to express an interest in joining the Partners in
Practice programme, with an assessment and selection process to
follow.
