Cameron's children's services ‘reform' agenda receives mixed response from sector

Speaking last Friday, Prime Minister David Cameron said government will adopt a “smarter” approach to public services, running the state more like a business.

He highlighted children in care as a “standout area” for reform through “breaking state monopolies, bringing in new providers, or allowing new ways of doing things”.

And he also said that government departments, local authorities and charities must “work together more collaboratively” on social services and child protection.

Alison O’Sullivan, president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services, said that while directors of children’s services do not shy away from change, that change “must be meaningful and must improve outcomes for the most vulnerable in our care”.

“The full impact of recent cuts to local authority funding are not yet well understood and at the same time further cuts will need to be made,” she said.

“So government must recognise that the current picture of severely limited resources and increased demand for services is one which cannot be sustained.

“We want to talk about new models, and we want to be in the forefront of making a challenging and intelligent contribution about how we can deliver improved services. It’s vital that this thinking draws upon the experience of dedicated professionals in the field.”

Kathy Evans, chief executive of Children England, said government should focusing on ending the trend of diminishing funding for local authorities.

“The greatest concern for all local authorities meeting their children's service duties is not being more 'businesslike', but how to manage the deep cuts to council budgets as service demand rises,” she said.

“Every entrepreneur knows that a 'market' in which their customers have less and less money to spend isn't a market worth getting into, or staying in.

“Stopping the council cuts, not bringing in the competitive companies, is what's needed in children's services."

She added that competitive outsourcing “increasingly looks like yesterday's inadequate answer to public service reform”.

“Far from being new or radical it is now decades old, and there is no evidence of the cost savings or vast improvements the Prime Minister appears to believe in,” she said.

Enver Solomon, director of evidence and impact at the National Children’s Bureau, said Cameron’s speech indicates that he wants the same “reforming zeal” that has applied to schools to now be applied to children’s services.

But he stressed that the reasons for failure in social care can be more complex than in schools.

“Local authorities have shown they can turn themselves around with new leadership but there is also a need to look more radically at how current provision for children, whether they are in the youth justice system, the care system or on a child protection order, is organised to ensure there is less duplication and that children are not passed between different ‘systems’,” he said.

“What matters most for children is being listened to and having trusting relationships, so these must be the bedrock for any reform plans.”

Meanwhile, the Children’s Services Development Group (CSDG), an alliance of providers of care and specialist education services for children and young people with complex needs that includes the National Fostering Agency and Priory Education Services, welcomed Cameron’s calls for a “smarter state”.

CSDG spokeswoman Lizzie Wills said: “The Prime Minister has highlighted the unacceptable tolerance that exists for state failure in children’s services.

“His call for a break of the state monopoly in the sector and the need to bring in new providers and new ways of doing things is urgently required to improve outcomes.

“Until local authorities equally consider the expertise and capacity that exist beyond their own in-house provision, children in care will not benefit from the opportunities that are available to them.”