Leadership: Communicating with families

• Early Years | Management | Leadership

Effective communication with families is essential for every...

Trends in care commissioning

• Management | Commissioning | Social Care | Residential Children's Care | Foster Care

Andrew Rome, director of Revolution Consulting, which...

Appointing an ambassador

• Management | Leadership

Celebrity ambassadors can bring a wealth of benefits to...

Children's Workforce Guide to Qualifications and Training 2023/24

• Careers | Courses and training | Early Years | Education | Health | Children's Services | Management | Ofsted | Social Care | Youth Justice | Youth Work

With many parts of the sector facing recruitment challenges,...

Interview: Lord Jim Knight, chair of an independent review of Ofsted

• Children's Services | Management | Ofsted

Derren Hayes speaks to the former MP and chair of an...

Interview: Peter O’Hara, health and social care technology entrepreneur

• Children's Services | Service configuration | Management

Derren Hayes speaks to the health and social care technology...

Commissioning: Parent-infant relationship services

• Management | Commissioning | Attachment & Neglect | Preventing Care Proceedings | Social Care

Dr Karen Bateson, clinical psychologist and Wook Hamilton,...

Commissioning Children’s Social Care: Special Report

• Management | Commissioning | Residential Children's Care | Foster Care

Government plans in the wake of the Care Review aim to...

The big debate: Will regional commissioning improve sufficiency and efficiency of places?

• Management | Commissioning | Residential Children's Care | Foster Care

CYP Now hosts an expert panel to discuss whether government...

Leadership: Investing in essential skills

• Management | Leadership

Boosting the essential ‘soft skills’ of your team can...

Recruiting social workers from overseas

• Management | Social Care | Service configuration

Amid ongoing shortages of social workers, children's...

Leadership: How to be a social leader

• Leadership | Management

Those working in the early years have a shared goal to give...

Commissioning: Coping with price rises

• Management | Commissioning | Cost-of-living | Residential Children's Care | Foster Care

Legal expert Léonie Cowen gives advice on how councils can...

Commissioning: The impact of inflation

• Management | Commissioning | Cost-of-living

Double-digit cost increases for providers are an issue...

Evaluating Impact Special Report

• Management | Service configuration

Amid debates over whether data should be prioritised over...

Commissioning: Transition from care

• Management | Commissioning | Social Care | Leaving care

Councils need to develop a more flexible leaving care...

How charities are doing more for less

• Financial management | Management | Children's Services

The cost-of-living crisis means charities working with...

Putting research into practice

• Management | Leadership

Understand which interventions really work through research,...

Commissioning: Assessing provider quality

• Social Care | Residential and specialist care | Commissioning | Management | Residential Children's Care

Care sector expert Andrew Rome sets out the implications for...

Leadership: Developing new services

• Management | Service configuration | Leadership

In a time of stretched resources it has never been more...

Leadership: How to win grants

• Management | Leadership | Funding

With statutory funding in short supply, grants can enable...

Commissioning: Ukraine scheme care pressures

• Social Care | Asylum | Management | Commissioning

Toni Badnall explains what councils can do to ensure they...

Partnership approach revives Plymouth placement market

• Social Care | Management | Commissioning

Faced with a shortage of beds, Plymouth Council worked with...

Southern authorities work together to stimulate foster care placements

• Management | Commissioning | Social Care | Foster Care

Consortium of 16 councils develop new framework to boost the...

Commissioning Care: Special Report

• Management | Commissioning | Social Care | Fostering and adoption | Residential and specialist care | Residential Children's Care | Foster Care

Recommendations in the Care Review aim to improve...

Commissioning: Flexible placement practice

• Social Care | Management | Commissioning

Danny Wilson, head of children’s residential at Bedspace,...

How to be an adaptable employer

• Management | Leadership

Flexible working approaches adopted during the pandemic...

Remote working in children’s services

• Service configuration | Management | Coronavirus

Many children’s professionals have been working remotely...

Sustainable Services: Special Report

• Children's Services | Management | Service configuration | Education | Social Care | Youth Work

‘Eco anxiety’ among young people is rising prompting many to...

