ADCS President Ann Graham on children’s services reform and funding

Ann Graham, was elected as the new president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) earlier this year. Ann has been the Corporate Director of Children’s Services at Haringey Council since 2018. She has 30 years of experience of working with young people with a diverse career background initially working in the voluntary sector as a nursery worker before qualifying as a social worker. She’s worked in children’s services across four different local authorities as well as taking on a range of other regional and national roles. Ann is proudly the first ever black woman president of ADCS. In her role at the Association, she is keen to tackle issues related to adolescence, while also responding to the significant ongoing government reforms to children’s services, including to the SEND system.

Watch the full conversation on YouTube here.

Timestamps:
01:16 Background to Ann and her responsibilities as President
03:19 Addressing adolescent challenges
06:14 Council’s navigating reforms in children’s services
09:16 Impact of local government reform on children’s services
12:10 SEND system reform – are the proposed changes enough?
14:59 The importance of local and national collaboration
17:10 Learning and support among councils
20:40 Optimism for the future of young people

What made you run for the presidency and what responsibilities does your new role involve?

The way running for the presidency works is that you become the vice president, then you’re the president, and then you’re the immediate past president. I’d been working in Haringey for some time on a project called Stop and Search, where we work with the Met Police to see Stop and Search through a safeguarding lens and a preventative lens. What that means is that I was in conversation once with a police officer and there had been an incident in Haringey, this police officer said that there had been a child who’d been stopped 12 or 13 times. On the last occasion, they found the child with an implement. I wasn’t sure whether that child had been targeted at that time or whether this was a coincidence. Either way, the child had been targeted. Could we, local authorities and partners, children’s services, help? Because we don’t want knife crime in our area. Also, we know in speaking to children that they can be traumatised, not all of them, by stop and search. So if one child had been stopped and searched 12 times, we want to support that child, so that was a driver for me.

We’d done the work in Haringey, and we’d stretched the work across London. I’m really pleased that all of London engaged in this work. So, I just wanted to have a platform to be able to speak about this work, just in case it impacts other areas. That was a key driver. Another was to be able to help and shape national policy with the DfE and to be in discussion with those areas of national policy that we’re all working on. But yes, I was really pleased to become the President.

In your first speech as president, one of the key issues you outlined was wanting to tackle issues relating to adolescence. It would be great to know what you mean by that, what you feel are the biggest challenges teenagers face, and how these can be addressed through different policy solutions at local and national level?

We do a lot of work with little ones, so we have a Best Start in Life overarching plan for them and there isn’t a similar plan for adolescents. We do a lot of work with adolescents across different government departments, and there are different policies. There isn’t always a join-up. One of the things I’d like to see is greater join-up so we can be sure that the work that we’re doing best meets the needs of adolescents. We know that just last week, there was a report on NEETs and it impacts adolescents. We know that our young people worry about isolation. This week, we’re talking about online harms and mobile phones and devices. There are so many aspects of our young people, our adolescents, that we’re working for, that it’s that overview that we need in a single strategy. Most of the work that we do in social care is for people over 30, 40 years old. If we think about the 1989 Children Act and the Working Together volumes since then, they’re all focused on harms inside the home. A lot of our teenagers are harmed outside the home, and it’s bringing all that work together so that we can be sure that we’re addressing them.

1989 was a different world. We now talk of contextual safeguarding, criminal exploitation, child criminal exploitation, child sexual abuse, exploitation, and so on. As well as the isolation, mental health and employment, we don’t have that overview. Not just in a single strategy, but across government departments. Just this week, we know that there’s a minister working on youth, but that’s a different minister from the one working with children and families. So that coordination across government would be really helpful, as well as a strategy, so that we can see what’s working well and what more we need to do. The minister who’s responsible for families isn’t the minister who’s responsible for youth and development of youth hubs. We just need the two to, as an example, come together so that there is that coordinated strategy for adolescents. There is more detail, but if in my year I can have a spotlight on that so that government and the sector work together, I would be pleased about that.

Your 12-month presidency comes at a time of really significant challenge and reform across children’s services and education. What challenges do councils and local systems face when implementing these types of reforms?

There are a number of challenges. Every local authority is different. No two are the same. Even if you have similar populations, or if you’re in the same region, they are all different and they’ve all got their different flavours politically as well. What we need in the sector is flexibility to be able to implement according to the place that we work in.

