Improvement body to continue without director

The decision not to replace the board's director Colin Hilton, whose term came to an end in this month, has been panned by children's services experts.

But the three partner organisations that work together on the board to help councils improve their performance in children's services decided not to replace him, following the Department for Education’s decision to withdraw funding earlier this year.

A spokeswoman from the Local Government Association (LGA) confirmed that the work of the CIB would continue and be jointly managed by LGA, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives.

Former director of children’s services and freelance consultant John Freeman warned that the CIB would be unable to support improvement without a director.

“It will not work,” said Freeman. “Leadership, even in a peer-led system, is critical – without active leadership, no system will work – even in a democracy, someone has to lead, and the stronger that person, the more effective they will be.”

Children’s services consultant and former chief executive of the National Children’s Bureau Sir Paul Ennals blamed the government for the move, and said Hilton “did a good job”.

“The rapid and unexpected withdrawal of government funding to support sector-led improvement was short-sighted,” he said.

“Whilst of course the key responsibility for funding improvement will lie within the sector, any new system takes time to bed-in.

“Government cuts to this programme suggest it is returning in its thinking to reliance on top-down central inspection models.”

The DfE announced it would stop funding the CIB in April, two years after it was set up.

The body received £10.5m from the DfE in 2011/12 and £8m in 2012/13.

At the time, Hilton said that the move risked jeopardising work to improve local authority performance on adoption, sexual exploitation and learning from child abuse cases.

A DfE spokesman said it was local government’s responsibility to lead its own performance improvement.