Future Local Lab
Local Government ExplainedExplainer: Children’s services in local government
James Cousins
Introduction
Children’s services are one of the most important responsibilities within local government. Collectively, the services offer support and promote the health and wellbeing of children and young people from birth to adulthood, including safeguarding, education, family support, care, and corporate parenting, among other duties.
This explainer explores children’s services in local government in England, Scotland, and Wales, and the more centralised systems that operate in Northern Ireland and Ireland. It will be useful for councillors and officers coming to children’s services for the first time, anyone working with the local government sector in the field, and anyone who wants to develop an overview of the work of local government.
At a glance
What this explainer covers |
Children’s services in the UK and Ireland; how the model works and where responsibilities for service delivery lie; the pressures and challenges it faces. |
Who is it for |
The briefing offers an overview of children’s services, making it useful for anyone who is new to the topic, whether a newly elected councillor, newly appointed officer, or someone moving into children’s services from elsewhere in local government. It will also be useful for anyone seeking a broader overview of the range of local government services. |
Why it matters |
The safeguarding, wellbeing, and opportunities offered to children and young people are among the most important services local government provides. Local leadership can have a positive impact on the outcomes children have, and provide a vital safeguard when it matters most. |
Why children’s services matter for local government
Children’s services are among the most important functions of English, Scottish, and Welsh local government. They support local communities, help individuals and families thrive, and offer safety and security to those who lack the resources and capacity to care for themselves. While much of local government’s direct work will inevitably focus on the most extreme cases, children’s services – along with other departments – also play a role in shaping and guiding other activity in their area to support all children and young people.
As a council service, they are among the highest profile. They are typically, with adult social care, one of the largest areas of council spending, and come with legal and safeguarding duties. Failures can and do attract significant public and political scrutiny.
Children’s services are also heavily involved in partnerships, both statutory and informal, with every service that are involved with children, including the police, health service, schools, and the voluntary sector. And, on top of the legal responsibilities, children’s services can have a heavy moral responsibility since their actions can have life-long impacts – both positive and negative – on children and families.
The pressures on children’s services are significant. Alongside the general financial pressure on council budgets, there has been an increase in both the volume and level of need among the children and families they support. It is suffering from recruitment and retention issues, adding to the already major pressures faced by social workers. There is also significant pressure within the sector on places for children who need residential, foster care, or specialist placements, which creates a further challenge for those trying to achieve the best outcomes for children.
What are children’s services in local government terms?
In England, Scotland, and Wales, some local authorities have a statutory responsibility to operate a children’s services function, while in Northern Ireland and Ireland these are centralised. In both the United Kingdom and Ireland, the services provided include the statutory and non-statutory functions that support the wellbeing, protection, education, and development of children and young people. While there are differences between and within the UK and Ireland, the services provided commonly include:
- Child protection and safeguarding
- Social care
- Early years and family support services
- Fostering and adoption services
- Residential care, including secure accommodation when needed
- Youth services
- Youth offending teams and youth justice service
- Educational welfare and inclusion, including SEND and additional support needs.
- Support for care leavers, which may extend into early adulthood
- Multi-agency working, especially around safeguarding.
How does the system work?
The seemingly overwhelming array of duties and responsibilities is reflected in what can appear as a complicated network of roles and systems. This, however, also illustrates that many of those duties must be shared with other bodies if they are to be effective. Safeguarding, in particular, would be much less effective without the involvement of health services, police, and schools. This means children’s services take on a spectrum of roles, from strategic to operational.
Common features in all three countries include:
- Acting as the local safeguarding authority. Although the safeguarding duty is shared among partners, in England and Wales local government is the lead agency in the statutory partnership. In Scotland, a model of child protection committees exists.
- Acting as a regulator or decision-maker. Although the roles vary between nations, most local governments will have some duties that place them in this position in matters relating to child welfare.
- A partnership coordinator. The local council will be responsible for several partnerships, both standing groups and any incidental partnerships that may be required.
- A commissioner or provider of services.
- Corporate parent. Local authorities will act as the corporate parent for looked-after children.
Local government’s role in education has changed significantly. The move towards government-funded academies and academy trusts has diminished the role of local government in education in England, while it plays a more prominent role in Scotland and Wales. In practice, local governance of schools means councils usually play a strategic role in areas like capacity planning, school improvement, and support services.
Who do children’s services work with?
The reality is that most children’s services work with only a minority of the children in their area. Even then, most of the children who use children’s services may only do so incidentally, for example, by using local youth club provision with friends.
The largest part of children’s services work will be with children and young people, and their families, that will have been brought to their attention, often by a partner agency like a school or the police.
