Bulletin: 30 March - ADCS

TOWARDS EXCELLENCE FOR CHILDREN
Sector-led improvement and support in children’s services
Children’s Improvement Board Bulletin 11
30 March 2012
SECTOR-LED IMPROVEMENT AND SUPPORT IN CHILDREN’S
SERVICES
Welcome to the latest bulletin from the Children’s Improvement Board (CIB).
This bulletin provides updates on progress in developing and implementing
sector led improvement for children’s services.
CIB is a partnership board set up by the Local Government Association
(LGA), the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), and
SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives) supported by the
Department for Education (DfE). It is a direction setting and decision making
group that is responsible for the overall delivery of a new programme to
develop sector led improvement for children’s services. More details about
sector led improvement can be found on our website: www.local.gov.uk/CIB
ROUND UP OF NEWS AND RECENT ACTIVITY
1. Looking forward to 2012-13
In its first full year operation, the Children’s Improvement Board will be
focusing on four priorities to support a systematic, intelligence led and
sustainable approach to self improvement These are:
• Promoting and supporting peer challenge so that all councils are
involved: this is critical to building a culture of trust and mutual support
• Reducing the number of councils subject to improvement notices.
• Stronger ownership of self- improvement by the sector, including
councillors and chief executives
• Supporting councils to deal with the impact of new policy developments
2. Working with regions
Delivering on these priorities will depend on the active support of councils. As
last year, part of the CIB budget is being allocated to regions to spend in
support of self improvement. A total of £3.018m will be allocated across the
nine regions based on number of councils and population. In each region
there is a lead director of children’s services, lead member for children and
chief executive and we will be looking to these colleagues to support and
champion self improvement in their region. A list of the three leads identified
by each region is attached.
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These regional arrangements are relatively new and the CIB team will be
working to build closer links with regions and to get the balance right between
the regional and national support offered through CIB. To take this forward a
meeting of the lead DCSs from each region will take place on 16 April and we
will be writing shortly to invite all three leads from each region to a meeting at
the end of May. We hope these initial meetings will form the basis of a
stronger dialogue between local authorities working in regions and the
national CIB team during this year.
Because of the importance of peer challenge to building a culture of mutual
trust and support, CIB will be carrying out an early evaluation of the impact of
peer challenge in the summer, with a view to reporting the findings in the early
autumn. More details of this evaluation will follow shortly.
3. Supporting councils on adoption
At the time of writing, the government has announced its intention to produce
local authority scorecards on adoption, including performance thresholds for
the timeliness of adoption processes. The Children’s Improvement Board has
been considering its response to this initiative and echoed concerns that this
represents an apparent reversal of the government’s commitment to a sector
led approach. The partners on CIB have taken the view that, irrespective of
these concerns, the implementation of the adoption policy will pose a serious
challenge in a significant number of councils and that it is essential to be in a
position to offer support to them. CIB will advise on and commission a
“diagnostic” process which will be of particular assistance to those councils
that may be approached by the DfE with questions over their performance
following the publication of scorecards. The diagnostic assessment is
intended to assist councils in understanding and presenting the picture behind
any scorecard data or indicators and to help in shaping its response to the
DfE. We will continue to keep you informed as this area of policy develops.
4. Early support and information sharing
At its last meeting on 12 March, the Children’s Improvement Board discussed
an LGA paper setting out an overarching framework for sector led
improvement, including managing the risk of under performance. This
framework will set the context for support to councils in children’s services
and will bring together the three different strands of sector led support around
corporate issues, children’s services led by CIB and adult social care led by
Towards Excellence in Adult Social Care.
Local government is currently in a transition from high levels of assessment
and inspection to a sector led approach, with inspection being risk based and
limited to services affecting vulnerable people. In developing a sector led
approach, the LGA consulted widely with councils and received strong
backing for a number of key principles:
• Councils are responsible for their own performance and improvement
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• Councils are accountable to local communities, not government or
inspectorates
• Councils have a collective responsibility for the performance of the
sector as a whole
• The role of the LGA is to lobby for further reductions in inspection,
assessment and data reporting; to maintain an overview of the
performance of the sector in order to identify potential performance
challenges and opportunities and to provide tools and support to help
councils take advantage of this new approach
An LGA paper on sector led improvement and CIB appendices setting out the
approach to children’s services in more detail will be published and circulated
to councils shortly.
5. Integrated working
The Children’s Workforce Development Council will cease to operate from the
end of March. As part of the winding up process, a number of online
resources have been transferred to the Children’s Improvement Board and
are now available on the LGA’s Knowledge Hub (Khub). To log on to Khub
and access the documents, please use the following link:
https://knowledgehub.local.gov.uk/signin?p_p_id=58&p_p_lifecycle=0&_58_re
direct=%2Fgroup%2Fchildrensimprovementboard%2Factivity
6. Youth innovation
Under the umbrella of the Children's Improvement Board (CIB) the
government’s Positive for Youth statement before Christmas announced the
setting up of a small network of Youth Innovation Zones to act as pioneers
and assist wider development of new approaches. CIB’s delivery partner for
this initiative is FPM. The government aims to promote sector led
improvement of services, and working with the LGA wants to support
innovation and creative re-design of youth support. There will be a small
budget from CIB (likely to be between £400k and £500k in total) to support a
number of new innovation zones in 2012/13 led by local councils.
