Council's children's trust plans delayed

At a meeting next week, Northamptonshire County Council's cabinet will decide whether to approve proposals on how the trust will run and deliver children's services.

It is proposed that the trust will be owned by the council and commissioned to deliver services for children on its behalf, including school admissions, safeguarding and early help for vulnerable groups.

Initial plans, published by the council in December 2015, anticipated the trust being set up by September 2016.

However, the council does not now expect the trust to be fully established until December 2017, despite it already running in shadow form.

A council spokeswoman said the delay was partly down to the "process of creating standout organisations for all its service areas taking longer than expected".

Another factor has been the appointment of new director of children's services Lesley Hagger, who took up the post in July.

Under the plans, the trust will operate as a company limited by guarantee, and will generate income by forming a trading company to work with other sectors and local authorities.

A charity will also be established with the aim of securing funding through grants and fundraising, and will work with voluntary and community organisations.

The council will remain responsible for all children's services in the county.

The council hopes the changes will save £9m a year, but has admitted savings are likely to be lower than that in 2016/17 due to the delays.

Northamptonshire Council cabinet member for children's services, Matthew Golby, said: "This is a key milestone in our journey to establish the children's trust and will help both staff and the wider community to understand better how the trust will work.

"By commissioning the new trust to deliver services on our behalf, within an agreed cost, it will reduce the time and cost of external commissioning, remove duplication of management costs and enable flexibility for swift change thanks to greater structural freedoms.

"This is an exciting time for children's services in Northamptonshire and I look forward to seeing more detailed plans for the trust over the coming months."

The council's children's services department was judged "inadequate" by Ofsted in 2013, and upgraded to "requires improvement" in April this year.

In September 2015, an independent trust was set up by Slough Council to run children's services, the second to make such a move after Doncaster Council in October 2014.