‘Nearly all’ council children’s services functions will be able to be delegated to third parties under new Government proposals.
The Department for Education has launched a consultation on its proposed regulations, with the results and the Government’s response due to be published in the summer.
However, if the proposals were approved, councils would continue to be held ultimately responsible.
The consultation read: ‘Delegation does not remove responsibility from the local authority for ensuring their statutory obligations are met and any breach of those obligations would be treated as a breach by the local authority.
‘Services provided under delegated arrangements will be considered by Ofsted as part of its single framework inspection arrangements and the local authority held to account.’
The Government believes its proposals will allow councils to ‘harness third party expertise’ and ‘stimulate new approaches to securing improvements in children’s services’.