1 THE ISSUE

1.1 This report invites Members to consider the content and recommendations of the Government Green Paper: Every Child Matters and to determine the Council Executive's response within the Government's consultation period.

1.2 This report has been jointly authored by the Head of Children and Families Services (Social Services) and the Head of Children and Young People's Support Services (Education).

1.3 The Green Paper: Every Child Matters was published on 8 September 2003, with a consultation period up to 1 December 2003. It is the Government's stated intention to go straight for a Bill rather than through a White Paper stage.

1.4 The report invites Members to consider the recommendations in their capacity as corporate parents.

1.5 The report is being considered by the Health and Social Services Overview & Scrutiny Panel on the 7^th November 2003 and they will also be invited to respond.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 The Council Executive is asked to note the officer comments in this report regarding the recommendations of the Green Paper.

2.2 Determine the Council Executive's response to the Green Paper and instruct the Director of Social and Housing Services and the Director of Education to so respond to the consultation.

2.3 To delegate to the Director of Social & Housing Services in consultation with the Council Leader and Executive Members for Social Services & Education, the decision about whether to join up the response to the Green Paper of the Overview & Scrutiny Panel to provide a single Council response.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 The Council must ensure that it makes budgetary provision for carrying out its responsibilities for children, as set out in The Children Act 1989, particularly those relating to child protection.

3.2 The Council must ensure that the budget it contributes, along with those from each of the other local agencies, in support of vulnerable children and families is identified so that staff and resources can be used in the most flexible and effective way.

3.3 A large proportion of the measures in the Green Paper will be implemented by local authorities. Except for specific proposals (see below) it is anticipated that these will be funded from within existing resources. The Green Paper anticipates that for some of the proposals, the implementation costs should be offset by anticipated efficiencies arising from new ways of working which will eliminate existing duplication.

3.4 The proposals on workforce reform will include developing measures to tackle recruitment shortfalls, retention issues and skills and rewards. Implementing workforce reform will incur some additional costs - the Green Paper proposes that the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) will work with key stakeholders and providers to consider the impact of implementation options.

3.5 The Government has provided £100,000 in the current year to Bath and North East Somerset to develop better information sharing systems.

3.6 Through the Green Paper the Government is seeking views on how it can support local areas to take on Children's Trust status over a period up to 2006. The Government is considering what legislation may be needed to remove barriers to Children's Trusts, and given early priority to consideration of the current framework for pooling budgets between the NHS and local authorities.

3.7 The requirement to establish a `Director of Children's Services' is also expected to bring budgetary responsibility and accountability for both education and children's social care under one post.

3.8 Currently there is a significant group of children whose wellbeing and welfare cause concern to agencies but not of sufficient concern to trigger additional support from potential support services. All agencies need to manage budget constraints and therefore set thresholds for determining which children and young people are able to access their services, for example Social services focuses attention on those most at risk, education psychologists focus on statutory assessments. The Green Paper proposals would address this gap and bring a welcome focus on prevention. However there is no suggestion as to how this additional work should be funded and statements from ministers do not at this early stage suggest it would be by Government grant. There must be concern that the Green Paper as written could bring additional responsibilities to Local Government without the commensurate funding

4 THE REPORT

4.1 The Council has duties under the Children Act 1989 to provide services to families and children in need, including those in need of protection, and to looked after children. These duties are primarily undertaken by the Social Services who work in partnership with other Council services, statutory agencies and voluntary organisations to identify, assess and provide services to children in need in Bath and North East Somerset.

4.2 Local Authorities, in exercising their Social Services functions, are required to ensure that there is an Area Child Protection Committee (ACPC) covering their area, which brings together representatives of each of the main agencies and professionals responsible for helping to protect children from abuse and neglect. The ACPC is an inter-agency forum for agreeing how the different services and professional groups should co-operate to safeguard children in that area, and for making sure that arrangements work effectively to bring about good outcomes for children.

4.3 Local Authorities in exercising their educational responsibilities are required to ensure that the needs of vulnerable children are met. The LEA has statutory responsibilities in respect of children with special educational needs, excluded pupils, children not attending school and those at risk of not being in education, employment or training. This responsibility is outlined in a range of plans, strategies and targets that are set and monitored by national government.

4.4 The Quality Protects programme was launched by the Government in September 1998, and established national objectives for Children's Social Services. The programme emphasised the role and responsibilities of all elected members as corporate parents for the children and young people in their Authority and established shared targets with regard to the educational attainment of children who are looked after. The Authority's strategy for looked after children is an example of existing good practice between Education and Social Services.

