Authorities to be able to delegate "nearly all" childrens social care functions

The Department for Education has launched a consultation on proposed regulations that would enable local authorities to delegate “nearly all” children’s social care functions to third party providers.

The Government fully commenced Part 1 of the Children and Young Persons Act 2008 in November last year, allowing councils to discharge certain functions relating to children in care and care leavers through a contract with a third party provider.

Part 1 also provides for regulations to be made extending or limiting the functions that can be discharged in this manner.

The draft regulations published by the DfE would enable all social services functions related to children – with some limited exceptions – to be discharged by a third party provider.

The 2008 Act already excludes delegation of independent reviewing officer functions, and of adoption agency functions unless the other party to the arrangement is a registered adoption society.

In addition the draft regulations have made it clear that the local authority power to enter delegation arrangements under Part 1 of the CYPA cannot itself be delegated.

The regulations specify that certain duties of the local authority in relation to cooperation, Children’s Trust Boards, and the implementation of Children and Young People’s Plans can also be delegated.

The consultation said: “The CYPA requires all delegated functions to be discharged by or under the supervision of registered social workers. It is for local authorities in conjunction with their third party provider to determine how best to manage this requirement.”

It added: “Delegation does not remove responsibility from the local authority for ensuring their statutory obligations are met, and any breach of those obligations would be treated as a breach by the local authority. Services provided under delegated arrangements will be considered by Ofsted as part of its single framework inspection arrangements, and the local authority held to account.”

The DfE claimed that the changes would broaden the range of approaches available to local authorities as they look to secure the best outcomes for children in their area.

“They will allow authorities to harness third party expertise, and/or set up more agile delivery structures outside traditional hierarchies,” it said.

“These changes support the DfE’s innovation programme which aims to stimulate new approaches to securing improvements in children’s services. The current position, where innovation of this kind can only take place in the context of failure and as a result of government direction, is illogical and is already causing some local authorities difficulties as they re-think how best to provide services.”

The consultation, which can be viewed here, runs until 30 May 2014. The results and the DfE’s response are expected to be published this summer.