Another thing is that there are a lot of reforms taking place at the same time. We have Best Start in Life, as I mentioned before. We’ve also got the Family First reforms. We’re working with the SEND reforms. We’re expecting work on the Schools White Paper, and there’s going to be an Ofsted consultation coming out. There’s a lot of work going on in the sector at this time. We really are pleased with the direction of travel, broadly speaking. Of course, there are areas where there is less agreement, but we are pleased that the sector has the investment of £2.4bn. However, the sector is also in some places working with local government reform. There’s just an unprecedented amount of change going on. 

You mentioned my inauguration speech, and in my inauguration speech, I say that there is overwhelm. It sometimes can feel that way. So with all the change coming at the same time and everything changing, some local authorities, such as my own, have political change as well. What we need is the time to implement all of the changes and for some sort of pace between the government departments asking us for information all at the same time. It would be good if that could be paced so that we can have a sustained and embedded change for the future.

Change takes time. Change doesn’t happen overnight. And so we need to work not just within our own councils. We are system leaders as DCSs. We need to work with partners who are also going through change. The ICB is going through a change. The police forces are about to go through a change. Everything is changing. It’s the time to be sure that we can manage that change locally so that we can embed and sustain it and continue to get the good results that we do for children and young people. Of course, there’s always room for improvement. We’re not complacent as a sector, but we want to continue to work to get better for our children and young people.

What impact does wider local government reform have on your work and the work of children’s services across the country?

They impact differently just by looking at local government reform. What this means for the sector is that there will be disaggregation of local authorities. That’s an enormous amount of work. Many will be aware that Surrey is the first to disaggregate. Surrey will be disaggregating into two. That means that the two new unitaries will need a DCS each, and below that Directors, Assistant Directors and so on. So, where there was one local authority, there will be some posts that will need to be created. There’s a capacity impact on the sector.

Some other local authorities are moving into that space of disaggregation; take a place like Essex, which will be disaggregating into five. So there’ll be demand for additional DCSs and, as I say, all the tiers that support a local authority. So that’s going to have an impact on the sector. There is talk and a concern that disaggregating places that are working reasonably well, and very well, some will say, into smaller units is unsettling what is already in place. We know the rationale for that is a government directive, however this will be one of the impacts on children. We need additional capacity in the sector, and then we need sustainability so that we can have good services again and outstanding services again in those areas.

At the same time as disaggregating, parts of our world are aggregating up. So we are working with the ICB, which is losing 50% of its capacity. In my own local authority, the ICB helps us with our strategic work. We’re going to lose some of that capacity over time, and we will have to find ways of absorbing that. Hopefully, we will know the impact of the loss of that capacity down the line. Certainly, up and down the country, people are saying that because the ICB is in the middle of change, colleagues are applying for jobs, some people are leaving or will soon be leaving, and some have actually left. Meetings where we used to have attendance, there isn’t attendance anymore.

While LGR is taking place, colleagues are still having to implement the Families First partnership changes, they’re also working with the SEND changes, they will soon be working with the schools white paper changes and so on. So it’s an incredible challenge to the local authority at this time.

You previously described the SEND system as being broken. We know there are some changes coming down the line. Do the government’s proposed changes go far enough in fixing that broken system?

I think it’s an ambitious programme that the government has. It’s significant sector change. Everybody, including government themselves, would recognise and use that term: the SEND system is broken. Parents and partners recognise that what was intended in 2014 through that legislation isn’t where we’ve arrived at now.

People will say that the intentions of 2014 were good intentions and the right ones; it was the funding that was an issue. In terms of what’s proposed now, people can see that there’s a need for the shift in the system. It is implementing the changes that we are all going to work to see. The legislation is not in place yet, and we’re to go through that process and that consultation, so the SEND system’s going through a lot of change.

The government’s proposal is to front-end so that we’re addressing the needs of children earlier. Everybody supports that, including the sector. So, where there are fewer needs for EHCPs towards the end in the specialist area, it will be about having sufficient capacity and resources in the system to be sure that we can address needs upfront and through the system. What we found was that there has been an increase in EHCPs since the reforms were announced. If that trend were to continue, then that could shift the curve for moving to prevention. But we all do want to have intervention at an earlier point. We all want children to have their needs addressed, identified and responded to at an earlier point. So I’m hopeful that that can happen.

We are working with our colleagues in the school sector and alternative provision to make the significant cultural changes that we need. The sector needs time to be able to make those cultural changes. They’re significant, and if we get them right, then we should be able to help parents and partners have confidence in the new way of working, but we do need time to do the work.

How important is collaboration between local and national government for achieving the changes that you’ve described and ultimately ensuring the best outcomes for young people?