Safeguarding issues, protecting children from abuse, neglect, or exploitation, is a core statutory duty in each country. However, there has been a shift in focus from responsive work to prevention and early intervention. Services increasingly work with families to identify risks early and prevent escalation. This can create tensions where the pressures of crisis response shift resources from prevention.
In practice, children’s services will have to work with any agency that works or interacts with children. This will include schools and school trusts, NHS and health boards, the police and court services, and voluntary sector partners.
Who are looked-after children/children in care?
In the UK, looked-after children is the technical term for children for whom a council has a responsibility because of a care order or, in England and Wales, a voluntary section 20 agreement (in which parents request or agree to a temporary placement). Ireland uses the term ‘children in care’ for any children for whom Tusla, the child and family agency, is caring for.
The number of children in this category will be relatively small, but significant, for example in England there are around 80,000 looked-after children. The majority of these will be because of abuse or neglect, but the reasons can cover anything that means the children would not otherwise receive adequate care, such as family breakdown or illness of parents or carers.
This care need not be directly provided. Looked-after children can be placed in foster care, a privately operated home, or for children approaching eighteen, even in semi-independent living, and still be ‘looked after’.
What is a corporate parent?
The concept of a corporate parent exists in both the UK and Ireland, although with different legal frameworks and different applicability. In England, for example, the Children and Social Work Act 2017 requires local authorities to follow ‘corporate parenting principles’, while in Scotland, the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 sets out a long list of bodies defined as corporate parents that encompasses almost every public sector organisation.
Ireland does not have a defined corporate parent duty, although legislation and regulation could be considered to have a similar effect, requiring public bodies to think about the care and support they provide to people in their care and recent care leavers.
In broad terms, a corporate parent should consider how a natural parent would make decisions that affect their children. The aim is to ensure that looked-after children benefit from the same thought and ambition for them as any other child, including support they might receive after the age of eighteen as they establish themselves in adult life.
Roles and responsibilities
Strategic |
Councils lead children’s services planning, safeguarding partnerships, commissioning, and corporate parenting within a strong statutory framework. Has a strategic role in education, planning places and managing applications. |
Operational |
Local authorities deliver children’s social care, safeguarding, fostering, adoption, early help, and support for children in care. |
Regulatory |
Councils operate within national inspection and statutory compliance frameworks overseen by bodies such as Ofsted. |
Strategic |
Councils coordinate integrated children’s planning and use the GIRFEC wellbeing approach and community planning structures. Acts as the local education authority. |
Operational |
Councils deliver social work, child protection, family support and corporate parenting services alongside integrated partners. |
Regulatory |
Councils work within Scottish inspection, children’s rights, and wellbeing frameworks with strong integrated accountability |
Strategic |
Councils lead social services planning with a strong emphasis on wellbeing, prevention, and coordination with regional partnership arrangements for health and adult social care. Acts as the local education authority |
Operational |
Local authorities deliver children’s social services, safeguarding, prevention, and care support services |
Regulatory |
Councils are regulated through Welsh social care and wellbeing frameworks with partnership accountability mechanisms |
Strategic |
Strategic leadership for children’s social care largely sits within regional health and social care structures rather than councils. |
Operational |
Health and Social Care Trusts deliver most operational children’s social care functions; councils play a limited direct role. |
Regulatory |
Regulatory oversight largely sits within the integrated health and social care system rather than local government. |
Strategic |
Tusla provides strategic leadership for child protection and family services, with responsibility sitting with central government rather than local authorities. |
Operational |
Tusla delivers child protection, welfare, and family support services; local authorities mainly contribute through community and housing functions. |
Regulatory |
National agencies and departments oversee regulation and accountability, with limited direct regulatory responsibilities for local authorities. |
Key terms
Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
Child protection |
Action taken where a child is at risk of significant harm. |
Safeguarding |
Wider responsibility to protect children and promote welfare. |
Children in need |
Children requiring additional support to achieve or maintain wellbeing. |
Looked-after children/children in care |
Children formally cared for by the local authority or state. |
Corporate parenting |
Responsibilities public bodies hold towards children in care and care leavers |
Early help/early intervention |
Support provided before problems escalate |
Care leaver |
A young adult who had been a looked-after child |
GIRFEC |
Scotland’s “Getting It Right For Every Child” wellbeing approach |
Family support |
Services designed to strengthen family stability and resilience |
How it works in the UK and Ireland
System overview
In England, upper-tier authorities are responsible for children’s services. The Children Act 2004, passed following the Victoria Climbié inquiry and the government’s Every Child Matters reforms, requires every council to have a director for children’s services responsible for children’s social care services and education to bring coordinated leadership.
Most councils have adopted a single Director of Children’s Services structure, although some operate with slightly different structures. This can include unifying adult and children’s social care in a single directorate, or delegating and sharing the responsibility between multiple officers.
