Timpson announces study into children's services outsourcing

Children’s minister Edward Timpson announced today that he has asked a team of children’s services experts led by Professor Julian Le Grand to research ways of delivering children’s services nationally outside of council control.

The study will assess what outsourcing options currently exist and how these can be developed further. The minister has asked Le Grand to report the findings by September.  

Timpson revealed details of the study in a letter to Sir Albert Bore, leader of Birmingham Council, in response to Professor Le Grand’s review of Birmingham’s struggling children’s services, which recommended the appointment of an independent children’s commissioner to oversee improvement.
 
He wrote: “I have accepted professor Le Grand’s recommendation that we should explore how improvement capacity can be created or promoted in the children’s services system nationally and that as part of this work, specific consideration should be given to potential longer-term solutions for Birmingham.
 
“I have therefore decided to commission a piece of work, overseen by Professor Le Grand, to look at developing capacity for delivering children’s services outside of local authorities – to be used not only in future thinking about the commissioning of services in Birmingham but elsewhere.”

In a letter to Le Grand, also published today, Timpson said he would like the study team to include chief social worker Isabelle Trowler and president-to-be of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) Alan Wood.

The ADCS has confirmed that Wood, who takes over as president on 1 April, has accepted the invite.

Both Trowler and Wood were part of Le Grand’s team that carried out the Birmingham review and a separate study last year into Doncaster children’s services, which recommended removing children’s social care from the council and placing it under the management of an independent trust.

At the time, some questioned whether Wood’s involvement in the Birmingham and Doncaster reviews put him too close to government, and his involvement in the new study could see these concerns resurface.

A Department for Education spokeswoman said rather than developing a range of “off-the-shelf” models for outsourcing children’s services, the new Le Grand study would aim to identify “frameworks and principles” that could be used by local authorities.

She added: “It is about increasing the capacity available to councils. Ever since Doncaster we’ve been trying to get away from the one trust model – Doncaster was bespoke.”

The ADCS said exploring further models of improvement for children’s services is a “positive step”.

Andrew Webb, ADCS president, said: “Our number one priority is improving all of our services to ensure the best outcomes for children and their families.

“ADCS and its members will continue to work constructively with the DfE and other partners to ensure that children receive high-quality services to meet their needs regardless of where they live.”