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Cambridgeshire responds to council’s selection for DfE Partners in Practice Innovation Programme (25 January 2016)

Date: 25/01/2016
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Cambridgeshire responds to council’s selection for DfE Partners in Practice Innovation Programme

Cambridgeshire County Council has responded to the announcement that it has been selected as a pilot authority in the Department For Education’s (DfE) Partners in Practice Innovation Programme, saying that the news re-affirms the council’s position as one of the best-performing authorities for children’s services in the country.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan announced that, as one of the UK’s best-performing council’s, Cambridgeshire would work with the DfE on new freedoms to support social work practice – and ultimately secure better outcomes for families.

Along with two other newly selected local authorities, Cambridgeshire County Council will be part of the DfE’s Partners in Practice Innovation Programme, which aims to redefine what children’s services departments should look like.

The other two councils chosen in January to pilot the scheme are Islington Council in north London and Lincolnshire Council. The first six partner authorities taking part in the programme were announced in December 2015.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said:

“We are committed to ensuring that the very best leaders and practitioners are given the freedom to push boundaries – that outdated regulations, laws, guidance and processes do not stand in the way of the best local leaders innovating in the best interests of children and families.”

Children’s Minister, Edward Timpson, announced the Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme in October 2013. Since then, the DfE has been assessing the opportunities for innovation in children’s social care, analysing the barriers to innovation.

The programme seeks to inspire whole system change, so that in five years’ time, it will achieve better life chances for children receiving help from social care – as well as better value for money across children’s social care, and stronger incentives for innovation and experimentation.

The focus in Cambridgeshire will be on the council’s work to prevent children needing council care services, by exploring how risks can be better managed – and how regulations and processes that inhibit a flexible response to a family’s needs can be removed.

Chairwoman of the County Council’s Children and Young People’s Committee, Councillor Joan Whitehead, said:

“This is a great accolade for Cambridgeshire, which reaffirms our position as one of the best-performing authorities for children’s services in the country.

“It will enable us to develop further the innovative and exciting work we are already doing to transform social work – and to share that best practice with other local authorities for the benefit of vulnerable young people across the country.”
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