DCSF: £200m to co-locate care, health and eduation services

The Department for Children, Schools and Families has announced a £200m fund to support the co-location of social care, health and education services for children.

The initiative was included in yesterday’s 12-month progress report on the government’s ten-year strategy for children, The Children’s Plan – one year on.

The DCSF also announced the creation of a new cross-sector children’s workforce partnership to support the delivery of its workforce strategy, also published yesterday.

The National Children and Young People’s Workforce Partnership will include practitioners, employer leaders and unions, and part of its remit includes ensuring the views of frontline staff inform workforce policies.

Other measures announced in the strategy included:-



  • Placing an expectation on children’s trusts that children and young people’s plans contained local workforce strategies.
  • The creation of a “knowledge bank” for practitioners containing best practice on improving outcomes for children and young people. This will draw on the work of best practice body the Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in children and young people’s services.
  • A consultation on improving data on the children’s workforce itself in areas where information is currently scant.
  • A review of the various national workforce support organisations in children’s services, including the Children’s Workforce Development Council, the National College of School Leadership and the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners. An expert group, which informed the strategy, raised concerns about an overlap in the responsibilities of these bodies, and the review will consider whether they are appropriately configured.

The workforce strategy also confirmed the establishment, early next year, of the Social Work Taskforce to examine the state of the profession across children’s and adults’ services, with a view to enhancing quality, recruitment and retention.

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Ed Balls announces six areas to pilot social work practices

 

 

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