Leadership: Swearing in the workplace

• Management | Leadership

Leaders must set clear standards of behaviour for all staff...

Leadership: Trans, non-binary and gender-questioning employees

• Management | Leadership

All staff have the right to be themselves in the workplace....

Interview: Tim O’Neill

• Children's Services | Interview | Management | Leadership

Derren Hayes talks to the managing director of children’s...

Commissioning of therapies

• Commissioning | Management | Health | Mental health | Mental Health

Some children need therapeutic support that does not fit...

Embed a culture of safeguarding

• Leadership | Management | Safeguarding and child protection

Embedding a culture of safeguarding means that it becomes an...

Children's Care Commissioning Special Report

• Management | Commissioning | Social Care | Residential Children's Care | Foster Care

Commissioners of children's services are key to ensuring...

South East pilot gives care providers equal stake in developing placement contracts

• Social Care | Management | Commissioning | Fostering and adoption | Residential and specialist care | Residential Children's Care | Foster Care

Pilot project attempts to give care providers an equal say...

Leadership: Aiming high

• Management | Leadership

Only by having honest conversations about the values and...

Commissioning: Keeping co-production alive

• Management | Commissioning | Participation | Leaving Care | Residential Children's Care

Covid has made participation more difficult but has...

Rethinking job titles

• Management | Leadership

Job descriptions and titles play a huge role in what we...

Birmingham Children’s Trust: Three years in

• Children's Services | Management | Service configuration

Following a decade of poor performance, England’s largest...

Commissioning: Person-centred intelligence

• Management | Commissioning

In his third article, Mark Kerr assesses how a new piece of...

Commissioning: Assessing needs and outcomes

• Management | Commissioning

Commissioners need to improve the evidence they gather on...

Guide to Outcomes-based Commissioning

• Management | Commissioning

As local authorities come under growing pressure to manage...

Commissioning: Why we monitor outcomes

• Management | Commissioning | Social Care

Needs assessments and outcomes monitoring must be at the...

Stoke-on-Trent City Council: Local Spotlight

• Children's Services | Management | Service configuration | Ofsted | Families/Parenting

West Midlands area famous for its pottery industry is trying...

Post-16 framework provides pointers for national scheme

• Management | Commissioning | Social Care | Residential Children's Care | Leaving Care

Hertfordshire's care commissioners for looked-after children...

Tackling presenteeism

• Management | Leadership

A culture that encourages stressed staff to turn up for work...

Bradford City Council: Local Spotlight

• Children's Services | Management | Service configuration | Leadership

West Yorkshire council is making steady improvement after...

Commissioning: Implications of divergence

• Management | Commissioning | Social Care | Residential Children's Care

The fragmentation of council commissioning arrangements is...

Interview – Ndidi Okezie, chief executive, UK Youth

• Youth Work | Management | Leadership | Youth services | Interview

Derren Hayes speaks to the UK Youth chief executive.

Local Spotlight: Lambeth Council

• Children's Services | Child poverty | Management | Leadership | Service configuration | Preventing Care Proceedings

Corporate commitment to boosting children and young people’s...

Local spotlight: Haringey Council

• Children's Services | Management | Leadership | Service configuration

Borough with a foot in both inner and outer London has...

Trauma-informed commissioning delivers savings

• Social Care | Residential and specialist care | Fostering and adoption | Management | Commissioning | Residential Children's Care | Foster Care

Struggling council transforms how it commissions placements...

Local Spotlight: Hull City Council

• Ofsted | Social Care | Management | Leadership

New leadership team drives children's services improvements...

Regional sufficiency strategy controls costs

• Management | Commissioning | Residential Children's Care | Foster Care

Councils collaborate to optimise the commissioning of...

Step-down service improves placement stability

• Social Care | Residential and specialist care | Fostering and adoption | Residential Children's Care | Foster Care | Management | Commissioning

In-depth assessments identify ways to support young people...

Local Spotlight: Bury Metropolitan Borough Council

• Children's Services | Management | Service configuration

North West borough has plans to transform children's social...

