Timpson is confident his 'unique experience' can help children
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
In an interview with CYP Now, former children's minister Edward Timpson outlines his approach to new roles at Cafcass, the children's commissioner for England, school exclusions review and safeguarding practice panel.
After losing his Crewe and Nantwich constituency seat at last year's general election, former children's minister Edward Timpson says he had a "period of decompression" where he spent time with his family while considering what he wanted to do next.
"I was ready to start the next chapter of my professional life, but in doing so realised the story was still the same - committing myself to improving the lives of vulnerable children," he says.
To that end, Timpson has secured four high-profile roles in the children's services sector this year:
- Chair, Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service
- Chair, National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel
- Adviser, Office of the Children's Commissioner for England
- Review lead, government review of school exclusions
Here, he answers questions about his new roles and what he learnt from his time as minister.
Q. What made you want to return to the sector?
"It is what I care most about, know most about and believe still have much more to offer. Children's social care has been a dominant feature of my life since my parents started fostering when I was six years old.
It's hugely affecting and I just naturally gravitate towards it. It is frustrating at times and not everything works out, but by sticking with it and continuing to find new ways to help make things better, I find it to be the place where I feel most at home."
Q. What are you most proud of from your time in government?
"Being children's minister for the best part of five years was an achievement in itself. It enabled me to jump off the daily political bandwagon and concentrate more on long-term policy development and implementation.
What practitioners, supervisors, managers, leaders and, most importantly, children and families want from the government is consistency, not churn.
I tried to be as collegiate as possible, listen to all arguments and experience, as well as act not dither.
As a policy reform, Staying Put was the right thing to do, and I believe in time the introduction of relationships and sex education as a statutory subject on the curriculum will be seen as an important shift in our approach and response to the impact of societal change on children."
Q. What do you hope to achieve in your new roles?
"In some ways, my mission is quite simple: enable more children to have safer, happier, fulfilling lives.
In order to achieve that ambition, I hope to bring my unique mix of personal, legal, parliamentary and ministerial experience to bear in each of those roles.
Cafcass is well placed to help engender improvements across the wider family justice system, including diverting more cases away from court altogether.
The new National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has the potential, as well as the legal clout, to bring about reasoned, constructive and consistent practice improvements to the frontline of child safeguarding.
I'm also happy to help provide what advice I can that enhances the impact and veracity of the work of the children's commissioner.
As for the schools exclusions review, I'm still in the evidence-gathering phase, but I want to ensure the system works for all children and is built on the best possible understanding of what it takes to create a school culture that values every child."
Q. Does not being an MP allow you to get more involved in the detail of the sector?
"Up to a point. Maybe it was because of my intrinsic curiosity along with my experiences of the sector prior to entering parliament, but I never felt that inhibited from digging deeper into the detail. It's knowing what questions to ask.
There was always the worry as minister that you were being presented with either a rose-tinted view at one end or an exaggerated doomsday scenario at the other.
But more often than not, I felt I did have honest and free-ranging dialogue with people right across the sector.
It helped that I was in office for a decent length of time, enabling me to build good working relationships with key individuals who understood where I was coming from (although we didn't always agree) and vice versa."
Q. What is your view of the financial squeeze on the sector, coupled with growing demand?
"It is tough. There is no doubt that demand has risen at a time when local government budgets are under pressure.
All children's services departments require adequate funding and those holding the purse strings need to be mindful of when that line is being crossed.
That's not to say that more can't be achieved with current resources - the wide variation across the country of funding per head for children and the outcomes they achieve remains.
There continues to be scope for better commissioning arrangements, cross-council co-operation and an improved understanding of the impact of the money spent at different stages of a child's interaction with children's services."
Q. Are independent trusts still the future for failing children's services departments?
"There is no one-size-fits-all solution to tackling failure in children's services departments. In my time as minister, we saw councils improve on their own, with support from other councils, through improvement partners and by the fresh start offered by an independent trust.
