The Bill allows local authorities considerably more flexibility than was envisaged in the green paper that preceded it. It focuses on the outcomes to be achieved, leaving it up to councils to work out the methodology. The Government is still likely to push local authorities towards setting up children's trusts, but the Bill does now avoid the danger of unpicking good examples of joined-up working - by means other than children's trusts - simply for the sake of organisational restructuring.
The big disappointment for many will be how the role of a children's commissioner for England is framed in the Bill. The inclusion of a proposal for a commissioner in the green paper was hailed as a great victory by those who had campaigned for many years for such an appointment. But as set out in the Bill, the post will be rather toothless.
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