The future of assessing impact

• Management | Service configuration

Develop balanced evaluation to ensure resources are used...

How I Got Here: Penny Catton, children’s home manager

• Social Care | Residential and specialist care | Management

Penny Catton, children’s home manager at Hexagon Care...

Leadership: Successful succession planning

• Management

Children’s social care is rich with experienced and...

How I Got Here: Sue-Ellen Lamb

• Education | Management | Careers

Sue-Ellen Lamb, head of school, Race Leys Junior School, on...

Local Spotlight: Dorset Council

• Children's Services | Management

South West council has overcome reorganisation, the pandemic...

How I Got Here: Reverend Dez Johnston

• Careers | Management | Leadership

Alpha Scotland's director on his career milestones.

North East Lincolnshire Council: Local Spotlight

• Management | Service configuration

New leadership team has changed the culture and delivered...

Southampton City Council: Local Spotlight

• Management | Leadership | Service configuration

South coast council has charged new DCS with implementing...

Peterborough City Council: Local Spotlight

• Children's Services | Management | Leadership | Service configuration | Ofsted

Children’s services in prosperous commuter city are rated...

Newham Council: Local Spotlight

• Children's Services | Management

Diverse east London borough has been badly hit by Covid,...

The Bi-borough, west London: Local Spotlight

• Children's Services | Management

The "outstanding"-rated Bi-borough puts its success down to...

Hertfordshire County Council – Local Spotlight

• Children's Services | Management | Leadership | Service configuration | Special Educational Needs & Disabilities

Council with reputation for innovation turns its attention...

System links council’s education and social care data

• Education | Social Care | Children's Services | Information sharing | Management | Service configuration | Special Educational Needs & Disabilities

Visibility of children’s wider needs helps care and...

Wakefield Council: Local Spotlight

• Children's Services | Management | Leadership | Social Care

Council for former Yorkshire coal mining town has big plans...

Warwickshire County Council: Local Spotlight

• Children's Services | Information sharing | Early help | Management | Leadership | Service configuration

Midlands authority has invested in the children’s workforce...

Luton Borough Council

• Management | Social Care

Bedfordshire town has introduced new ways of working to help...

Local Spotlight: Doncaster

• Management | Service configuration

Transferring delivery of children's social care to an...

Ask the Experts: My boss is micro-managing me

• Safeguarding in education | Drugs and alcohol | Public Health | Management | Youth Work

Our expert panel offers advice on an overbearing boss,...

Ask the Experts: Worries about new employer

• Nurseries | Management | Fostering and adoption | Safeguarding and child protection

Our expert panel offers advice on sharing expertise, an...

Ask the Experts: Making a move to management

• Careers | Early Years | Early years education | Nurseries | Management | Leadership | Service configuration | Youth Work

Our expert panel offers advice on staff supervision, team...

Woodland Nursery

• Early Years | Early years education | Nurseries | Education | Management | Leadership | Service configuration | Outdoor Learning

London-based nursery inspired by the Forest School approach,...

Behind the Inspection Rating: Pre-school hones independence

• Early Years | Early years education | Management | Leadership | Service configuration | Ofsted

Clyst Valley Pre-School, Devon - Pre-school inspection -...

Good Idea: College prepares young people for armed forces

• Education | Children's Services | Management | Leadership | Service configuration

A specialist training college aimed at helping young people...

Ask the Experts: Accessing mental health funding

• Early Years | Health | Mental health | Sexual health | Children's Services | Children's rights | Early help | Information sharing | Management | Leadership | Service configuration | Youth Work

Our panel offers advice on mental health services funding,...

Behind the Inspection Rating: Shared leadership delivers success

• Early Years | Nurseries | Management | Leadership | Ofsted

Grasmere Nursery School, Luton; Nursery school inspection;...

Ask the Experts: Address suspicions over legal highs

• Early Years | Nurseries | Health | Drugs and alcohol | Children's Services | Information sharing | Management | Commissioning | Leadership | Service configuration | Social Care | Safeguarding and child protection | Youth Work | Participation | Youth clubs

Our panel offers advice on the dangers of legal highs, child...

