Children in need

This study commissioned by the DCSF explored whether data on the delivery and use of services for children in need is available, is recorded, can be accessed and could feasibly be systematically collected for the children in need census. It examined the likely quality and completeness of such data, the practical difficulties of extracting it from various management information systems (MIS) and the constraints of consent, confidentiality and data protection.

The Children in Need (CIN) Census aims to collect data on all children receiving support from Children’s Social Care Services, including children looked after, those supported in their families or independently and children subject to a Child Protection Plan. The Census provides evidence on which the DCSF can develop policy, make Spending Review bids, allocate resources to Local Authorities, understand the growth in spending on children’s services and measure their output in the National Accounts.

The CIN Census was suspended after 2005 but is being reintroduced in 2008-09. The present research was commissioned to discover whether the scope of the Census could be extended after 2009 to include some of the numerous additional services used by Children in Need, including those provided by or in partnership with education, youth justice, Connexions, health services and the voluntary sector.

Key points:
- This study identified and drew up working definitions for 11 additional services accessed by children in need, five of which are recommended to be included in the CIN census as a priority: Children with Disabilities; Family Support; Early Years; Special educational Need and Youth Justice.
- The principal problem is not the definitions of the services, but the myriad different ways in which the services may be named, commissioned, paid for and delivered, even within the same authority, and hence the lack of uniform recording and storage of data.
- Issues of consent and confidentiality will significantly impede most data collection from outside Children’s Social Care, but especially from health-related services such as CAMHS.
- It will not be easy to collect uniform child-level census data on most additional services and it may be necessary to consider alternative ways of collecting data to explain expenditure on these services.
- It is possible to determine that a service was provided, but very difficult to obtain an accurate measure of the volume of service provided and the cost incurred.
- The census definition of ‘Children in Need’ may need to be revised, in line with the Children Act 1989, to include the increasing number of vulnerable children accessing additional services from local authorities without a formal referral to Children’s Social Care, sometimes as a result of assessment under the Common Assessment Framework. An even wider population of children access preventive services partly or wholly funded by Children’s Social Care. The question is: should these services and these children be included in the CIN Census?
- Changes to the CIN Census after 2008-09 should be phased in gradually, giving time for consultation and for small-scale pilots to test the new provisions. Experience of implementing electronic data collections suggests that those which require changes to MIS require at least two years to implement.