childrens services
An independent evaluation of Shelter's Children's Services.
In 2004, Shelter launched its Million Children Campaign to raise awareness of the impact of homelessness on children and families. In response to issues highlighted by the campaign, Shelter made a proactive decision to develop a range of pilot services for children, young people and families, that could test new ways of working to prevent child homelessness and to support children who were already homeless to achieve better outcomes.
Paper that aims to articulate the variety of models for children’s services delivery that exist internationally and places these in the context of current UK policy and practice.
The key sections present outlines of the different policy and service provision approaches to children’s services in the UK and the top performing OECD countries. This latter group comprises the Nordic
countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden), and the Netherlands. Brief reference is made to other countries, where appropriate.
Guide which is a supplement to a larger report, 'Backing the Future: why investing in children is good for us all', which is the culmination of a programme of research carried out by nef (the new economics foundation) and Action for Children.
This guide looks at how practitioners can use a co-production approach to service delivery.
This research aims to provide local authority early years and children’s services leaders, and children’s centre managers, with evidence of how children’s centre services are targeting the most disadvantaged families.
In particular, how they are defining, identifying and prioritising families in greatest need of support, and the practical implications of targeting for local authorities, for children’s centres and for policy.
Paper that outlines the practical case for retaining a local authority funded education welfare service (also sometimes known as the education or school social work service) which has with a clear remit for providing support to children and young people who are at risk of poor educational outcomes due to their poor attendance and behaviour.
This research, funded by the City Bridge Trust, is the result of collaborative work in London by Refuge, a national domestic violence charity, and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), a children’s organisation that specialises in protecting children from abuse and neglect.
Report that provides details of how safeguarding practices have been improved in the areas of leadership and management; recruiting, maintaining and retaining a highly competent workforce; quality assurance and performance management; referral and assessment processes and procedures; and partnership working.
It gives localised accounts of practice implementation and, where possible, evidence of outcomes.
This report tracks the rise in spending on children’s social care over the last decade in England and Wales, highlights how it is predicted to fall in 2011–12, and projects how this downward trend might develop in future years.
Finally, it estimates how spending reductions (particularly in early intervention) might affect the overall demand for and cost of children’s services over the medium term.
Annual report that presents evidence from inspection and regulatory visits undertaken between September 2010 and August 2011 by the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).
It takes evidence from inspection activity across the full range of Ofsted’s statutory remit, which includes early years and childcare, provision for education and skills in schools, colleges and adult learning, children’s social care and local authority services for children.
The tragic deaths of Victoria Climbié in 2000 and Peter Connelly in 2007 brought the difficulties of identifying and dealing with severe neglect and abuse sharply into public focus. These children died, following weeks and months of appalling abuse, at the hands of those responsible for caring for them.
The public outcries that followed asked how the many different professionals who had seen these children and their families in the weeks before their deaths could have failed to recognise the extent of the children’s maltreatment.

