Paul Kissack, Director of Children’s Social Care Policy at the Department for Education, attended Councillors’ Forum in place of Edward Timpson MP who was unavailable. Sir Merrick welcomed Paul Kissack to provide an update on the Department’s Innovation Programme, adoption reforms and the Julian Le Grand review of children’s services.

Mr Kissack outlined the key aim of the Social Care Innovation Programme; to fundamentally rethink core aspects of children’s social care. The programme is a break from past innovation schemes, where central government would dictate and set the parameters of what they wanted local authorities to do. The Social Care Innovation programme instead would retain an open-mind on local authority initiatives. The programme has £30 million of funding this year, with good prospects for future funding. Ministerial support for the programme and their appetite for receiving ideas from local government is strong.

Mr Kissack updated on the consultation on commissioning to third parties in children’s services. The proposals will grant freedoms for local authorities to delegate to a third party and this could potentially include all aspects within Children’s services. Statutory duties will not be removed from Local authorities.

The Le Grand review looked at options as to how best improve council’s children’s services. Outsourcing was discussed to other local authorities and the private sector, however it was noted that the market was not particularly strong or diverse at the moment.

There are positive examples of local authorities supporting each other to improve, for instance the Isle of Wight and the Department for Education are looking at how this can be taken further and are currently tendering to assist with this work.

Members discussed:

·         More effective early intervention

·         A more holistic approach to children’s services

·         Giving Local Authorities the freedom to progress their children’s services from adequate to excellent.