It has been hailed as the most fundamental reform of child welfare for decades. The creation of children's trusts promises to transform the landscape of children's services, strengthen child protection procedures and open up new opportunities for young people. Yet there are concerns that some local authorities are lagging behind others in leading preparations for implementation.
Advisers on the change programme in the south-west - a snapshot of the bigger picture across England - admit that progress is mixed. And while there is much enthusiasm for integration of frontline services under the programme, widely differing approaches are being taken.
Details of the new children's trusts - partnerships that bring together health, education and social services for children, young people and their families - were set out in the Children Act 2004. Ministers hope that by working as one body, children's professionals will be able to pool money, and staff, and share information to offer better support and protection for England's 11 million children.
The move was prompted by scandals such as the murder of eight-year-old Victoria Climbié, who was starved and tortured to death despite being known to four social services departments, two hospitals, two police child protection teams and a specialist centre run by the NSPCC. An inquiry found that police, health and social services had in 10 months missed 12 opportunities to save her.
Anxious to ensure that the reforms are swiftly implemented, ministers have set a series of deadlines for change. Local authorities have been given until 2008 to create the trusts, which will have co-located services such as children's centres, extended schools offering "wraparound" childcare and multi-disciplinary teams using common methods of assessment and sharing information.
On top of this, there is a separate timetable of changes to children's services. The first deadline is April 1, just six weeks away, when local authorities will have a new duty to make arrangements between agencies to improve the wellbeing of youngsters. Everyone agrees the task is huge and the pressure is on. But local authorities insist that the groundwork is being laid - albeit in a piecemeal fashion.
Amy Weir, south-west regional change adviser, admits that the challenge facing already hard-pressed local authorities is huge - and requires "massive" organisational and cultural change.
"There has been a lot of pressure on the government to ease back," says Weir. "Local authorities in the south-west have made significant progress. Change is being made at all levels - but there is no doubt that some are further ahead than others. There will always be a few that are laggardly because they have their own particular problems."
Progress has been made on sharing information, setting up common assessment processes and establishing joint IT programmes, she reports. But she stresses that setting up the trusts is not about bricks and mortar, but about adopting means of partnership working that improve outcomes for children and young people. And this, says Weir, can be done in a variety of ways.
Work going on in two "pathfinder" children's trusts in the south-west highlights the varied approaches to providing more responsive, integrated services. Devon and Hampshire both set up pilot children's trusts 15 months ago. But whereas the emphasis in Hampshire has been on providing streamlined mental health services for children and young people, the focus in Devon has been on strategic planning and commissioning of all children's services. The results of each approach have helped inform those considering the way forward.
In Hampshire, the newly-established children's and adolescent mental health trust is being seen as a "scout" for the eventual creation of a wider children's trust. The mental health trust provides support for children and young people aged up to 18 who have emotional, behavioural and mental health problems.
The trust, which has nine partners comprising social services, education and seven NHS primary care trusts, has developed a strategy that includes targeting early intervention and preventative services for vulnerable youngsters, joint planning by local and specialist multi-agency services and joint commissioning of specialist services. Natalie Trentham, the trust's partnership and performance manager, says: "In the first year we pooled money, set up a joint planning structure and looked at need. We have found that by pooling our money it can go further. The whole emphasis has been on meeting local community need."
Terry Butler, Hampshire's director of social services, says the trust has demonstrated the importance of early intervention and support - the essence of the Children Act. But he warns that the challenges are not to be underestimated and demand continual reassessment. "We are working from the ground up to look at better services and are consulting with parents and teachers on design models," Butler says.
Such consultation has proved the key in Devon, where strategies and protocols are being drawn up for delivery across the whole range of children's services. The focus is on better communication and cooperation among professionals to support the family, as well as the child.
Pat Clewer, Devon children's trust service development manager, says a lot of work had been carried out on a pragmatic, step-by-step basis. For instance, there is now a strategy for child and adolescent mental health services, where previously there was none. "We have six primary care trusts, three providers of mental health services and social services, who have counsellors, but there was no coherent strategy," says Clewer. "Now we have a single waiting list simply by getting all the key players in one room."
Single assessments are carried out for children with special needs and there is now a common web-base, a resource directory and protocols for shared assessments. The trust has also set up youth inquiry centres - one-stop shops offering access to drug services, sexual health advice, housing help and assistance with job-finding.
Clewer says there are still huge physical and cultural barriers to overcome, however. Devon faces particular difficulties in setting up children's centres because it is predominantly rural. Pilots schemes are being set up at a cluster of schools, with different services being offered at each school. Each agency can take referrals on behalf of another.
"Offering wraparound services is much more difficult in the shire counties," says Clewer. "There is no recognition of this in funding because the levels of deprivation are significantly higher in urban areas. But there are lots of physical problems. We are very keen on the principles of the Children Act and are trying to get the focus on children and outcomes. But there are enormous challenges in how to do that in an integrated way in such a dispersed county."
Getting people to think together creatively is crucial, he adds. While staff are committed to the idea of working together, different professionals have been trained to believe that their way of working is the best. "There is a lot of competition," Clewer says. "We must get people to respect each other's competencies, and knowledge, and realise that working in separate silos does not improve outcomes for children. This is a huge cultural change. It will take years to break barriers down."
Amy Weir is the first to recognise the enormous challenges that lie ahead and admits they may be too much for some. "This is complex change and there is no single set approach," she says. "The jury is still out on whether all authorities will meet the deadline."
Regional change advisers like herself have a key role, Weir says. "In time we might have templates on how to pool budgets and integrate structures. Until we do, different authorities will have different ways of getting better outcomes. We will help them in any way we can."
Pioneering scheme offers frontline support
For lone parent Dean Wilson and his 10-year-old son, Joe, the Leigh Park family and school support team (Fasst) has been a literal life-saver. Two years ago, Wilson was on the brink of suicide. Abandoned by his wife, he was left struggling to look after Joe, his youngest son, who has special needs. And just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, his parents died.
The future looked bleak and suicide seemed an increasingly attractive way out. But thanks to an innovative project aimed at supporting youngsters and their families, Wilson found a new will to live. Within days of making contact, he was given counselling and special help was provided for Joe, who risked being excluded from school because of his aggressive outbursts.
The Fasst, based in Havant, near Portsmouth, is a pioneering multi-agency team that supports children, families and teachers in the area. Fourteen professionals are on the team, providing frontline support to youngsters atttending schools in what is a former education action zone. Among the team members are social workers, education welfare officers, a mental health worker (paid for by the government's Children's Fund), a school nurse, police, a psychotherapist, an educational psychologist and staff from the Connexions youth service.
Penny Corsar, who set up the team two years ago, says the extra support for families has led to a fall in the number of exclusions and a drop in referrals to social services. "I could see there were reasons why children were behaving badly.
"There were examples where the behaviour of children deteriorated because there had been a bereavement in the family. In other cases, children become anxious where parents have separated. This can lead to behavioural problems. Our support workers can help rebuild self-esteem and offer counselling."
The team meets once a week and takes referrals from the 14 primary schools and two secondary schools in the area. Each school has a home-link worker, a former learning support assistant, who can work with children outside the classroom.
In two years, the team has received 320 referrals. Paperwork is kept to a minimum and there is an emphasis on speed of action, with referrals dealt with within a couple of weeks.
Now similar schemes are planned elsewhere in Hampshire, with one starting next month in Gosport. "Schools are very much part of the process," says Corsar. "Teachers have become much more tolerant of [challenging] behaviour and help is being targeted early on."
· Dean Wilson and Joe are pseudonyms
