CSDG – The Children's Services Development Group (CSDG) http://www.csdg.org.uk CSDG Tue, 13 Jun 2023 16:42:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 Aurora http://www.csdg.org.uk/2021/11/03/aurora/ Wed, 03 Nov 2021 09:49:49 +0000 http://www.csdg.org.uk/?p=1802 The Aurora Group is the UK’s sixth-largest provider of education, care and support services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

Established in 2015, The Aurora Group believes in giving people the opportunities they need to lead fulfilling and independent lives and is part of the inspiring B-Corp movement, placing gold-standard social and ethical values at the heart of all it does.

Across its network of pioneering schools, colleges and residential homes, The Aurora Group’s dedicated and experienced staff work in collaboration with specialist teams of professionals, enabling everyone at an Aurora service to explore and develop their own unique talents, skills and abilities.

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Destination Unknown: improving transitions for care leavers and young people with SEND http://www.csdg.org.uk/2020/02/26/destination-unknown-improving-transitions-for-care-leavers-and-young-people-with-send/ Wed, 26 Feb 2020 13:36:29 +0000 http://www.csdg.org.uk/?p=1777 A lack of consistent and effective transition support for vulnerable young people when they turn 18 is leading to unacceptable poor outcomes, a new report has found.

Titled ‘Destination Unknown’, the Children’s Services Development Group’s (CSDG) report sets out the “cliff edge in support” care leavers and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) face when they leave care or specialist education, and the huge detriment this can have to their life outcomes. 

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The State of Children’s Services 2018-19 http://www.csdg.org.uk/2018/07/18/the-modern-office/ Wed, 18 Jul 2018 19:36:57 +0000 http://themecanon.com/themes/kause/?p=125 Making sure every vulnerable child and young person receives the care they deserve is at the heart of the children’s services sector.

If we are to secure the best possible outcomes for these children, they must be at the forefront of how and why we commission the services they depend upon.

Local authorities have weathered funding constraints over recent years and are increasingly raising concerns about their ability to meet rising demand for services without sacrificing the quality of their provision.

Local authorities and independent providers have, to date, done an excellent job providing high-quality services with the budgets afforded to them. However, they will have no choice but to make further efficiencies in the future. It is essential, now more than ever, that the private, public and voluntary sectors come together to put forward solutions to efficiently meet the increasing demand for services while ensuring children and young people continue to receive the high quality, bespoke care they require.

In meeting this demand, the care that children receive must be all-encompassing and seen as a priority at both a local and a national level. It is vital that those with special educational needs, in foster care, or placed in a children’s home have their whole care and education pathway understood holistically by all agencies. This is essential to improving children’s outcomes and ultimately their overall wellbeing and life chances.

The work undertaken by the Children’s Services Development Group to develop a consensus-driven approach to children’s social care is a positive step. This type of collaborative working is vital if we are to truly tackle the issues in the system.

I welcome this report as an important contribution to the debate on children’s services. Its recommendations should be taken forward at both a national and local level, by government, local authorities and providers, to ensure we develop a truly child- centred, needs-driven approach to care and education for the most vulnerable young people.

To read our report, please click here: The State of Children’s Services 2018-19

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Commissioning in Children’s Services – What Works 2016 http://www.csdg.org.uk/2016/10/01/recent-campaign-3/ Sat, 01 Oct 2016 19:30:25 +0000 http://apmcleod48639.ipage.com/?p=1506 Despite significant policy attention and political action, looked-after children and children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) remain some of the most vulnerable children in the country with their later life outcomes –social, educational and health related – remaining stubbornly poor. It is nocoincidence that in Ofsted’s inspections of local authority children’s servicesdepartments from November 2013 to March 2016, three-quarters were givenone of the two bottom ratings: ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’. These failings have profound impacts on the lives of children and young people.

Two sets of pressures are putting children’s services departments under considerable strain. First, demand for children’s social care is rising. Between2008 and 2015, local authorities saw a 22 per cent rise in referrals and a 16 per cent increase in the number of children in care. It is not only the volume of demand but the kind of demand that is exerting pressure: the needs of looked- after children are becoming more complex, and the introduction of Education, Health and Care plans (EHCPs), although a positive move forward, require local authorities to think more creatively about how they will meet the needs of children with SEND. Second, local authorities are facing continued and severe cuts to their budgets. Between 2011/12 and 2014/15, spending by England’s local authorities on children’s social care dropped by 18 per cent, resulting in staff reductions, increased workloads and less support for foster carers.

In short, local authorities need to do more with less, and perhaps unsurprisingly many struggle to achieve the quality expected of them by the government and regulator. In some areas, outsourcing services to independent providers has been adopted as a potential solution, while in others, ‘externalising’ (setting upan independent trust) has been used. In some cases, these changes in governance have been forced on the local authority in response to what was seen as a failure in in-house delivery.