Behind the Inspection Rating: Structure change drives progress

• Health | Mental health | Children's Services | Early help | Families/Parenting | Information sharing | Management | Service configuration | Ofsted | Social Care

Kingston upon Thames Council - children's services...

Ask the Experts: Get the best from governing bodies

• Early Years | Education | Children's Services | Management | Leadership | Youth Work

Our panel offers advice on school governing bodies, new...

Skills for the Job: Ensure a good work-life balance

• Careers | Health | Children's Services | Management | Leadership

As pressures in children's services continue to rise, there...

Ask the Experts: Leading a service in the spotlight

• Education | Health | Children's Services | Management | Youth Work

Our panel offers advice on DCS survival, nurturing interest...

Ask the Experts: Growing food, media stories of abuse, learning from mistakes and youth centre help for Eastern European children

• Early Years | Early years education | Nurseries | Play | Education | Children's Services | Children's rights | Early help | Information sharing | Management | Leadership | Social Care | Safeguarding and child protection | Youth Work

Our panel offers advice on growing vegetables, telling...

How training helps improve mental health support

• Courses and training | Health | Mental health | Children's Services | Management | Youth Work

Mental health project improves support for young people in...

Ask The Experts: Nursery medicine, CSE concerns, council help for academies and youth film nights

• Early Years | Education | Health | Children's Services | Management | Social Care | Safeguarding and child protection | Youth Work

Our panel offers advice on drugs in nursery settings,...

Ask the Experts: Coping with an extra workload

• Early Years | Education | Children's Services | Management | Social Care | Youth Work

Our panel offers advice on taking on extra duties,...

Behind the Inspection Rating: Centre offers five-star provision

• Early Years | Management | Service configuration | Ofsted | Inspections

Harpenden children's centres monitor children's progress to...

Ask the Expert: Risk assessments

• Management | Leadership | Safeguarding and child protection | Youth Work | Youth clubs | Youth services

Ask the Expert: Bad staff attitudes

• Early Years | Education | Health | Children's Services | Management | Leadership | Social Care | Youth Justice | Youth Work

Ask the Expert: Appreciating animals

• Early Years | Education | Health | Management | Leadership | Youth Work | Outdoor learning

Leadership: Three boroughs, one DCS and the potential for significant savings

• Management | Leadership

When the coalition government came to power in May 2010, it...

Leadership: Commissioning is key to improved services for young people

• Management | Leadership | Youth Work | Youth services

Youth services play a key role in young people's educational...

Leadership: How to ensure deaf children's needs are met in difficult financial times

• Health | Disabled children and young people | Management | Leadership

These are dark times for children's services, particularly...

Leadership: Corporate partnerships can motivate young people

• Management | Leadership | Youth Work

UK Youth has been around for 100 years. To have survived and...

Leadership: Let young people decide on the services that meet their needs

• Management | Leadership | Youth Work | Youth services

The services that support young people outside of school are...

Profit Making and Risk in Independent Children’s Social Care Placement Providers

• Management | Commissioning | Social Care | Residential Children's Care | Foster Care

Local authorities in England spend more than £2bn a year...

Children's Homes Research

• Management | Commissioning | Social Care | Residential and specialist care | Residential Children's Care

The concerns of London local authorities in meeting...

Review of Sufficiency Strategies in London

• Management | Commissioning | Social Care | Residential Children's Care

Demand for children's services has been increasing...

Shared Services Briefing

• Children's Services | Information sharing | Management | Leadership | Service configuration

This briefing highlights many of the issues facing councils,...

A serene setting to address harmful sexual behaviour

• Children's Services | Management | Service configuration | Social Care | Residential and specialist care | Residential Children's Care

Glebe House is a residential home providing therapeutic care...

Survey of Schools' Work with Child and Adolescent Mental Health

• Education | Extra-curricular | Health | Children's Services | Information sharing | Management | Service configuration | Mental Health

A research team led by University College London and the...