Introduction

This chapter examines the rapidly unfolding story of children's services reform in the UK in 2006. Those working in children's services are responding to multiple drivers of change inhabiting a fast-moving policy landscape. Major reorganisation is under way in response to the 2004 Children Act, which implemented the structural reforms put forward in the Every Child Matters Green Paper (DfES, 2003). The 2004 Children Act seeks comprehensive reform across the range of services for children aged 0-19 years and their families and has been described as constituting “the most radical transformation [of children's services] since the 1948 Children Act” (Hudson, 2006, p 86). The timing of such radical reform has been explained as the cumulative effect of huge concern over child protection failures (Laming, 2003), and ongoing policy agendas aiming to ‘modernise’ public services and reduce social exclusion (Parton, 2006). With imminent implementation targets and several new policy announcements in 2006, this chapter sets out to examine reform in two stages. First, the main tenets of the evolving national policy framework are summarised. Second, there is a discussion highlighting five key implementation concerns – competing policy agendas, realising the outcome-led approach, accountability gaps, joining up services and developing partnership working and resources and capabilities for implementation and development.

Children's services reform 2004-06: national policy framework

The Every Child Matters Green Paper sought to reduce the risk of child protection failures, by re-orientating children's services towards improving children's “lives as a whole”, their “outcomes”, “well-being” and “life chances”, “maximising the opportunities open to them” (DfES, 2003, pp 6-7). The Green Paper defines children's well-being in terms of five objectives that are to guide service review and reform: enhancing children's health, safety, contribution to society, enjoyment and achievements, and economic well-being (DfES, 2003, p 14). To advance these outcomes for children, several proposals were put forward envisaging more integrated, accessible and responsive services focused on prevention and supported by enhanced accountability, organisational reform, joined-up working and workforce development.

Integrated, preventative and responsive services

Every Child Matters proposed a comprehensive review of children's services, placing “children's needs at the heart” of provision (DfES, 2003, p 9). The Laming Report (2003) attributed the failure to protect Victoria Climbié from harm as a consequence of fragmentation between the ‘hard end’ of crisis intervention and the ‘soft end’ of general universal services for all, as well as a lack of clarity about professional responsibilities.