Was the split in children's and adults services the right way to go? Half of me thinks it results in a better, tailored service whereas another part of me thinks there is so much overlap, were generic social services departments more effective?

I think it will probably be a few years before we can know for sure whether the split was right, but it's certainly ironic that the government's coming out with all this whole family stuff within a few years of the Children Act 2004.

People always said that even within traditional social services departments there were splits between adults' and children's teams, so it's probably true that whatever organisational structure there's potential for problems.

I think if people are working to the same goals - through coherent performance management regimes, good partnership working etc - and people are accountable for what they do or don't do, then whatever the organisational structure things should be ok.