Better outcomes for children in care

And when I was a DCS, we set up Creating Chances, a charitable trust aimed at improving education outcomes for children in the care system in the Black Country. This followed on from a successful DCSF-funded pilot, and has proved a local game-changer.

But the changes over the past few years – since 2010 – seem to me to have atomised the system, with far too little learning from best practice. That isn’t to say that practice is uniformly bad, that’s certainly not the case – the CYPN Awards, for which I was one of the judges, recognises the very best practice across a wide spectrum, and the judges’ task is always made difficult by the quality of the submissions.

I welcomed, then, the joint Children’s Services Development Group/Local Government Information Unit publication Collaborating for better outcomes: Final Report from the Children’s Services Taskforce.

Four themes were highlighted as areas that can make a huge difference – and none of them seem like rocket science:

First, we need to work in partnership between agencies, both in the public and private sectors. We all need to work to improve outcomes, not just for one aspect of a child, but looking holistically and working together.

Second, we need to commission activities that encourage or are predicated on achieving long-term positive outcomes.

Third, (I’d have put this first) we do need clarity when describing the outcomes we are seeking, both in the short and long terms, and that clarity is not always, or even often, there.

And fourth, we need strong leadership at all levels, and a change in culture.

All of this is well and good, and the case studies are powerful and should be replicated.

As I’ve argued before, we in children’s services would benefit from a NICE-equivalent to help codify and formalise effective practice so that not every DCS or commissioning team needs to start from scratch. (Yes, I know this is an exaggeration – but we don’t do what the health service does, and analyse systematically treatments and costs, and make firm recommendations).

Of course, and the report recognises this, there is a major resource issue. There are more children in care and we are spending less on them, notwithstanding all the clear evidence about the long-term financial, economic and social benefits of investment in early intervention.

This report makes a good starting point, but we need the national public sector agencies to be involved, both LGA and ADCS, and of course the least joined-up part of the whole equation is central government – each department fiercely defending its turf and budget, and with only occasional echoes of collaboration.

Whoever forms the next government, I really hope they will cut through the logjam of departmental budgets to enable some real long-term thinking and collaboration on early intervention and prevention. That will improve the life of millions of children, and will save much money in the long term.