The bidding process is now open and applications information can be made
via the LGA Knowledge Hub website (https://knowledgehub.local.gov.uk). You
will be required to register onto the site, once this is done please search
supporting services for young people to access all relevant
documentation. If you have any issues accessing the information or have any
questions please contact abby.sharpe@fpmonline.co.uk 0116 249 5000.
7. Implementing policy
On 7 March CIB convened a workshop on putting policy into practice. A report
from the event is attached.
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8. CIB contact
For enquiries on CIB please contact
childrens_improvement_board@local.gov.uk .
Peer reviews and peer challenge – what’s the difference?
These terms are used in different ways:
Sector led peer challenge for children’s services, now being developed in
regions, refers to an annual process of self evaluation and challenge involving
two or more councils. It is developing in different ways in different places to
meet local needs. It is intended to be a light touch process and there is no
prescribed format. The challenge can relate to any aspect of children's
services. Sector led peer challenge for children’s services mainly relies on
time which is donated by officers or councillors in a local authority, in return
for challenge from others.
The children's safeguarding peer review is the title used for a specialist review
of children's safeguarding that is on offer to all local authorities once every
three years, funded via the Children's Improvement Board. The exact focus
for the review is discussed with the local authority but there is an established
model that is followed. Children’s safeguarding peer reviews need to be
booked with the peer review team via
Paul Curran curran56@yahoo.co.uk 07738 600101
Caroline Bosdet caroline.bosdet@local.gov.uk 07876 106183
Beyond children’s services, all councils are also entitled to a free corporate
peer challenge every three years, via the LGA. For more information contact
Andy Bates, Principal Adviser Peer Support andy.bates@local.gov.uk 07919
562849.
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Regional leads March 2012
E Mids
Cllr Patricia Lincolnshire cllrp.bradwell@lincolnshire.gov.uk
Bradwell (lead
member)
Anthony May Nottinghamshire cfcs.director@nottscc.gov.uk
(DCS)
John Sinnott Leicestershire john.sinnott@leics.gov.uk
(Chief Exec)
Eastern
Cllr David Brown Cambridgeshire david.brown@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
(lead member)
Jenny Coles Hertfordshire jenny.coles@hertscc.gov.uk
(DCS)
Gillian Beasley Peterborough gillian.beasley@peterborough.gov.uk
(Chief Exec)
London
Cllr Steve Reed Lambeth
sreed@lambeth.gov.uk
(lead member)
Eleanor
Islington
eleanor.schooling@islington.gov.uk
Schooling (DCS)
Cheryl Coppell Havering
cheryl.coppell@havering.gov.uk
(Chief Exec)
North East
Cllr Pat Smith Sunderland cllr.patricia.smith@sunderland.gov.uk
(lead member)
John Collings Newcastle john.collings@newcastle.gov.ukj
(DCS)
Barry Rowland Newcastle barry.rowland@newcastle.gov.uk
(Chief Exec)
North West
Cllr Ian Moncur Sefton
ian.moncur@councillors.sefton.gov.uk
(lead member)
Peter Morgan Sefton
peter.morgan@sefton.gov.uk
(DCS)
Diana Terris Warrington dterris@warrington.gov.uk
(Chief Exec)
South East
Cllr Rob Stanton Wokingham rob.stanton@wokingham.gov.uk
(lead member)
Janette Karklins Bracknell Forest janette.karklins@bracknell-forest.gov.uk
(DCS)
Steve Beynon Isle of Wight steve.beynon@iow.gov.uk
(Chief Exec)
South West
Cllr Toni Coombs Dorset
t.b.coombs@dorsetcc.gov.uk
(lead member)
Ashley Ayre Bath and North ashley_ayre@bathnes.gov.uk
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(DCS)
Amanda Deeks
(Chief Exec)
W Mids
Cllr Ann Hartley
(lead member)
David Taylor
(DCS)
Mark Rogers
((Chief Exec)
Yorks and
Humber
Cllr Linda
Burgess (lead
member)
Elaine McHale
(DCS)
Martin Kimber
(Chief Exec)
East Somerset
South
Gloucestershire
Shropshire
Shropshire
Solihull
Barnsley
Wakefield
Rotherham
amanda.deeks@southglos.gov.uk
ann.hartley@shropshire.gov.uk
david.taylor@shropshire.gov.uk
mrogers@solihull.gov.uk
cllrlindaburgess@barnsley.gov.uk
emchale@wakefield.gov.uk
chiefexecutive@rotherham.gov.uk
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