Newsletters
Our Regional Improvement Plan can be found here
Our Impact Report published in March 2023 can be found here
If you would like to apply to be a SESLIP consultant, please follow this link to Kent Business Portal – KentBusinessPortal and after registering on the portal, search for Ref – SC240046 – SESLIP – DPS
Updates
Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive
On 18 November DfE published Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive – breaking down barriers to opportunity
A policy statement setting out the government’s commitment to whole system reform of the children’s social care system.
The Minister’s statement is here (Hansard)
Headlines
- Wherever possible children should remain with their families and be safely prevented from entering care in the first place, there is lots of learning to draw from here e.g. youth justice teams, SureStart, Supporting Families, Families First for Children
- Support children to live with kinship or foster carers rather than residential care via the use of family-based decision making, rolling out kinship reforms and recruiting more foster carers
- Fix the broken care market via a range of measures to improve competition, regulation and commissioning, as well as shining a light on the levels of profit being made
- A focus on key enablers including better data and information sharing, spreading evidence-based programmes and the workforce.
The Staff College Festival 2025 – NOW BOOKING
The Staff College Festival 2025 runs from Monday 3 – Friday 14 February 2025.
This is an opportunity to grow your network, hear from industry experts and develop your skills, all for free – it’s The Staff College’s gift to you!
Testimonials from previous years:
“It was great to meet so many people in other areas of work. I really enjoyed attending.”
“Really insightful and made me think about how little we have moved forward and has given me more reasons to take this back to my SLM.”
“The breadth of events on offer are very relevant to my own context – refreshing! Good to hear from experienced speakers with high quality information and insight.”
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to join the 2025 festival. Click here to book.
10% drop in mainstream foster care household numbers since 2021
On 7 November Ofsted published Fostering in England 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024
Headlines
Despite rising care population, the number of non-kinship foster households fell for third consecutive year in 2023-24, with sector charity citing lack of support, respect and remuneration for carers as causes.
Number of children in care drops for first time in 16 years
On 14 November DfE published Children looked after in England including adoptions 2023-2024
83,630 children in care
- A marginal decline of 130 children in care on 31 March compared with the same time last year.
- On 31 March this year 83,630 children were in care.
- This marks the first year-on-year decline since 2008 when figures dropped to 60,920 from 59,960.
Reminders From Previous Weeks
The effect of Sure Start on youth misbehaviour, crime and contacts with children’s social care
On 23 October IFS published The effect of Sure Start on youth misbehaviour, crime and contacts with children’s social care
Headlines
- access to Sure Start in the first five years of life was associated with a significant reduction in youth crime that resulted in convictions or custodial sentences;
- there was no significant effect on referrals to children’s social care services between ages 7 and 16; and
- children in care during late primary school (ages 7 to 11) spent around 13% less time being looked after if they had access to Sure Start services.
Resources to support new agency social worker guidance and employer standards
On 31 October DfE published Resources to support new agency social worker guidance and employer standards
Developed by Research in Practice, Essex County Council and King’s College, London with the invaluable support of local government,
The resources aim to support:
- The implementation of new statutory guidance for child and family agency social workers.
- Employers to meet the standards for employers of social workers.
- Hosted by the Local Government Association, the standards set out what employers are expected to do to support social workers.
Artificial intelligence use cases
LGA has published a report on its survey of the whole local government sector and a series of AI use cases including children’s services in
If your council is adopting or implementing AI and would like to be featured on our use case bank, please contact Tom Hindmarch.
AI and Early Years: Transforming Children’s Services with Intelligent Automation
LGA has organised a series of three seminars presented by Adam Hindhaugh, strategic early help transformation lead at Halton Council explored innovative AI and digital solutions in order to enhance service delivery, streamline processes, and improve outcomes for children and families within Halton Council.
28 September and 7 November (recordings available, to arrange access please contact elizabeth.hodgman@local.gov.uk
28 November 14:00 – 15:30 Using AI and Intelligent Automation to support your waiting well strategy
IWiL Cohort 2 Manchester
The Staff College is happy to announce that applications for IWiL Cohort 2 Manchester are now open!
Key details:
Date: Tuesday 18th March 2025
Location: etc.venues Manchester, 11 Portland Street, Manchester M1 3HU
Price: £375 + VAT
Additional Information: This is a full day workshop (9am to 5pm) with light breakfast, lunch and refreshments included.
Explore Perinatal and Early Years Risks of Parental Conflict
On 3 December, 9:30-4:00, The Staff College, LGA and Foundations are hosting a symposium focused on perinatal and early years risks of parental conflict
This is an exclusive opportunity for Safeguarding Children Partnerships across England to be part of a groundbreaking initiative. Be sure to nominate your partnership’s most appropriate representative to attend and secure your spot at this must-attend event!
