CYP Now - DfE revamp offers children’s services opportunities

Ordinarily there’s nothing interesting about a government department restructure. But look more closely at what’s happening in the Department for Education and you might wonder whether there’s a sea change afoot in relationships with local services for children.

Alison O’Sullivan: "Investment by government in regional capacity creates exciting potential to join up national and local agendas."

The nuts and bolts of arrangements for delivery can have a huge bearing on how government policy does or does not make a difference on the ground.

It was no accident that the first thing the incoming government did in 2010 was change the name of the Department for Children, Schools, and Families to the Department for Education, heralding a complete shift in focus towards schools and the decimation of capacity and interest in wider children’s issues.

Then the ferocious drive to academise the school system created a new “middle-tier” of regional school commissioners, with boundaries deliberately misaligned to the long-standing local government regions, and clearly intended to disrupt potential collaboration with local authorities.

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