Children's Trusts Frequently Asked Questions

What led to the development of Children's Trusts?

Children's Trusts are a response to Lord Laming's report of the inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbié and the clear need to improve safeguarding and the outcomes for all children and young people.

Lord Laming's report stated that:

"The single most important change in the future must be the drawing of a clear line of accountability, from top to bottom, without doubt or ambiguity about who is responsible at every level for the well-being of vulnerable children."

Children's Trusts were created to address the fragmentation of responsibilities for children's services by strengthening accountabilities and developing a local strategy in every area for improving children's lives by delivering better services, including their health and wellbeing.

Why has the DCSF issued revised guidance on Children's Trusts?

The DCSF published revised guidance on 18 November 2008 to help Children's Trusts deliver a step change in improving the outcomes of children and young people. This is a huge job - and it needs an effective Children's Trust partnership. That's why the Children's Plan: Building Brighter Futures commits the Government to strengthening Children's Trusts so that they can deliver real, measurable improvements for all children and young people in every local area. All Children's Trusts are expected to have, by 2010, consistent high quality arrangements to identify all children who need additional help and to intervene early to support them.

The revised guidance reflects the experience of developing Children's Trusts, and the development of new policies and programmes to support the drive for better outcomes. In particular, it stresses the importance of robust and effective partnership arrangements under the section 10 'duty to cooperate' in implementing the vision of the Children's Plan.

What does the Children's Plan mean for Children's Trusts?

Strengthening the role of Children's Trusts is a key part of the Children's Plan. This means Children's Trusts will be expected to:

• Deliver measurable improvements for all children and young people
• 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

To achieve this, the DCSF will monitor the difference that Children's Trusts are making and examine whether Children's Trust arrangements need to be strengthened to improve outcomes, including by further legislation.

Why are you proposing to change the legislation on Children's Trusts?

The Consultation on Delivering the Children's Plan - Strengthening Children's Trusts: legislative options was overwhelmingly in favour of strengthening Children's Trusts by requiring local areas to have a Children's Trust Board with responsibility for delivering the Children's and Young People's Plan, and by extending the 'duty to cooperate' to maintained schools, Academies, Sixth Form/FE Colleges and Job Centre Plus. Much progress has already been made - but all Children's Trusts need to raise their game if they are to deliver the ambitions set out in the Children's Plan. The proposed legislation will build on existing successful practice and establish in all areas what we know from experience works well. The aim of legislation is to empower and encourage local partners within a broadly permissive framework.

Why should each local area be compelled to have a Children's Trust Board?

Evidence suggests that partnership working would be strengthened if the Children's Trust Board had a legal existence and could therefore be given specific limited functions.

Why should schools want to be involved in Children's Trusts?

The Children's Plan model for 21st century schools is for schools to be at the heart of an effective system of prevention and early intervention. To achieve this, schools must be able to rely on timely and appropriate support for their pupils from other agencies and specialist services.

Schools need to be able to contribute fully to the strategic discussions with Children's Trust partners about local needs and priorities and be clear about their role in prevention and early intervention. Clarity about the roles and responsibilities of all services within each Children's Trust will, in turn, support mutual accountability.

Why have you changed your mind about including Academies under the 'duty to cooperate' instead of including them through their funding agreements?

The responses to the consultation on legislative changes to strengthen Children's Trusts were overwhelmingly in favour of placing Academies on the same footing as other schools and FE colleges. We see the value of Academies having the same status as other schools and colleges in giving them a voice through the Children's Trust on what services are commissioned and, in turn, enabling them to have greater access to additional services for their pupils.

How will Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) be part of the Children's Trust?

Increasingly, Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and local authorities must work together to achieve their common goals, including delivering on Public Service Agreement targets. The NHS Operating Framework 2008-09 identifies child health as a priority and PCTs can only address this fully if they work in concert with local authorities.

Working through the Children's Trust, partners should assess the type and level of need (as part of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment). Based on this evidence, partners should ensure that appropriate action is included in the Children and Young People's Plan, PCT operational plans, commissioning plans, the Sustainable Community Strategy and, where appropriate, the Local Area Agreement.

PCT performance for activities which it carries out alone will be assessed against a set of indicators - the Vital Signs - which include indicators for children's health. Some of these Vital Signs are also in the National Indicator Set. This means that the performance of the local authority and its partners, including the PCT, will be judged through the same local performance framework.

GPs are not under a 'duty to cooperate' so how will they work in the Children's Trust?

Professionals such as health visitors and GPs are key players in the Children's Trust, so it is essential that representatives of local NHS bodies actively participate in the Children's Trust.

Children's Trusts need to draw on the strengths and expertise of GPs to deliver improvements for children and families. Directors of Children's Services should consult with PCTs to secure representation of GPs on the Children's Trust Board. Depending on local circumstances GP membership might be achieved through individual elected GPs, or through members of the Professional Executive Committee of the PCT, or by representation from a practice-based commissioning group.

GPs' professional expertise and advice will help the Children's Trust Board to involve the wider community of GPs in their area in developing and delivering the CYPP.

How do Local Area Agreements (LAAs) fit with Children's Trusts and the Children and Young People's Plan?

The Children and Young People's Plan (CYPP) remains a key document covering all services which impact directly on children and young people and their families. Children's Trusts have a vital role in: agreeing, reviewing and signing off the Children and Young People's Plan; contributing to the Local Area Agreement (LAA); and in driving the operational plans which underpin them both.

LAAs are now the primary vehicle for central government to agree targets for local government and its partners. Children's Trusts are one of the main thematic partnerships of the Local Strategic Partnership which agrees the priorities for improvement in the LAA. The Children and Young People's Plan continues to be a single, strategic, overarching plan for all local services for children and young people. The CYPP will identify where outcomes need to be improved and how and when this improvement will be achieved, and must be consistent with the LAA.

The new Children's Trust Board will have ownership of the CYPP. How will this work?

We want CYPPs to have more consistency and impact with greater ownership from partners. That means that the Children's Trust Board will sign off the plan, and all partners will be expected to agree the key strategic actions and who will deliver them. Actions could include joint commissioning, budget pooling and alignment of processes to deliver local priorities.

This would mean each of the larger partners, primarily the LA and PCT, committing themselves to providing an agreed level of resource, and the Board, as a whole, calling its members to account for delivering on those commitments. Such arrangements are wholly voluntary and smaller partners will not be expected to commit their resources without their full agreement.

What is the timing for new CYPPs?

All areas will be expected to have a new CYPP by April 2011. To support local authorities developing their CYPPs we are planning to publish revised CYPP guidance in December 2008.

Children's trusts reports

'National Evaluation of Children's Trusts: Developing Integrated Services for Children in England', Phase 1 Interim Report, October 2004 (Ref: RR617)

'National Evaluation of Children's Trusts: Realising Children's Trusts Arrangements', Phase 1 Report, 2005 (Ref: RR682)

'Children's Trust Pathfinders: innovative partnerships for improving the well-being of Children and Young People', National Evaluation of Children's Trust Pathfinders - Final Report, March 2007