Partnerships ‘should be a legal necessity’

Social care sector coalition Inter-Agency Group wants all statutory
organisations to have a duty to take part in partnership working
across children’s services.

In its submission to the children’s green paper consultation, the
IAG said councils should be placed under a statutory duty to
establish overarching partnership arrangements for children to
ensure “all key agencies buy into the local plan for improving
children’s outcomes”.

To enforce this, members of partnerships should have an “explicit
obligation to engage in the planning, resourcing and delivery” of
services, backed up with performance and inspection frameworks.