UPDATE NO 478 05 November 2021

Black and Asian Leadership Initiative (BALI) January 2022

As part of the Take Your Place future leadership programme, we are promoting The Staff College’s Black and Asian Leadership Initiative course being offered virtually on 27, 28 January and 4 May 2022. Places for staff from SESLIP members are funded via the SESLI Programme.

More information on this link.

To book your place, or for further discussion, please contact Mark Evans (details below) by the 12 November.

SESLIP Special Guardianship conference – Tuesday 30 November 1-4pm interactive and online

This is an interactive online 3 hour conference open to all working on Special Guardianship in the 19 local authorities in the South East. It will be held 1-4pm Tuesday November 30 2021, online event register here, for social workers, managers and anyone else with an interest or seeking to build their experience in Special Guardianship.

Any questions please contact Rebecca Eligon (details below)

Hear from Lucy Peake, the Chief Executive of national charity Kinship on the trends being observed nationally on Special Guardianship and the national task and finish group focusing on SG as well as the implications and relevance of the Care Review to Special Guardianship
Understand the Special Guardianship audit tool developed by the national Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board (which can be applied to your LA to assess the quality of practice). There is also an offer of free coaching support to apply the tool after the conference.
Hear from Special Guardians, other LAs in the South East about their practice models (both the strengths and challenges) and tell us what you would like to see in a SG training programme for South East LAs that will be running in the new year

Register for the free event here

CMA social care market study interim report

On 22 October, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published its interim report of the market study into children’s social care provision. 

The interim report sets out the initial findings and seeks views on our analysis of market outcomes, emerging conclusions on potential drivers of poor outcomes and early stage thinking on possible recommendations.

The CMA is inviting views on the interim report, please email written submissions to children@cma.gov.uk by 12 November 2021.

Click to access the report (html); report (pdf); appendicies (html); appendices (pdf).

Tackling child exploitation learning and events programme

The Tackling Child Exploitation (TCE) Programme has launched a series of free online learning events focused on child exploitation and extra-familial harm. The events are designed for strategic leaders and senior managers across the multi-agency partnership.

The next events are:

PARTNERSHIP RESPONSES TO CHILD EXPLOITATION AND EXTRA-FAMILIAL HARM 10 November 2021, 10:30am – 12:30pm

EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP IN A STRENGTHS-BASED PARTNERSHIP TO TACKLE CHILD EXPLOITATION AND EXTRA-FAMILIAL HARM 18 November 2021, 11:00am – 12:30pm

MISSING FROM EDUCATION: CHILD EXPLOITATION, EXCLUSION AND RISK 8 December 2021, 3:45pm – 5:15pm

ALL IN: FORMING CONSTRUCTIVE COALITIONS 9 December 2021, 11:00am – 1:00pm

HoC Library Research Briefing: Support for Care Leavers

On 20 October 2021, the House of Commons Library published a research briefing paper: Support for Care Leavers.This paper provides an overview of the UK Government’s policies to support care leavers in key areas

The DfE’s Keep on Caring noted that care leavers generally experience worse outcomes than their peers across a number of indicators. The National Audit Office’s Care leavers’ transition to adulthood (2015) identified poorer life outcomes as a “longstanding problem” and one whose “public cost […] is likely to be high”, giving rise to additional costs in mental health, employment, education, policing and justice services.

Future dates for network meetings

Lead Members Group: Friday 3 December – Joint meeting with DCSs. More information from Alison Michalska (contact details below)

Data Benchmarking: Thursday 9 December 2021. More information from Alastair Lee (contact details below)

Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board: More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

AD Education: Friday 12 November – 10.00am. More information from Chris Owen (contact details below)

AD Safeguarding: Friday 10 December 2021. More information from Mark Evans (contact details below)

QA Network: ***NEW DATE*** Thursday 6 January 2022. 2pm – 5pm. The meeting will consider performance of health and dental assessments for Children looked after. More information from Amanda Meadows (contact details below)

Fostering Network: More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

SEND SE19: LA and Health SEND Conversation 30 November 2021 More information from Tracey Maytas (contact details below)

Political leadership of effective Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) systems. 10 Nov 2021 1.30pm to 4.00pm.

LGA online workshop for Lead Members of Children’s Services, Scrutiny Chairs and other political influencers who shape the leadership of SEND.

This session will build on and complement the Leadership Essentials course for Children’s Services and provides an opportunity to focus in more depth on political leadership of the SEND agenda.

The event will explore a range of challenges in relation to improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND and their families including strategic leadership, effective partnerships and understanding what makes a SEND system effective. There will be opportunities to hear from councils that have demonstrated good practice, and a chance for delegates to network and share their own experiences

Speakers have now been confirmed for the first workshop in our thematic series, we are very excited to have:

• Councillor Anntoinette Bramble, Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for education, young people and children’s social care, London Borough of Hackney and Chair, LGA Children and Young People Board, chairing the afternoon
• Tony McArdle, Chair of SEND Systems Leadership Board and independent adviser to the current SEND Review, who will be sharing his thoughts on the SEND delivery landscape, giving an overview of the national perspective.
• Edwina Grant OBE, Chair of the ADCS Health, Care and Additional Needs Policy Committee and Executive Director of Education and Children’s Services, Lancashire County Council and, will speak from the ADCS perspective in relation to the SEND improvement journey for Local Authorities.
• Dame Christine Lenehan, Director, Council for Disabled Children, will speak from the partnership perspective in relation to embedding a whole systems approach to SEND

This workshop is free to members and will be delivered via Zoom, book a place on Eventbrite. If you have any queries please contact Sangeeta.Bowman-York@local.gov.uk.

Characteristics of Children in Need 2021

On 28 October 2021, DfE published the Characteristics of Children in Need analysis for the reporting year 2021. Alistair Herbert 07761 328665 ( Data to Insight Manager) has updated the Benchmarking and CHaT tools to include the new data release.

These statistics, derived from the annual Children in Need Census, provide data on children in England referred to children’s social care services, assessments carried out relating to those children and whether a child became the subject of a child protection plan.

PAC report on impact of NFF changes

On 22 October 2021, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee published its report on school funding.

• Read the full Report (PDF 224 KB)
• Read the report summary
• Find all publications related to this inquiry, including oral and written evidence

The report says the DfE “failed to take enough account of the impact of its decisions on individual schools and their pupils” when it announced changes to the school funding system, with the adverse impacts falling “disproportionately on deprived local areas and schools”. 

Independent review of children’s social care in England

The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care has published a summary of the more than 300 submissions received in response to its Case for Change, which set out the Review’s early thinking about what needs to change in the children’s social care system in England.

The feedback summary shares the messages from answers to questions in each chapter of the Case for Change highlighting where there is agreement and where views differ. Read the news story. Read the full report.