We would be grateful if you could share this opportunity with your local Safeguarding Children Partnership link and invite them to think about who might be most appropriate to join us, and to keep a look out for the invitation when it arrives.
Your nominated safeguarding representative should use this form to register their attendance.
Venue: Edgbaston Park Hotel, Birmingham B15 2RS
Cost: free to delegates
We are working on an exciting piece of DWP Funded work with ‘Foundations’ and the ‘LGA’ to explore perinatal and early years risks of parental conflict.
We have invited each Safeguarding Children Partnerships to identify who their most appropriate representative should be, to join us on December 3rd 2024 at Edgbaston Park Hotel, Birmingham, for a learning and development symposium where we will engage in conversations about how a systems leadership approach can benefit this area. There will also be opportunities for sharing and developing strategies and approaches for progressing this nationally, regionally and locally.
We will follow this symposium in the new year with two facilitated Community Of Practice Events that will hopefully develop into systems led communities.
Possible amendments to the Health Education and Social Care Chamber Rules 2008
On 12 September MoJ published a consultation on possible changes to the Health Education and Social Care Chamber Rules regarding whether Special Educational Needs appeals can be dealt with on the papers without the consent of both parties.
Consultation closes 5 December 2024
The tribunals want to deal with their backlog by changing the process for responding to requests for assessment on paper without a hearing. Furthermore, they are seeking to remove the LAs ability to challenge this or specifically request an in-person hearing.
The consultation document is here
The response questionnaire is here
Ways to respond ; Email to: tpcsecretariat@justice.gov.uk Write to: Tribunal Procedure Committee, Access to Justice Directorate
Policy, Communications and Analysis Group, Ministry of Justice, Post Point: Area 5.20, 102 Petty France. London, SW1H 9AJ
Law Commission opens consultation on Disabled Children’s Social Care
On 8 October the Law Commission published a consultation on Disabled Children’s Social Care.
The consultation is open until 20 January 2025
The consultation paper is available here. A summary can be accessed here.
Headlines
The Law Commission is reviewing the legal framework governing social care for disabled children in England to ensure that the law is fair, modern and accessible, allowing children with disabilities to access the support they need.
See Law Commissioner Professor Alison Young introduce the consultation here (You Tube)
The Law Commission invites responses from anyone with experience of, or interest in, social care for disabled children. It particularly encourages responses from children and young people, parents and carers, and social workers and local authorities. Responses can be provided using the online form that is available here. If you need the response form in an alternative format please email dcsc@lawcommission.gov.uk
Tools & Templates
We have produced a Regional Improvement Plan (June 2024)
On 18 November DfE published Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive – breaking down barriers to opportunity
On 14 November DfE published Children looked after in England including adoptions 2023-2024
On 7 November Ofsted published Fostering in England 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024
On 31 October DfE published Resources to support new agency social worker guidance and employer standards
On 31 October DfE published Children in need: 2023 to 2024
On 24 October NAO published Support for children and young people with special educational needs
On 23 October IFS published The effect of Sure Start on youth misbehaviour, crime and contacts with children’s social care
On 9 October the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse launched its Data Insights Hub
On 8 October the Law Commission published a consultation on Disabled Children’s Social Care. The consultation is open until 20 January 2025
On 7 October Coram Voice published Disability, disparity and demand
On 4 October LGA published its school attendance support survey 2024
On 2 October, LGA published Listening and engaging with care experienced individuals: A good practice guide. Includes case studies from: Medway and West Sussex
On 18 September The Fostering Network published Out of Pocket: Fairer Fees for Foster Carers
On 16 September Ofsted published revised school inspection handbooks
On 12 September, Ofsted (and other inspection agencies) published Joint targeted area inspection of the multi-agency response to children who are victims of domestic abuse – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
On 12 September MoJ published a consultation on possible changes to the Health Education and Social Care Chamber Rules
On 10 September The Children’s Commissioner published Children Missing Education: The Unrolled Story
On 10 September DfE published Key stage 2 attainment for academic year 2023/24
On 4 September The Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium published a briefing on age disputes
On 3 September Ofsted published a detailed response to its ‘Big Listen’ consultation,
On 3 September Children at the Table published Struggling against the tide: children’s services spending 2022-2023
On 23 August Become published Still Too Far – Children in Care being moved miles from the people and places that matter to them
On 23 August Kinship published Forgotten, a report on support for kinship children’s education and mental health.
On 21 August Action for Children published Four things you need to know about the UK care system
On 15 August NCB published A call for change – tackling inequalities in access to mental health support for children with social work involvement and those living in poverty
In August Skills for Care published Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) child and family Annual report to the Department for Education April 2023 – March 2024
On 31 July the Centre for Homelessness Impact published Staying put: leaving care and the risk of homelessness.
On Thursday 25 July LGA and County Councils Network published Towards an effective and financially sustainable approach to SEND in England