Local authority leaders have welcomed a call from MPs to ‘embed a culture of evaluation in social care’ and to build on the success of the children’s social care innovation programme.

A new report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has praised the Department for Education’s 14-year, £333m children’s social care innovation programme, which aims to stimulate innovation and replicate successful approaches in children’s social care.

However, the PAC report said that the programme needs to go further to deliver ‘widespread improvement’.

The Innovation Programme was intended to improve outcomes for children in the social care system as well as producing savings. However, the committee ‘is not yet convinced the department’s dissemination of learning from the programme is delivering widespread improvement.’

The committee also called on the Department for Education to demonstrate how the evidence it is gathering is leading to improvements on the front line.

It also noted that the department has ‘further to go to embed a culture of evaluation in social care’ so that the opportunities to secure better outcomes for children are not lost when dedicated funding for these innovation projects ends.

Meg Hillier MP, chair of the PAC, said: ‘The Department for Education has established a proper approach to assessing whether its new programmes will actually deliver better outcomes for children in the care system and the taxpayer.

‘This is welcome. The test will be how it ensures that robust use of evidence to change the care system is not just a flash in the pan or dismissed as an expensive luxury at a time of cuts. It is vital that it is continued to make sure that these children receive the best support possible.

‘Reports of councils paying a million pounds a year, of taxpayers’ money, for a residential place for a single child with complex needs are a reminder of the cost to the taxpayer, and not always an indicator that the young person is getting the right support. In an historic public spending squeeze, getting better outcomes for the money spent is a win-win that we all want to see.’

Commenting on the report, Cllr Louise Gittins, chair of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Children and Young People Board, said: ‘It is good the committee backs our call to build on the success of the children’s social care innovation programme as councils face both financial pressures and increasing numbers of children requiring support for more complex needs.

‘The programme has been shown to decrease the rate of children in care in participating council areas, which highlights what councils can achieve when they are given additional funding. Therefore, it was disappointing that over a third of councils did not receive any extra funding from the programme, leaving them unable to develop, or in some cases maintain, crucial services that can make a difference to the lives of children and families.

‘Furthermore, it is vital the Government adequately funds children’s social care and stands by its commitment to respond to the independent review of children’s social care by the end of this year so that we can get on with the job of reforming the system without further delay.’