Wood calls for sector to emulate other public services in use of volunteers

Addressing the ADCS annual conference in Manchester, Wood called for a debate about the role of volunteer workers in the sector because, he argued, local authorities "sometimes seem to back away from this approach".

"Let's just recall that key life saving services in the UK today with a very fine history are delivered by volunteers - the military, the police, the lifeboats, family support services," he said.

"Is there nothing we can learn from these lessons, and lessons from other places like intergenerational family support models in the USA, as we think about the way we deliver our services?

He added: "Haphazardly in some places, marvellously in others, governors as volunteers are responsible for major improvement in the education service in this country."

Speaking afterwards to CYP Now, Wood said he believes there could be a greater role for volunteers in two specific areas of children's services.

The first is working with the main carer in families to help them become more independent, and manage matters such as finances and cooking for children.

The second is with young adolescents who are "troubled and troubling".
"It's one of those challenges we know about but my guess is it will become much bigger in the coming period," Wood said.

“Some children are still not doing well enough in the education system. Young people are experiencing family breakdown and being put out on the streets, so we are seeing increasing numbers of 16 and 17-year-olds coming into local authority care.”

During his speech, Wood also raised concerns about the amount of time it takes authorities to prepare for, go through, and recover from Ofsted inspections of children's social care services.

Professor Eileen Munro’s evaluation into the experiences of the first 11 authorities inspected under the current framework indicated that authorities felt the premise was fair, they remain a strenuous process.

Once the current three-year cycle of inspections ends in 2016, he said a more "proportionate" inspection regime must be introduced.

This, he said, would involve a two- or three-day inspection of "front door services". If local authorities passed this, they would not be subject to a fuller inspection. This deeper inspection would be reserved for authorities where problems are present.