News

 Alan Milburn's message at the National Social Services Conference in Cardiff earlier this month was typically forthright: he wanted to "dramatically reshape the old, monolithic, single social services departments".

It was another push towards a future in which health and adult social care are brought still closer together by means of the Health Act flexibilities and powers to set up care trusts, while more children and families services are enfolded in the arms of education in a new generation of children's trusts.

Commissioning children's trusts will be based in local authorities, but with powers to commission health as well as social care. Provider trusts will be able to harness the skills and resources of the community, voluntary and private sectors.

As Milburn told conference delegates: "The one-size-fits-all approach embodied in the traditional social services department may have been OK in the 1970s, but as more and more councils are recognising, it does not belong to today."   

Bill Badham, development officer, National Youth Agency
"I am haunted by T S Eliot's Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock: 'And indeed there will be time... Time for you and time for me/ And time yet for a hundred indecisions/ And a hundred visions and revisions/ Before the taking of toast and tea.' Promise reform. Pump in the money. But time is in short supply for the beaten child or dying patient."

Phil Frampton, national chairperson, Care Leavers Association
"I welcome the idea of children's trusts, though we need to be a bit clearer about how they will fit in with Connexions and other existing services for children and young people. Currently there is an appalling chaos in dealing with young people's needs because there is no co-ordinated response. Children's trusts have the possibility of creating a one-stop shop for meeting children's needs."

Julia Ross, executive director for health and social care, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
"The starting point of Milburn's message was that social services have failed to adapt to the changing nature, needs and demands of society. I think he's got a point. If the consequences of that are that we need to provide more specialist, proactive services to meet the higher aspirations, more universal but complex needs of people today, then that feels right. Our struggle will be to guard against the potential gap into which the most needy and vulnerable people and their communities may fall without our more 'generic' support."

Bob Hudson, principal research fellow, Nuffield Institute for Health, University of Leeds
"Doubtless Alan Milburn means well, but his approach is a blunt instrument for dealing with a fine-grained problem. Under the guise of modernisation, he is offering yet more top-down implementation and even more structural change - strategies associated with only limited success. What is needed now is a lighter but tighter focus upon local policy and provider networks, and how to improve their effectiveness. Hierarchical solutions are as jurassic as market solutions."

Felicity Collier, chief executive, Baaf Adoption and Fostering
"Milburn's incisive delivery is always impressive and much of what he presented at the conference made sense to me and was welcome. My main concern is that he does not display a grip on the complexity of the daily tasks confronting social workers and the range of skills and knowledge required to deliver them. The jury is out as to whether all the potential new social work recruits apparently now coming forward will pursue their applications when they realise the responsibilities and reward packages awaiting them. The new vision of catch-all family care worker risks reducing multidisciplinary tasks and support to a common denominator - this is hardly inspirational."