4.5 The Climbie Inquiry was established under the chairmanship of Lord Laming to investigate the circumstances of the death, in February 2000, of Victoria Climbie aged 8. The Inquiry reported to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, and its report presented to Parliament in January 2003. The Inquiry Report made 108 recommendations relating to national, regional and local structures, practice issues, training, supervision, management and inter-agency working arrangements.

4.6 The Government detailed its response to the Inquiry Report's recommendations in `Keeping Children Safe' which was published in September 2003, alongside the `Green Paper: Every Child Matters' (DfES). This was published on 8 September 2003, together with `Youth Justice - the next steps: a companion document to Every Child Matters (Home Office) and `A better education for children in care' (Social Exclusion Unit)

4.7 The Green Paper sets out the Government's vision for the support and protection of children - to address the needs of children at risk in the context of the services provided for all children, by focusing on both the universal services which every child uses, and on more targeted services for those with additional needs. The policies set out in the Green Paper are designed both to protect children and maximise their potential. It sets out a framework for services that cover children and young people from birth to 19 living in England. It proposes changes in policy and legislation in England to integrate services, improve information sharing and develop multi-disciplinary working across services.

4.8 The Government consulted with children, young people and families to set out a positive vision of the outcomes to be achieved. The five outcomes which mattered most to children and young people were:-

_ Being healthy - enjoying good physical and mental health and living a healthy lifestyle.

_ Staying Safe - being protected from harm and neglect.

_ Enjoying and achieving - getting the most out of life and developing the skills of adulthood.

_ Making a positive contribution - being involved with the community and society and not engaging in anti-social or offending behaviour

_ Economic wellbeing - not being prevented by economic disadvantage from achieving their full potential in life.

4.8 The Green Paper details proposals for achieving these outcomes, through building upon the progress already made by focusing action on four main areas: -

_ Supporting parents and carers

_ Early intervention and effective protection

_ Accountability and integration - locally, regionally and nationally

_ Workforce reform.

4.9 Specific measures to progress these actions include:-

_ The creation of a Parenting Fund of £25 million over the next three years to improve parenting and family support through universal services, targeted and specialist support, compulsory action.

_ Improved information sharing between agencies, including removing legislative barriers and developing common data standards on the recording of information.

_ Developing multi-disciplinary teams and locating them in and around schools, children's centres and primary care centres to provide a quick response to concerns.

_ Developing full service extended schools, where a range of multi agency children's support services are based and delivered on or through the school. With at least one in every LEA by 2006.

_ Requiring each Local Authority to establish a new post of Director of Children's Services.

_ Tasking OFSTED to develop an integrated inspection framework across children's' services to ensure services are judged on how well they work together.

_ Simplifying the performance management system for children's services, including rationalising targets and funding streams and streamlining planning requirements.

_ Integrating key services under the Director of Children's Services as part of Children's Trusts - bringing together local authority education and children's services, some children's health services and including, as appropriate, Connexions and Youth Offending Teams. The Trusts will normally be part of the local authority and will report to local elected members.

_ A workforce reform strategy to improve skills and effectiveness, undertake a recruitment campaign, and develop a pay and workforce strategy.

4.10 The Green Paper envisages that, subject to consultation, some key elements will need legislation and subsequent regulation:-

(i) Key organisational changes to ensure accountability and co-ordination of children's services:-

_ The appointment of a Director of Children's Services in each local authority.

_ The appointment of a lead Council Member for Children's Services to ensure clear accountability and speak for children within the Council.

_ A new duty to ensure that local authorities work closely with public, private and voluntary organisations to improve outcomes for children. There will be flexibility about how partnership working is undertaken locally.

_ A new local Safeguarding Children Board chaired by the Director of Children's Services, to co-ordinate the functions of all partner agencies in relation to safeguarding children as statutory successors to the ACPC.

(ii) The removal of legal and technical barriers to information sharing across agencies.

(iii) An integrated framework for the inspection of children's services - overseen by OFSTED.

(iv) A new power for the Government to intervene and require changes where local services are not delivering effectively.

(v) An extension of the duty to safeguard all children and promote their wellbeing to all other relevant local bodies, including the police and health services.

(vi) To give local authorities a duty to promote the educational achievement of children in care.

(vii) The introduction of an independent Children's Commissioner for England.

