Making Ends Meet - Children's Services

OVERVIEW

Introduction
Managing children's budgets
Self assessment
The components

Introduction

The management of safe and effective services for children is arguably one of the most important tasks facing councils, and an area which is currently subject to considerable debate and change.

A government Green Paper - 'Every Child Matters' - was published whilst this toolkit was being prepared, and is likely to signal a period of further change. It contains specific proposals in relation to:

supporting parents and carers;
early intervention and effective protection;
accountability and service integration - locally, regionally and nationally; and
workforce reform.

The Green Paper can be viewed and downloaded from: www.dfes.gov.uk/everychildmatters

In November 2000, the Welsh Assembly Government published Children and Young People: A Framework for Partnership: http://www.wales.gov.uk/subichildren/toc-e.htm. The report began with a commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention sets out how the Assembly Government should act in all dealings with children and young people. Framework for Partnership also proposed a new method of planning services for children and young people through partnerships between local authorities, the Health Service, and other local bodies. It promised a simpler way of paying grants to local authorities. It set out a commitment to listening to children and young people and it referred to plans to establish a Children's Commissioner for Wales. A Ministerial Statement to be published early in 2004 will describe briefly what has been achieved over the last three years; set out what is being done at the moment; and outline the way forward.

In the meantime, Social Services maintain significant statutory responsibilities in this area, which largely derive from the Children Act 1989 and related guidance. Most of the important recent Department of Health Guidance and source materials for England can be found at the 'Quality Protects' website: www.doh.gov.uk/qualityprotects.

and for Wales in the Welsh Assembly Government's Children and Young People's site at:
www.wales.gov.uk/subichildren/index.htm.

Nine key government objectives were set out by the Department of Health in 'The Government's Objectives for Children's services' (1999):

Promoting the participation of children and families in the planning and delivery of services.
Ensuring stable, secure, safe and effective care for all children.
Offering an effective assessment and service response.
Improving the life chances of children in need.
Ensuring good life chances for children in care: good education, health care and social care.
Enabling young people leaving care to live successful adult lives.
Meeting the needs of disabled children and their families.
Making sure that child care workers are fit for the job and
Making the best use of resources: choice, effectiveness and value for money.

A National Service Framework for children and families is due to be produced during 2003 in England.

In Wales the National Assembly has identified Seven Core Aims for Children - that all children and young people:

have a flying start in life and the best possible basis for their future growth and development;
have access to a comprehensive range of educational, training and learning opportunities, including the acquisition of essential personal and social skills;
enjoy the best possible physical and mental, social and emotional health, including freedom from abuse, victimisation and exploitation;
have access to play, leisure, sporting and cultural activities;
are listened to, treated with respect, and are able to have their race, faith and cultural identity recognised;
are provided with a safe home and a community that supports physical and emotional wellbeing;
are not disadvantaged by child poverty.

The eleven 'Children First' Objectives are to be found at: http://www.wales.gov.uk/subichildren/content/circulars/5-2003/annex1-e.htm

Details of the development of the Children's NSF are to be found at:
http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sites/home.cfm?OrgID=441

Managing children's budgets

Many Social Services departments are finding that their children's services budgets, as well as the services themselves, are under significant pressure. In this respect, a rise in the number of looked after children - regularly accompanied by an increase in the complexity of many cases - is often the most immediate cause. Nationally, the number of looked after children increased by 20 percent between 1994 and 2001 - from 49,100 to 58,900 - although the statistics in individual councils vary considerably. In many councils, this problem is coupled with a rise in the cost of children's placements, often associated with a shortage of local foster carers.

It is clear that these budgets need to be managed and monitored carefully. It is not always possible to predict the numbers of placements required or their cost, and for this reason the budgets can be especially volatile. Nevertheless, councils need to ensure that they are:

Setting their annual budgets at an appropriate level. This requires that budget projections are based on a robust analysis of current activity levels, trends in the local demand for placements and the costs of placements and projections of future need.
Managing the budget carefully. An example, would be ensuring there are clear lines of accountability for specific budgets and having appropriate systems for approving expenditure in individual cases.
Monitoring the budget rigorously. This should entail recording all financial commitments when they are incurred, producing accurate financial statements at planned intervals, and taking remedial action where required.

More detailed guidance on managing the budget is provided in another module of this toolkit: Financial management module

The current module also encourages councils to adopt a wider perspective. It takes as its starting point the notion that the key to managing children's budgets well - including placements budgets - is to look broadly with partner agencies at the whole range of services being provided.

All councils should ultimately be aiming to prevent the need for children to be 'looked after', by working with their partners to develop accessible and effective services in the community. The evidence from successful councils is that a strong focus on early intervention and prevention, and an investment in effective community services, can help to prevent family breakdown. Over time, a 'virtuous circle' can be achieved (see Exhibit 1), with the numbers of children becoming looked after being contained.

Exhibit 1

Source: Joint Reviews

The challenge, therefore, is for councils to work with their partners to achieve shifts in their budgets over time. A strategic commissioning approach will be required, and in this respect, there are key links between this module and those on Partnership and Commissioning.

This module focuses on practical issues that are specific to managing children's services and associated budgets. It encourages councils to relate their budgetary issues to the outcomes being achieved for young people, and to the quality of services being provided within the community. The plans which are developed should be geared to achieving the best 'fit' between the resources available and the outcomes desired. The underlying assumption is that serious budget pressures are very unlikely to lend themselves to a 'quick fix', but that a sustained and more thoughtful approach will be required.

Self Assessment

The module begins with key questions(1) designed to identify some of the likely root causes of overspends in children's services. It encourages early analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of different parts of the service.

To this end, some key statutory indicators are included within this module, but councils will almost certainly find it helpful to undertake additional analysis and data collection. For example:

In relation to assessment and care planning services, the audit carried out in response to the Victoria Climbie Inquiry should assist with an appraisal of whether critical standards are being met.
In England, each council's Delivering and Improvement Statement (DIS) contains underpinning data which will help with an analysis.
In relation to children on the child protection register and those looked after, councils will wish to find out as much as possible about the ages, needs and backgrounds of these children and how their characteristics have been changing over time. Relevant statistics in these areas are collected routinely by all councils for submission to the Department of Health and Welsh Assembly Government.
The local 'children in need' census will also include some useful data.
The costs of some services will have been identified, but the module encourages councils to ensure that they have calculated these appropriately and 'benchmarked' with others.

To assess the quality of services, and the outcomes being achieved, councils will wish to turn to the children and young people who are the key experts on what local services are actually like. Most councils have achieved significant progress in recent years in ensuring that children have a voice in planning, managing and evaluating services and receive support and advocacy to do so. For those councils which are still developing their approach, the module illustrates good practice in consulting and involving children and their families.

The Components

The other components of this module address some of the root causes of budget challenges in children's services:

Assessment and care planning; ensuring that children in need are identified at an early stage, and services arranged promptly to meet their needs;
Family support services; working with partners to develop an appropriate range of preventative services in the community;
Managing the demand for placements; ensuring a range of high quality and cost-effective placement options;
Managing the numbers of children becoming looked after; intervening to ensure that children do not become looked after inappropriately and do not remain in a placement longer than they should;
Services for disabled children and their families; developing better services in the community and preventing inappropriate placements for this group;
Costing children's placements; using robust methodologies and comparing costs with others;
Managing human resources in children's services; addressing recruitment and retention challenges, especially in children's social work.
Corporate parenting; demonstrating commitment to supporting looked after children, and getting Best Value from these services. This should be seen as a key responsibility across council services.