The common features in every case were an open acceptance of what had gone wrong, a relentless determination to put it right, strong and consistent leadership to oversee the transformation needed, and a skilled and more stable workforce all leading towards the creation of a confident professional culture able to deliver high-quality services for children and families.
I was never fixated on the vehicle required to make that improvement happen but remain of the view that, where it's right for a particular children's service, an independent trust can be that route to excellence."
Q. To what extent has reform of the children's sector been affected by Brexit?
"One of the principal reasons for me voting for the UK to remain a member of a reformed European Union was the need for us not to lose focus on our domestic agenda, and in particular children's social care.
Now that Brexit is happening, it is all the more important to argue the case for pushing on with the reform programme set out in Putting Children First. The current political landscape presents different challenges to making that happen.
But there are still plenty of reasons to remain optimistic, not least my belief that we have some of the best professionals in the country working in children's social care."
Q. Do you have any plans to return to parliament as an MP?
"It's fair to say I still believe I have more to contribute to public life, but I'm also aware there are other ways to make your mark. At the moment, I'm relishing the new roles I've taken on, knowing all too well that politics is both a fickle and uncertain business. We'll see."
EXPERTS ASSESS THE KEY CHALLENGES OF TIMPSON'S NEW ROLES
Chair of Cafcass:
Timpson took over as chair of Cafcass in April, replacing Baroness Tyler of Enfield. His appointment is due to last for three years. Cafcass was recently rated "outstanding" by Ofsted but the organisation is experiencing continuing pressure on its resources. The number of applications for children to be taken into care in May this year represented the second highest figure for a single month in recent history. There has also been a significant drop in the number of adoption placement orders being granted, at the same time as a rise in the number of special guardianship orders (SGOs) granted by the court.
Andy Elvin, chief executive of The Adolescent and Children's Trust (Tact), says: "With rising numbers of SGOs, Cafcass must ensure decisions to grant SGOs are in line with evidence required to get an adoption placement order or a care order."
Chair, National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel:
The establishment of a Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel is one of a raft of changes to local and national safeguarding arrangements being made by government on the back of the findings of a review of LSCBs conducted by Sir Alan Wood. The panel will be responsible for overseeing reviews of serious child safeguarding cases that panel members believe include complex or nationally-important issues in order to share lessons and improve practice.
David Ashcroft, chair of the Association of Independent LSCB Chairs, says: "The panel needs to engage quickly with those who have experience and expertise in commissioning and conducting reviews, and place its focus not on the production of reports, but on the implementation of effective local as well as national learning. That can only be done through dialogue and collaboration with local leaders of safeguarding arrangements who can change practice."
Review lead, government review of school exclusions:
Earlier this month, it emerged that the number of children with autism being excluded has risen dramatically in recent years. Statistics obtained via a Freedom of Information request by the charity Ambitious about Autism show there was a 59 per cent rise in exclusions among autistic children, from 2,831 in 2011/12 to 4,485 in 2015/16.
Tact's Andy Elvin says the review needs to be "robust" about the treatment of children in care, adopted children and those in kinship care families. "Schools should not be allowed to exclude these children without an alternative school plan and a managed transfer," he says.
Adviser to children's commissioner for England:
Timpson was appointed in January to sit on children's commissioner for England Anne Longfield's advisory board, which provides her with "advice, challenge and scrutiny". The part-time role, which is unpaid, will involve advising Longfield on how the powers of the children's commissioner can be used to best promote and protect children and young people's rights, as well as what the key issues and challenges facing children, families and the sector at large are. Other members of the board include government care adviser Sir Martin Narey, past president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services Alison O'Sullivan, and former Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who now chairs Sandwell Children's Trust.
Carolyne Willow, director of children's rights charity Article 39, says: "Timpson had ministerial responsibility for ensuring cross-government implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which equips him to help the children's commissioner fulfil her statutory function of promoting and protecting children's rights. He will certainly be keenly aware of the UK's continuing failures to uphold international treaty obligations."