Baroness Meacher – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Meacher on 2014-06-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government upon what evidence they have based their proposals to outsource children’s services to private firms.

Lord Nash

The Children and Young Persons Act 2008 (CYPA) allowed some local authorities to contract out looked after children and care leaver functions for a five-year pilot period. As a result, small autonomous practitioner-led organisations (Social Work Practices) were encouraged to develop. Between 2008 and 2012, 15 local authorities were involved in the pilot to create more tailored social work approaches.

The evaluation of Social Work Practices identified evidence of positive change through delegated arrangements for looked after children and care leavers. As a result, in November 2013, the freedoms in the CYPA were extended to all local authorities.

Staffordshire County Council have also recently received a ‘good’ rating from Ofsted under the new single inspection framework, which included the social work practice ‘Evolve YP’.

Some local authorities have asked the Government to extend these freedoms to other areas of children’s social care. The current proposals will encourage greater innovative approaches for all local authorities to take the step from adequate or good children’s services to excellent ones. The consultation on these proposals closed on 30 May and the Government is currently considering the responses.