Bids for a slice of the £30m children’s service innovation fund opened today, with the government indicating that its priority areas for the first year of the programme will be developing new models of social work practice and rethinking support for vulnerable adolescents in or on the edge of care.
First announced by children’s minister Edward Timpson at last October’s National Children and Adults Services conference, the innovation programme aims to harvest and test “adventurous” ideas that professionals have to improve services for vulnerable children.
As well as the £30m in 2014/15, Timpson said there would be “much more to follow” in 2015/16 “if the ideas are there to merit it”.
“We’re looking for your boldest and most adventurous ideas to rise to the huge challenges we face; to drive better outcomes and better value for money. Ideas that have the potential to spark and spread innovation across the system,” he added.
Timpson added that encouraging innovative models of working among local authorities is a priority because traditional working arrangements, where the least skilled or experienced social workers have the biggest responsibilities, are an “outdated practice model that also sees precious time squeezed out by bureaucracy, insufficient supervision and not enough professional development”.
The £1bn invested in children’s residential care is also not delivering the results it should be, Timpson added. “Even with that huge outlay, we often don’t achieve good outcomes for these children. I’m sure we can do much better than this.”
Grants of up to £10,000 will be available to develop pilot models of working or create a change programme. The Department for Education is also advertising for a delivery partner to work with throughout the programme.
Timpson added: “Whether you’re a local authority, a company, a social enterprise or a not for profit organisation, we recognise the important role you have to play and we want to hear from you. Let us know what support you need to get your proposals off the ground and we will tailor help accordingly, whether by brokering partnerships, addressing regulatory barriers, providing evaluations or almost anything else.”
