In terms of prominent positions in children's services at the moment, they don't come much more high profile than leading Doncaster's Children's Services Trust.
Launched on 1 October, the trust has taken over responsibility for a range of children's services following years of concerns about the quality of provision at the authority, culminating in last year's highly critical government-commissioned report by Professor Julian Le Grand from the London School of Economics and Alan Wood, director of children's services at Hackney Council. The concept of hiving off responsibility for services to a separate entity is backed by the government as a way of turning around troubled departments.
When this month children's minister Edward Timpson announced that Slough will be made to follow a similar path, it only served to confirm their faith in the model. In light of the fact that more authorities are likely to be told to do the same should the Conservatives remain in government beyond next May's general election, the gaze of the sector will undoubtedly be focused on how the trust, and its chief executive Paul Moffat, fare.
Speaking to CYP Now, little more than a week after the official launch on 1 October, Moffat is in confident mood. He was approached about the role prior to making a formal application and says the "unique arrangements" that were being put in place attracted him to it.
"I was interested in the history (of Doncaster) and interested to see how the trust was being developed conceptually following the report by Alan Wood and Julian Le Grand.
"I could see the intentions were admirable - that there was a need to set something up to focus on the needs of looked-after children and those most at risk," he says.
"That has been a passion of mine for many years. I thought I could offer the necessary leadership and drive. It was an opportunity to do something unique and pioneering and would hopefully turn around services and give great legacy to the people of Doncaster after a number of negative reports."
The failings at Doncaster's children's services are well documented: seven children died as a result of neglect or abuse in the space of five years, while the council was criticised in its handling of the case of two brothers in care from Edlington, who in 2010 were detained indefinitely for torturing two other boys.
Moffat is understandably not keen to dwell on the past. Asked where the authority went wrong, he simply says the various reports published in recent years "speak for themselves". He gives three examples of problems the authority had - poor management oversight, high caseloads and high turnover of staff.
"I think the reports made clear there was a need for a different sort of model to bring about the change required - sustained improvement over a long period of time," he says.
Taking responsibility
The trust has taken responsibility for child safeguarding, looked-after children, youth offending, care leaver services and special educational needs, with remaining children's services staying under Doncaster Council control. In total, about 450 staff transferred to the children's trust, which has its own headquarters in the town. But, given the failures of the past, are they up to the job of transforming services? Moffat is diplomatic in his response, but concedes some may not be up to scratch.
"There are a number of staff who I'm confident are of the required standard that we need to have," Moffat says. "There are some who need additional support, but we have a range of experts out there who are prepared to do that.
"We want to build on people's knowledge. Part of the trust's ambition is access to high-quality training and high-quality supervision. We will make sure we put in additional support mechanisms. It may be that in some underperforming areas we may need to address them very quickly."
The main features of the trust model that makes successful improvement more likely are, Moffat says, its independence from Doncaster Council and the expertise contained within the board - which Moffat is accountable to.
Colin Hilton, previously director of the Children's Improvement Board and a former director of children's services in Liverpool, chairs the board. There are a further eight expert members including Tony Hunter, chief executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence.
"We have experienced senior officers from a range of organisations and non-executive directors that sit on the board," Moffat says. "They hold us to account to make sure we are getting the right areas of priority defined in our business plan. These experts can help us on our journey forward. It is helpful for somewhere like Doncaster to have immediate access to consultants."
He adds that the independence of the trust means it does not have the same restraints as a large organisation like a council with competing priorities and departments with their own pressures. "We can concentrate solely on children's social care," he says.
Moffat says the immediate focus is on four areas: raising standards within safeguarding and looked-after children services; ensuring there is a "highly organised, disciplined and innovative workforce"; recruiting and training the best staff; and utilising "innovative and fresh" ideas to support families in the community.
To this end, the trust has several bids in with the Department for Education's Innovation Fund - a pot of £30m available this year to help children's professionals develop fresh ideas for reforming how children's social care is delivered.
Bids include work to support families with repeated care proceedings, work to support children and families who have children at risk of entering care and workforce development. In relation to the latter, Moffat says the authority is bidding for funding to link up with universities, using research to inform decision making around care planning. They are also looking at ways to attract professionals to work in Doncaster.
The trust also wants funding to improve the way it works with other agencies to tackle child sexual exploitation (CSE). It is a timely aim in light of the fact that last month child protection agencies in Doncaster came under fire for failing to take action to protect three girls in a children's home from CSE.
"I think there is work to be done in South Yorkshire and we are working on developing an action plan with South Yorkshire police," he says.
"There are issues up and down the country in relation to CSE. It is not my understanding that it is a huge issue in Doncaster - but that is not to say there are not cases.
"But we are working with police so all our staff are au fait with protecting and working with children in those situations and lessons from inquiries up and down the country."
Tough targets
In total, the trust has a budget of £47m in its first year. Doncaster Council has committed to funding the trust for 10 years, but, like children's departments across England and Wales, it must wait until local budgets have been finalised before learning how much it will have to spend in each subsequent year. In view of the fact that major cuts are going to have to continue to be made over the next five years as central government spending reductions continue, Moffat concedes it is likely the trust will have to "cut its cloth" accordingly.
"No doubt at some point we will have to make savings and find ways of delivering services perhaps in a different way," he says.
"The fortunate thing about being a trust is it allows you to use experts in designing services."
The trust faces tough targets though. By October 2017, it must achieve a "good" rating or better from Ofsted.
The degree of challenge this poses is highlighted by the fact that fewer than one in three authorities have so far achieved a good rating from Ofsted under the regulator's current social care inspection framework - introduced last November.
"We are on a journey of improvement and you can already see that from when we were inspected in 2012/13," Moffat says. "I think the three-year timescale for achieving a good rating is going to be tough, but I think it is achievable. I'm confident that with the right management and leadership team, we can get there."
The ultimate aim is for services to be rated as "outstanding" by October 2019. No authority has so far achieved this grade under the current inspection framework. But Moffat believes authorities will start to get there once they begin to act on points raised by Ofsted inspectors.
"When you get a new framework, you have to work out what is required to achieve those standards," he says.
"New inspection frameworks are tough, but I think you will gradually see improvements coming through and the (outstanding) judgments will follow automatically."
PAUL MOFFAT CV
- Moffat has more than 20 years' experience with a number of councils in the North East
- He was director of children's services between 2010 and 2013 at Northumber-land County Council, an authority he first started working with in 2003
- He has also worked for the NSPCC, where he was a child protection officer, and other voluntary organisations
- He initially trained as an occupational therapist, working in a range of acute psychiatric services, including child and adolescent mental health services and drug and alcohol clinics
