New Joint Targeted Area Inspections to assess how different agencies are working together to support vulnerable children have just been launched. Joe Lepper explores how they work.
All children's services teams face the challenge of keeping staff turnover low against a landscape of tight budgets, so it is essential employers master the skills to retain, motivate and reward employees.
A new social work practice model, low caseloads and joined-up services have helped two of the three councils in a merged children's services department become the first to be judged "outstanding" by Ofsted's inspection system.
The importance of strong attachments from early childhood - and of tackling the damage caused by neglect where these attachments are lacking - is seeing greater recognition in both policy and practice.
Plans to reverse a fall in the number of children being adopted include changes to prioritise adoption over other forms of care, increased post-adoption support and speeding up the process of finding prospective adopters.
In early 2014, the tri-borough councils in London became one of the first areas to benefit from the Department for Education's £100m, two-year Children's Social Care Innovation Fund.
A record number of care applications were made in February, but experts differ over whether this is a sign of better child protection practice, the result of cuts to early help services or rising levels of poverty.
If children's services are to deliver improved outcomes with declining resources, the sector must embrace technology, joint working and volunteers, says Pillars and Foundations, a radical paper from the ADCS.
Growing recognition of the problem of child-to-parent violence has prompted new government guidance. Eileen Fursland looks at a range of approaches designed to tackle this complex issue.