4.11 The organisational changes proposed in the Green Paper will have the greatest impact on those working in local authorities, with restructuring at senior management level expected to lead to organisational changes in the way local services are structured and delivered. There will be an impact on Children's Centres, schools (e.g. through extended schools) and primary care centres as they are increasingly used as centres for integrated service delivery. Primary Care Trusts will be asked to ensure that their local delivery plan in relation to children is agreed with the Director of Children's Services and Connexions Partnerships will be expected to use Children's Trusts, where appropriate, as their local management committee. A new workforce strategy will imply changes in and the need for multi-skilled, qualified workers.

5 RATIONALE

5.1 The Green Paper is an ambitious document, which aims to take a whole system approach to supporting children and to instigate far reaching changes in how services to children are arranged and delivered. It has been generally welcomed by the Inter-Agency Group - incorporating the Local Government Association, the Association of Directors of Social Services and the Confederation of Education Service Managers - which campaigned for many of the issues included in the Green Paper.

5.2 Most staff working with children and families will welcome the objectives and recommendations of the Green Paper for the development of integrated services built around the child. There are major cultural barriers to overcome, but there are many local initiatives already underway that can be built upon. The Council is looking at the co-location of teams and at how extended schools can be used to deliver multi disciplinary support, for example in the new Bath special school. The shift towards extended schools is an attempt to develop greater inclusion and build on local collaboration already made possible by the Education Act 2002. The idea of schools as the locality base for services to the local community has the advantage of basing delivery on a universal service and is appealing for Bath and North East Somerset where many schools are interested by the idea of extended schools. However the principles set out in the Green Paper and the drive for extended schools does not tackle the perceived tension between greater inclusive practice and school league tables. Many schools have not yet engaged in the debate about the Green Paper and there are very real concerns about both their capacity to become actively involved in this method of delivery and their willingness to do so.

5.3 Considerable emphasis is given in the Green Paper to the creation of Children's Trusts and they are identified as the `preferred model' for integrating services with an expectation that most areas will have them in place by 2006. The Council will want to hear the experience of the pathfinder authorities, which are piloting a range of different models for Children's Trusts, in order to see whether their value has been demonstrated.

5.4 The Government intends to legislate to require the appointment of a Director of Children's Services. It expects clear accountability under one post and integration between education and children's social services. There is, however, a strong recognition of the need for flexibility over timing and the Green Paper states that it will ensure that there is sufficient flexibility for all local authorities to make this change in a way which fits their local circumstances, minimises disruption and maintains service standards. This structural change has proved to be one of the more controversial aspects, with particular questions around putting structural change within local authorities before the establishment of broader partnerships which would include agencies like the police and health. However the Government is determined to establish clear accountability for vulnerable children and any local model would require this. Currently, models include combining Children's Social Services with Education, or putting elements of Education with Children's Social Services, but these are untested. In this authority there are already evolutionary developments: effective moves to integrate the work of operational teams which could be built upon, changing structures as needed to make these developments work.

6 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

6.1 The Council Executive should make a formal response to the Green Paper. There is a very open consultation process and individual services, agencies, partnerships, political groups, parents and young people may respond. It is worth noting that it is anticipated that it will be included in the Queen's speech and a Bill is likely to be presented to Parliament early in the next session.

6.2 Some measures within the Green Paper will be implemented by legislative changes and subsequent regulation, with which the Council will have to comply.

6.3 How the Council will develop the Children's Trust if required and who will be partners in it will be determined in line with local circumstances, but it is expected that most local authorities will have Children's Trust status by 2006.

6.4 There must be clear accountability with the Council for children and young people, and there must be integration of education and children's services at the front line.

7 CONSULTATION

7.1 Staff across Children and Families Services and the Education Service have been provided with briefings and invited to contribute to the consultation process.

7.2 Workshops have been arranged for 10 November and 20 November 2003 for staff across Children and Families Services, Education Service and the Primary Care Trust to consider the inter-agency implications of the Green Paper for the future development of local services and contribute to the consultation process.

7.3 The Green Paper has been considered by the Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership for Bath and North East Somerset and the Area Child Protection Committee held an extra-ordinary meeting on 20 October 2003.

7.4 Arrangements have been made for the Young Person's version of the Green Paper to be considered by young people across Bath and North East Somerset, individuals and groups, and for their comments to be reported in a separate consultation process.

7.5 A copy of this report was sent to the Trades Unions on 20^th October 2003.