Children's Trusts - Statutory Guidance

The DCSF have released this paper as statutory guidance for Children's Trusts on inter-agency working. The first chapter sets the scene and context of Children's Trusts and recent changes to Children's Services in general. The Children's Trusts are "the totality of change needed to deliver better and more responsive integrated services." The document reads as though there is a need for an extra push on this as the current approach has only yielded limited results, and so a "step change" is needed.

Key points:
- So far, the change towards full multi-agency working is not embedded, although some areas are doing very well and making excellent progress.
- It sets high expectations for Children’s Trusts to deliver measurable improvements for all children and young people and, in support of this, to have in place by 2010 consistent, high quality arrangements to provide identification and early intervention for all children and young people who need additional help. It emphasises the crucial role of local authorities in driving change.
- The step change expected of Children’s Trusts must include a step change in the involvement of schools in Children’s Trust arrangements. All schools, including Academies, should contribute to and in turn be strongly supported by local Trust arrangements which ensure shared ownership of all outcomes of all children in an area.
- Strong school level indicators are being developed to help schools, local partners and Children’s Trust boards measure each school’s contribution to the well-being of local children and how, working together, this can be improved.
- Local authorities must take swift and decisive action to prevent schools from failing and reverse failure quickly when it happens. We also expect local authorities to challenge schools who are not sufficiently improving their pupils’ performance including those who are coasting.
- To deliver the results necessary for a world class system requires a step change in progress, including consistent, high quality arrangements for identification of additional needs and early intervention.