We were really pleased that Bridget Phillipson attended the inauguration, because working with Directors and ADCS is really important. We engage with local government on a weekly basis. I was with Minister Josh McAllister, just this week and Bridget Phillipson will be coming to Haringey later today. In between, we’re speaking with civil servants. The ADCS does really important work helping to shape national policy. Because we are the sector who are doing the work, with government, we can help to influence and shape change.

Our voice is really important. Of course, I would say that, but really, it is important because we are the ones who have to implement and embed the change. Of course, we do that in partnership. It’s one of the most important things about being a DCS, that system leadership, having that relationship with the DfE in particular, but also other departments.

It’s a busy week for me, meeting with ministers or being engaged with ministers. I have a meeting with Minister Jake Richards on youth and youth offending, so that the voice of the sector can be heard. I don’t do this alone at all. There are amazing people who are in our networks. We have a range of networks, and they too are meeting with ministers and DfE colleagues, helping to shape and influence national policy. The work on adolescence is one of those. In setting my priorities for my presidential year, we have a policy seminar where we together weigh up: is this something we, as a sector, want to do? They may be my priorities, but they’re owned by us all.

That’s an example of how we shape the sector. It is a negotiation, it is a discussion. We might not always agree, but having a healthy discussion is important.

It would be great to hear about where and how you think councils can best learn from each other as well?

The sector has, for years, supported itself through its sector-led improvement work and there have been some phenomenal things that have happened. We have what we call Regional Improvement and Innovation Alliances, we refer to them as RIIAs, and in London, we have the London Improvement and Innovation Agency (LIIA). With the support of the RIIAs and LIIAs we are able to raise areas that we want to work on and to make change. One of those that the DfE turned into national policy was our work on the workforce.

For many years, the sector has wanted to reduce the number of agency workers in the sector for two main reasons. We know that we wanted stability. Agency social workers were able to leave at short notice. That could be their choice, our choice, or just the end of the contract, that sort of thing. But having too many changes of social workers wasn’t good for families. Also, managing price was a pressure on our budgets. One region began working through their RIIA to get a memorandum of understanding, they then shared that learning with other regions. Now all regions are working that way. The DfE was able to lift that good practice and make it national practice. That’s one of the excellent ways in which the sector is able to support itself.

It does so more locally, too. When I first started in Haringey we weren’t in the position that we are now, according to Ofsted ratings, and so I was able to seek the support of local authorities who are further ahead in some areas of practice than Haringey was. That’s really great because what you have is team managers talking to team managers, social workers talking to social workers, so that they can adapt, flex and understand how to make improvements. It’s also while doing that, that there are other systemic things that you need. You need to have enough money to do the job, so that the activity still has to go on. You have to speak to your 151 Finance Director to make sure you’ve got the resources you need. But sector-led improvement is incredibly helpful moving forward. In London, we have some work that’s being led by Florence Kroll and our LIIA on the safeguarding of adolescents in London. It’s literally called that – and so we refer to it as SAIL. I think the idea is that we will go to other RIIAs and showcase that work, and they can take it, adapt it and use it. That’s what the sector does, it shares learning across the piece.

It’s something that we really value, and there’s nothing like being able to pick up a phone to another DCS and say, “I hear you’re doing some good work. Can you tell me what you’re doing and can we come and visit?” or receiving a call, “I hear that you’re doing some good work. Can we come and visit?” That informality helps us to build relationships for improvement in the sector.

What do you hope to achieve over the next year, and are you optimistic about the future for all our young people?

I am optimistic about the future, and it goes beyond the year because we have a phrase that we pass the baton from one president to the next, so it’s a continuation of improvement. I am optimistic and my colleagues are optimistic too. Certainly, my optimism comes from working with children, families and young people. And there’s nothing better than being able to support them in getting better outcomes in their lives, whatever we’re working on. Whether it is Best Start in Life, talking about government initiatives, or helping a child stay in school and improve their attendance or stop them from being excluded.

We’ve done some good work in my local authority on exclusions. There is a story of a young person who was on the verge of being excluded and we as a sector worked to prevented him from being excluded by providing support to him, his family and also the school. It was last year on results day when I phoned his head teacher, not knowing about him individually. The one story his head teacher was so proud to tell me was this young person who was on the verge of being excluded and he wasn’t – and he had gained six or seven GCSEs. I’m still proud of that outcome. It was the young person’s achievement. But we all take hope from those wonderful stories. So, yes, it will be hard. We have been through change as a sector before.

This is an incredible change and, as they say, unprecedented all at once and all at the same time. But we are here for the long term. It’s that desire to make change that drives us all and keeps us hopeful.