Prime Minister David Cameron has today announced radical reforms that will allow charities, as well as high-performing local authorities and experts, to take over poorly performing children’s services from local authorities.
The reforms demand that failing children’s services must improve, or they will be taken over. As part of the reforms, sharper triggers will be put in place so an emergency Ofsted inspection can be ordered where there are concerns about an authority’s performance.
Cameron has also announced a drive to recruit new trust sponsors from the charity sector to “help deliver innovative children’s services”. Education Secretary Nicky Morgan will also chair a roundtable in the new year with local authorities, as well as major charities such as Barnardo’s and the NSPCC.
Cameron said: “Children’s services support the most vulnerable children in our society. They are in our care; we, the state, are their parents; and we are failing them. It is our duty to put this right; to say poorly performing local authorities: improve, or be taken over. We will not stand by while children are let down by inadequate social services.
“This will be one of the big landmark reforms of this Parliament, as transformative as what we did in education in the last. And it shows how serious we are about confronting state failure and tackling some the biggest social problems in our country. Together we will make sure that not a single child is left behind.”
The reforms mean that underperforming local authorities, which have persistently failed in the past, will be taken over immediately.
Triggers could include complaints from whistle-blowers or evidence of poor leadership. The Prime Minister has said that high-performing local authorities, experts in child protection and charities will be brought in to turn children’s services around – including by acting as sponsors and by forming ‘trusts’ to take over authorities which are judged to be failing.
This is the first time that a “formalised academy style system will be put in place so that any local authority judged as inadequate by Ofsted has to show significant improvement within 6 months or be taken over”.
If the children’s services fails to improve within 6 months of their Oftsed inspection, a new service leader will be put in place and high-performing local authorities and charities will be brought in.
Peter Wanless, NSPCC’s chief executive, said: “Tackling child abuse is the greatest challenge of our generation. So an increased government focus alongside these reforms, to help reduce the risk of harm to vulnerable children, is very welcome.
“Child protection is often a huge and complex area but too frequently some services have failed in this crucial duty. When this happens swift action is an absolute priority to prevent tragedies that shame us all. And we need to ensure that if tragedy does befall a child, that we then learn the lessons from serious case reviews, something that year after year is not done.”
Wanless highlighted NSPCC’s Blackpool Better Start programme as an example of how collaborations between charity and local services can work.
Sunderland children’s services becomes a voluntary trust
As part of these reforms, the Prime Minister has also announced that Sunderland’s children’s services will become a voluntary trust established by Nick Whitfield, who is also chief executive and director of children’s services for Achieving for Children at Kingston and Richmond on Thames.
The trust will take “immediate action to improve Sunderland’s performance following a very poor Ofsted inspection in July which found widespread failure of leadership”. It will appoint new service leaders to step in and tackle failings in Norfolk and Sandwell children’s services.
Clarification: This story has been updated to state that Nick Whitfield will remain in his role at Achieving for Children while carrying out his role as commissioner in Sunderland.
