Third of councils yet to consider future multi-agency arrangements

On the back of recommendations made in Sir Alan Wood's 2016 review of LSCBs the government intends to introduce a new statutory framework that will effectively remove the requirement for councils to have LSCBs.

Instead, there will be a requirement on three partners - local authorities, the police and the health service - to make arrangements for working together on child protection in a local area.

A Department for Education survey of senior local authority leaders found that 34 per cent of councils had not considered the implications, or started formulating plans, but "planned to in the future".

Among the 66 per cent that had considered the impact, there was found to be "some concern" over the requirement to move from existing partnerships to a new arrangement.

"Some [local authorities] said that the current arrangements worked well and that they were looking to minimise the impact of the new [legislation], or that they had no plans to change current arrangements.

"Others felt that the main challenge of the [legislation] will be to establish new partnerships, or to change the nature of existing partnerships to allow more flexibility. Some also mentioned that they were concerned about reduced resources meaning that some partners will be less engaged."

Concerns have previously been raised that the changes could risk "confusing and distracting" the sector. But the DfE said the response to the draft guidance around the changes was "generally positive".

The findings formed part of a wide-ranging survey covering a range of issues - constituting wave three of the DfE's Children's Services Omnibus.

In terms of outsourcing delivery of children's services, the survey found a "largely unchanged" picture since late 2016, when wave one of the survey was conducted.

A total of 12 per cent of local authorities said they outsourced delivery of children's services to a mutual, compared with seven per cent in wave one.

Meanwhile, around one in five outsourced delivery to a not-for-profit (21 per cent compared with 23 per cent in 2016) and half outsourced services to a voluntary sector partner (52 per cent compared with 57 per cent in 2016).

The survey also asked councils whether they had considered the impact of the UK's withdrawal from the European Union.

"Few responding local authorities had begun formally assessing the potential implications of the UK's withdrawal from the European Union for children's social care," the report states.

It found that just 12 per cent had one in development, while just over a third (35 per cent) said they planned to do so in the future.

Just over half (51 per cent) said that they had no plans to conduct an assessment.