However, there is some concern about the use of outsourcing in children’sservices, particularly where it involves the use of for-profit providers. It is also a challenging undertaking to do well. Yet evidence suggests that when used correctly outsourcing has the potential to help local authorities deal with the pressures they face, drive up standards, and ultimately secure better outcomes for vulnerable children and young people. Pressures to do more with less are likely to be exacerbated now Britain has voted to leave the European Union – it is too soon to judge the full effects of the referendum result, but domestic funding will most likely be impacted, and planning in the short term will become more difficult. As pressure to improve outcomes under resource constraints increases, it is likely that so too will the number of local authorities opting to outsource at least part of their children’s services. With this in mind, this report looks at domestic and international examples to identify some of the features common to outsourcing which seem to be working well, and possible pitfalls to avoid, to help inform this rapidly developing agenda.

To read our report, please click here: CSDG & Demos Report – Commissioning in Children’s Services – What Works October 2016

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The Local Offer, Children And Parental Rights http://www.csdg.org.uk/2016/08/18/the-local-offer-children-and-parental-rights/ Thu, 18 Aug 2016 13:03:24 +0000 http://www.csdg.org.uk/?p=1734

The local offer is designed to provide meaningful choice for parents, and to ensure children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) have access to appropriate support services in their local area.

Hosted by each local authority in England, the local offer is a list of education, health and social care services made publicly available in an online information directory for use by parents and carers of children and young people with SEND. The local offer is also intended to help local authorities identify gaps in provision, and to make sure these gaps are addressed.

As a tool designed to provide up to date, useful advice to parents and carers, it is important that the local offers provided by local authorities are both comprehensive and easily accessible.

This report from the Children’s Services Development Group (CSDG) provides an assessment of the extent to which local authorities in England are discharging their statutory obligations as set out in the Children and Families Act 2014 in relation to the delivery of the local offer.

To read our report, please click here: The Local Offer, Children and Parental Rights

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Children’s Services Taskforce – Final report 2014 http://www.csdg.org.uk/2014/11/01/centralized-currency/ Sat, 01 Nov 2014 19:34:35 +0000 http://themecanon.com/themes/kause/?p=153 Looking after children is the bedrock of any caring society. It is vital for the wellbeing of young people, their families and our communities and so it is essential that we get it right.

However, there are significant changes taking place in local government. Across the country councils are transforming the way they work and the organisations they work with, at the same time as dealing with cuts of up to 40% in their budgets.

In these circumstances innovation is both necessary and extremely challenging.

This is particularly true in an area like children’s services, where the complexity and risk involved can be extremely high, where there is a minimum level of provision required and therefore an acute need to do more with fewer resources. But the focus on immediate problems needs to be balanced with a strategic and long-term outlook so that we give children and their families the support and care they need to grow into happy, healthy adults.

The recommendations in this report help to point commissioners in the right direction to begin to tackle some of these challenges.

The strategies outlined here are drawn from best practice across the country. They show local authorities how to open up the space for collaboration and partnerships and thus perform a vital shift from doing things to making things happen.

The new local government landscape will be one in which the council is a hub and catalyst for citizens, the state and civil society to work together. It will require multiple organisations to align at the local level, with shared goals and understanding. It will be based on relationships and networks within our communities. And it will need mutual trust for power to be shared.

To do this we need to support the innovators in local government and look for ways to replicate their good work. This report will help enormously.

To read our report, please click here: Children’s Services Taskforce – Final report

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In It Together: In Practice http://www.csdg.org.uk/2012/03/01/in-it-together-in-practice/ Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:01:55 +0000 http://apmcleod48639.ipage.com/?p=1645 In It Together: In Practice is the culmination of an extended piece of joint research by the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) and the Children’s Services Development Group (CSDG) – gathering senior representatives from local government and service providers together.

The report is the third in CSDG’s In It Together series, which has sought to demonstrate how strategic partnership working and excellence in commissioning can deliver the best outcomes for children with complex needs, at the best price.

In It Together: In Practice explores the barriers to innovation within the sector, outlines a vision for children’s services shared by local authorities and providers, and presents practical solutions for how we can work together to deliver the very best for looked after children and those with complex needs.

Our research highlighted a strong desire for reform amongst local authorities and providers, but in many cases this desire is currently being stifled by four key barriers:

  1. Financial pressures – 2013-14 is expected to be the most challenging year for local authority budgets and everyone in the children’s services sector is expected to deliver more for less.
  2. Silo working – 75% of children’s services leaders
    see the prevalence of silo working as an obstacle to effective commissioning. With everyone under pressure to make difficult decisions it is a concern that there may be a temptation to protect individual departmental budgets at the expense of delivering the best service to children with complex needs.
  3. Restrictive tendering – there is a sector-wide frustration around prescriptive and burdensome tender processes (often prescribed by the EU). The current system promotes a focus on inputs rather than outcomes and hampers the development of high-trust, outcomes-focused partnership working.
  4. Cultural mindsets – 73% of local authorities stated that support for traditional models of service delivery is an obstacle to effective commissioning. This, coupled with a historically poor view of working with the independent sector has hampered the development of fruitful partnerships in some cases.

