Allen's intervention could be too late

The remit of the review — to identify and support models of best practice and to find innovative funding mechanisms - is also right on the money. The only problem is that the Labour MP is not due to report on these two matters until next January and May respectively. By then, the cuts heralded by October's comprehensive spending review will have started to sting.

While there is cross-party consensus over the need to "invest to save" early in services to avert more costly, intensive interventions years later, this message won't necessarily be transmitted in town halls across the land. Children's centres, parenting support, drug and alcohol awareness projects, teenage mentoring work - just the sorts of programmes highlighted in a seminal joint report between Allen and Iain Duncan Smith two years ago, are far from safe as councils strive to make big savings.

Granted, the possibility of private sector investment in the form of social bonds offers some hope. But in the meantime, swathes of projects and workforce expertise could disappear, and with it the life chances of many children.

Collaboration has been crucial to Allen's achievements on early intervention in his own Nottingham North constituency, via the local strategic partnership known as One Nottingham. This government has been rather too blase about such formalised joint working arrangements, but they do work to identify needs and reduce duplication at minimal cost. Whatever the composition of local service delivery, they must persist in order to ensure children's needs come first.

See interview with Graham Allen.

Best Practice from 4Children

We are living in an age in which the best solutions are bottom-up, not top-down, we are told. Under this government, there will be less command and control from the centre, with less guidance and fewer duties, and instead more local freedom to shape services.

The whole thrust of public services is shifting from government policy to on-the-ground practice, as are the sources of learning and instruction. With this firmly mind in mind, this week sees our first "Best Practice" page, in association with charity 4Children (see p23). It will appear once a month, providing case studies, tips and advice across services for children, young people and families. We hope you find it useful.

Ravi Chandiramani, editor, Children & Young People Now