Local children’s services are doing ‘inspiring work’ but find themselves held back by ‘much wider, systemic challenges’, a new report from the Local Government Association (LGA) has concluded.
The new study, entitled A maturing approach to children’s services improvement: updating the key enablers of progress, praises how children’s services have embraced a ‘culture change’ to deliver services.
However, the report warns that local services face several ‘systemic’ issues that hinder effective delivery. These include policy not always being joined up at a national level, workforce shortages, lack of placements for children with complex needs, and a lack of funds.
Cllr Louise Gittins, chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said the report was ‘a reminder of the much wider, systemic challenges faced by councils’.
She continued: ‘While 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 children’s services desperately need.
‘The 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.’
The report identifies a number of enablers which it says are essential to improving children’s services. These 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.
