Break down the silos in children's services, urges DCS
Janaki Mahadevan
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
On the anniversary of the verdict of the Baby P trial, Coventry's director of children's services has said more work needs to be done to break down silos within children's services.
Speaking at the Children’s Services Network conference today, Colin Green said that while progress had been made in the five years since the introduction of the Every Child Matters agenda, there needed to be a greater focus on effectiveness of outcomes.
He said: "We need a proper and fully systemic view of the progress. There are still too many silos, and silos within Every Child Matters.
"There are still people who come to me who only have 16 to 19 on their minds and they don’t think about children’s centres for example."
He added that pressures on children’s services and service users had increased, saying: "Public expectations have never been higher and our expectations of what we can do and what can be achieved have never been higher."
Green, who is also chair of the families, communities and young people policy committee at the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, called for a "refocus of balance" from process to people and urged delegates not to call for more guidance.
