Timpson sceptical of trust solution for Birmingham children's services

Giving evidence to the parliamentary education committee on Wednesday, Timpson said recent media reports that ministers had already decided to put children’s social work in Birmingham into the hands of an independent trust are premature.

He said: “There has been no decision made about where Birmingham goes next. I want to be absolutely clear – there has not been a ruling in or ruling out of any of the options.

“What we have asked for, and what we need to see, is more information about progression in Birmingham. Once we have that information we can then make the right decision about what intervention is going to have the best effect, not just in the short term but in the long term.”

The independent trust model is one that is being introduced at Doncaster Council, but Timpson said that did not mean it would necessarily work in Birmingham.

“Birmingham is the biggest council in this country. In many ways it is a specific case which brings with it specific problems. So I think it would be wrong to have a direct comparison between Doncaster and Birmingham as they are very different situations with different demographics and sizes of population.

“We need to look at Birmingham as its own issue and come up with the right solution for Birmingham rather than come up with a one-size-fits-all,” he added.

Over the two-hour evidence session, the minister was quizzed on a broad range of children’s issues including how local authorities could be expected to meet the growing demand for services at a time when funding is being reduced.

Timpson said new approaches on how councils and departments can reorganise services more effectively had been largely untapped, an issue he hoped the DfE’s innovation programme for children’s services would address.

He added: “This is a real attempt to look more creatively to deliver children’s services – I think there’s a huge amount of latent potential.”

While focused on overcoming existing bureaucratic and legal barriers, Timpson hinted that the innovation programme would also help authorities that needed additional funding.

“If they have a new way of working but don’t have any way of scaling up that model – if that includes a financial barrier we will see what we can do to alleviate that,” he added.