Children’s minister Edward Timpson announced today that he has asked a team of children’s services experts led by Professor Julian Le Grand to research ways of delivering children’s services nationally outside of council control.
The study will assess what outsourcing options currently exist and how these can be developed further. The minister has asked Le Grand to report the findings by September.
Timpson revealed details of the study in a letter to Sir Albert Bore, leader of Birmingham Council, in response to Professor Le Grand’s review of Birmingham’s struggling children’s services, which recommended the appointment of an independent children’s commissioner to oversee improvement.
He wrote: “I have accepted professor Le Grand’s recommendation that we should explore how improvement capacity can be created or promoted in the children’s services system nationally and that as part of this work, specific consideration should be given to potential longer-term solutions for Birmingham.
“I have therefore decided to commission a piece of work, overseen by Professor Le Grand, to look at developing capacity for delivering children’s services outside of local authorities – to be used not only in future thinking about the commissioning of services in Birmingham but elsewhere.”
In a letter to Le Grand, also published today, Timpson said he would like the study team to include chief social worker Isabelle Trowler and president-to-be of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) Alan Wood.
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