London directors of children's services are investigating the potential to increase the number of "tri-borough" arrangements.
According to Yvette Stanley, the new chair of the Association of London Directors of Children's Services (ALDCS), redesigning services across local authority boundaries will be vital to cope with the challenge posed by "contracting" public resources.
Andrew Christie, Stanley's predecessor, became the first "tri-borough" DCS at Hammersmith & Fulham, Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea councils last month. Stanley, who is DCS at Merton, told CYP Now that other areas are likely to follow suit.
"We have to look at how we can co-operate to reconfigure services to get the most for reduced money," she said. "That could mean more bi-lateral or tri-borough arrangements. It might also be looking at social enterprises or trust arrangements for youth services, for example."
She said the proximity of directors in London makes them well placed to collate best practice on emerging children's services issues, such as service redesign and payment-by-results.
Stanley said such cross-borough working would help directors' attempts to prevent a repeat of the riots and looting across the capital in the summer. "As individual local authorities, we're working with our borough commanders and we're sharing information across the capital," she said.
"Schools increasingly value their close relationship with the police and school-based officers can quickly gain the confidence of young people. If we're going to move on from recent months, it's about maintaining and growing that relationship with the police."
