Cross-sector partnership launches to promote children’s social care innovation
Joe Lepper
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
A council, charity and private sector partnership has launched to improve innovation, including the use of technology, in children’s social care.
The partnership is also gathering examples of innovative work already taking place to improve the lives of vulnerable children.
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Children’s charity Coram’s innovation arm, Coram-i, is running the partnership, that involves eight councils as well as Microsoft. It is also looking for a further nine councils to sign up.
To launch the partnership, called the Coram Innovation Incubator, a survey has been released highlighting the attitudes to innovation among children’s services providers.
The 41 providers that responded include councils, charities, independent fostering agencies (IFAs) and voluntary adoption agencies (VAAs).
This found that just over a third (39 per cent) describe their attitude to innovation as “game-changing or radical”. However, most describe their level of innovation as either “sustaining” or “incremental”.
Charities are more likely than VAAs and IFAs to have dedicated resources for innovation, the survey found. While eight out of ten charities have such an allocation, this dips to around a third for VAAs (33 per cent) and IFAs (38 per cent).
Around half of councils (46 per cent) do not have a dedicated funding or staff for innovation in children's social care.
Among examples of council investment in innovation highlighted is the creation of the role of strategic director of transformation at Salford City Council. This senior role brings together technology, human resources, policy, strategy and legal services. There is also a role of service lead for innovation within the council’s children’s directorate.
Lack of resources and aversion to risk are among key barriers for children’s social care providers in being innovative. Organisational culture is not seen as a significant barrier, however.
Issues providers are most looking to tackle through innovation are teenage mental health problems, safeguarding and youth crime.
An example of digital innovation the partnership gives is a linkup between Hillingdon Council and software company Axis. This sees technology used to analyse information from across the council’s partners, the public and local community groups to highlight risks to young people.
“Safeguarding teams, including the police, are then afforded a comprehensive oversight of key trends, themes, locations and associations which they can utilise to efficiently and effectively target their interventions to dismantle exploitative networks and protect young people,” says a report produced by Coram-i.
“A monthly Axis bulletin also tracks developments related to adolescent safeguarding, informing partners of new exploitation methods to look out for,” it adds.
Coram Group chief executive Carol Homden hopes that the partnership will “become the go-to place for cross-sector partnership building capacity, leveraging expertise, technologies and co-production to create better chances for children and young people for the future”.
Councils involved in the partnership are the London boroughs of Redbridge, Bromley, Havering and Newham, as well as North Yorkshire and Hertfordshire county councils, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and Stoke City Council.
“Innovation is an essential ingredient for high performing services and the Coram Innovation Incubator provides an important vehicle for the sector to collaborate in pursuit of high impact, radical solutions that address our biggest challenges at a time of immense need,” said Redbridge council’s corporate director of people Adrian Loades.
Professional services firm Ernst & Young (EY) will provide further support in organising the partnership. Also involved is the London Innovation and Improvement Alliance.