Childrenโs services are continuing to deliver improvements and sustain strong performance, despite significant national challenges, a new report commissioned by the Local Government Association (LGA) reveals today.ย
The report
The LGA’s report,ย A maturing approach to childrenโs services improvement: updating the key enablers of progress,ย highlights how local partnerships are doing โinspiring workโ which is โtestament to how transformation can be achieved at a local level with the right enabling factors in placeโ.ย
The report says the seven key enablers underpinning childrenโs services improvement have โstood the test of timeโ since the research was previously carried out in 2016.
These enablers, which are essential to improving childrenโs services and sustaining strong performance, include having a strategic approach, leadership and governance, engaging and supporting the workforce, engaging partners, building the supporting apparatus, fostering innovation, and judicious use of resources.
The report says these are still relevant today, providing a solid and practical framework for improvement.
It also reveals the โundeniable impactโ of Covid, which has brought new children and families to the attention of childrenโs services who may not have previously needed help, and intensified calls on mental health services for children and adults, along with far-reaching changes in how the childrenโs workforce operates.
In addition, it finds the increasing complexity of the needs of young people, particularly adolescents, has been accelerated by the pandemic.
However, the report suggests what childrenโs services can achieve is โtranscendedโ by bigger and wider systemic challenges.ย These include policies not always being joined up at a national level, structural challenges in recruiting and retaining workforce, lack of placements for children with the most complex needs, and the need for greater investment in services.ย
Councils have been rising to these challenges through a โculture changeโ in workforce and closer partnership working. The voice and lived experiences of children is also at the heart of the improvement effort.ย As well as helping drive improvement at a local level, it is suggested these could be a โuseful yardstickโ for national policy too.ย
The LGA’s response
Cllr Louise Gittins, Chair of the LGAโs Children and Young People Board, said:
โIt is very positive to see that councils are continuing to deliver improvements in childrenโs services, and a testament to their tireless efforts to ensure children and young people get the support they need.
โHowever this report is a reminder of the much wider, systemic challenges faced by councils, including escalating funding concerns.
โWhile councils have responded well to these challenges, what is clear is that we need to see a national response that provides the investment and reform that childrenโs services desperately need.
โThe Autumn Statement is an opportunity for the Government to provide significant additional funding for all councils that can be wisely invested in stabilising the current system to ensure strong foundations on which to build future reform.โ
Final thought
Children’s services are vital and the role of local government in meeting the needs of the next generation should not be understated.