To read our report, please click here: In it Together: In Practice

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In It Together II: redefining value in children’s services http://www.csdg.org.uk/2010/12/01/in-it-together-ii-redefining-value-in-childrens-services/ Wed, 01 Dec 2010 12:09:33 +0000 http://apmcleod48639.ipage.com/?p=1649

Children with complex needs can and do develop into successful, stable adults. However, in many cases looked after young people or those with SEN require the help of specialist services to enable them to make this transition.

We are writing this report when the public coffers are running dry.

At a time when local authorities are struggling to meet many competing demands, it is critical that we examine every part of our public services to ensure that they are delivering the best results in the most cost efficient way.

In it Together II: Redefining Value in Children’s Services takes a new look at the needs of some of Britain’s most vulnerable children, exploring how the independent sector can work with local authorities – from commissioning to transitions – to ensure that young people get the appropriate support, at the right time.

No matter how ‘efficient’ you make a public service in monetary terms, if it does not solve the problem it is intended to, or does not achieve the desired outcomes, it is a poor use of public money.

Investing wisely in services for vulnerable children can never be a false economy. This is because such an approach pays two dividends: firstly, through diversion from negative situations such as welfare dependency, substance abuse, homelessness and criminality and secondly, through positive engagement with society, for example through increased employment and therefore tax revenues. CSDG believe that if we get the system right, we really can do ‘more for less’ – critical when ever more children are entering the social care system.

Given these escalating numbers, it becomes clear just how costly it can be – both for society and individual young people – if the right decisions about care and specialist education are not made early on. High levels of demand also highlight the need for a long term, sustainable view of how we can achieve the best outcomes for young people.

In it Together II aims to extend the partnership theme to examine how we define value in children’s services, what can be considered ‘good value’ in achieving outcomes for children with complex needs and how service cost and quality are related.

We hope that you find this report to be a useful resource.

To read our report, please click here: In It Together II: redefining value in children’s services

 

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Aspris http://www.csdg.org.uk/2010/09/11/aspris/ Sat, 11 Sep 2010 16:54:23 +0000 http://www.csdg.org.uk/?p=1794 Aspris is a leading provider of specialist education, residential care and fostering services, delivering high quality, long-term solutions for young people in need of specialist support. Aspris helps young people to realise their potential through the delivery of quality education, care and health solutions, leading to the very best individual outcomes.

Whatever an individual’s needs, Aspris’ schools, colleges and children’s homes offer stable placements to help young people develop their education, social and independence skills and work towards a brighter future.

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In It Together I: achieving quality outcomes for young people with complex needs http://www.csdg.org.uk/2009/09/01/in-it-together-i-achieving-quality-outcomes-for-young-people-with-complex-needs/ Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:18:58 +0000 http://apmcleod48639.ipage.com/?p=1654

Vulnerable children deserve the best education, care and support available to meet their often challenging needs. Looked after children, those with learning disabilities, or those who are victims of neglect and abuse, rely on local authorities, and the providers that work with them, to provide high quality care and education services matched to their specific needs.

Across the country, services of the highest quality are being designed and delivered in partnership between local authorities and service providers from the public, private and voluntary sectors. It is essential that this good practice is celebrated and shared widely.

Local authorities are required by the Children and Young Persons Act (2008) to secure sufficient high quality care placements for looked after children in their areas and to ensure that those placements are able to meet the individual needs of each child. Using available resources effectively is central to the successful implementation of this duty. Working constructively with local and national providers, councils can meet the needs of the children they look after and guarantee that value for money is achieved through sustainable, cost effective, and high quality children’s services.

Leading service providers recognise that local authorities have to operate within budget and that by working with local authority commissioners in positive and creative ways, they can provide services that deliver the best possible outcomes for children.

The Local Government Association and the members of the Children’s Services Development Group collaborated on this project to highlight examples of best practice. The document sets out instances of effective partnership working between providers, commissioners and other agencies.

Leading service providers recognise that local authorities have to operate within budget and that by working with local authority commissioners in positive and creative ways, they can provide services that deliver the best possible outcomes for children.

The case studies include material demonstrating how young people can contribute to their own care plans, methods for promoting placement stability for children who have suffered from multiple placement breakdowns, examples of innovative commissioning and flexible block contracting, as well as developing a team- parenting approach to foster care and working with multi-agency partners to manage the difficult transition into adulthood.

It is aimed primarily at those with responsibility for making commissioning and placement decisions at the highest level professionally and politically, including Directors of Children’s Services, Lead Members for Children’s Services, heads of commissioning and placement managers. It will be equally useful to private, voluntary and independent sector children’s services providers as they seek to work ever more closely with local authorities to deliver the best possible outcomes for the children in their areas.

To read our report, please click here: In It Together I: achieving quality outcomes for young people with complex needs

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