The system has been heavily shaped by the Children Act framework and subsequent reforms which collectively create legal duties of safeguarding, supporting, and when necessary, caring for children.
Key responsibilities of councils
Of the several children’s services responsibilities councils have, safeguarding is perhaps paramount, and is delivered through partnerships with the police and health service.
The council is responsible for early help schemes and family support. Many councils deliver this through Family Hubs and Start for Life schemes. These bring together council and other services with the aim of increasing both integration and accessibility.
The council leads on youth justice partnerships, providing services to divert young people from crime. These are statutory, multi-agency partnerships that work with children who have offended or are at risk of offending. They will also provide youth services, which are often targeted at specific groups or areas to provide diversionary activities.
The role of local authorities in education has diminished as more schools have become academies, and the Every child achieving and thriving white paper expects all schools to join academy trusts. However, councils still retain responsibility for many schools, especially in the primary sector where academisation has been less extensive. As local education authorities, they also have a strategic role in issues like school place management, admissions, and special educational needs. They also provide shared services, such as HR, finance, and procurement support.
Notable features
Children’s services are subject to significant inspection and accountability regimes. Alongside internal scrutiny through council governance, Ofsted plays a key role in inspecting individual services, as well as inspecting the council as a children’s services organisation — the Inspection of Local Authorities Children’s Service (ILACS). Some services with health elements may also be subject to CQC inspection.
Despite the statutory regime, there are still significant differences between councils. This may be affected by factors like the local approach to academisation affecting education functions, or differences in local demand.
Growing demand and costs are putting children’s services under significant pressure. A particular pressure has come from the increase in SEND. Low-level SEND need is covered by school budgets, but an increasing number of children are being assessed as having higher needs that are funded by local authorities. Placements for children have also been increasing in cost.
Growth in demand has increased the use of external provision and commissioning over direct provision of services. This has resulted in criticism since it can mean children being placed out of area or in unregistered settings.
There has been an increasing move towards partnership working around children. The Working Together guidance, for example, strengthens multi-agency working around safeguarding. There are also proposals in Every child achieving and thriving to move some responsibility for SEND to schools.
System overview
Local authorities are responsible for children’s social work and broader children’s services. A defining feature is the Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) approach. This places an emphasis on wellbeing, prevention, and integrated support around the child.
Although children’s services and education are not part of the Integrated Joint Board approach that guides health and adult social care, local arrangements vary, and similar partnerships are used to coordinate and plan these services to support the GIRFEC approach in most areas.
Key responsibilities of councils
Local authorities take on the key roles of safeguarding, child protection, and corporate parenting when necessary.
Councils will run family and wellbeing services, and in education act as the local education authority, as well as coordinating additional support for children when needed.
National education policy is set by the Scottish government and Education Scotland, but local councils manage most state schools.
Notable features
The GIRFEC approach creates a child-centred approach with a high priority placed on wellbeing. This is supported by a strong emphasis on children’s rights, and their ability to participate in decisions about their care.
For children in care, ‘The Promise’ was made following the 2020 Independent Care Review, which concluded that transformational change was needed. The Promise is a set of commitments which help to make that change happen, such as children being able to grow up feeling loved and cared for, and having a lifelong support system built on relationships rather than processes and thresholds. This promise was intended to be met by 2030, and Promise Scotland was established to support the recommended changes, monitor progress, and provide challenge when reforms were falling behind schedule.
A partnership approach, which is more formally constituted in areas like adult social care, is echoed in children’s care, with strong integration and links between relevant public and voluntary sector partners. This includes integration into community planning arrangements.
System overview
A national framework, centred on the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 applies to children’s services. The framework focuses on prevention and wellbeing and children are expected to be given a voice and, whenever possible, control over their care.
Councils have responsibility for safeguarding and care functions, but will work closely with health boards and relevant regional partnerships.
Key responsibilities
Councils have lead responsibility for child safeguarding, but will deliver this in partnership with other agencies.
Councils run family support services, furthering their prevention duty, and are responsible for children looked after as well as fostering and adoption services.
Unitary councils act as local education authorities, with strategic oversight of education in their area.
Notable features
Wales’ children’s services system integrates through the regional partnership boards, although councils retain overall responsibility.
There is a strong prevention focus as well as a broad emphasis on positive wellbeing outcomes.
A rights-based system, it places children at the centre of the work and gives them a strong voice in their care.
System overview
Unlike the rest of the UK, Northern Ireland has a largely centralised system. Children’s social services are the responsibility of regional Health and Social Care Trusts, while education is managed by the national Education Authority.
Although there is partnership working, local councils play a more limited role in children’s services through other roles like community leadership and leisure services.
Key responsibilities
The most direct responsibility that local councils have is managing local youth and leisure provision. However, they do have some impact on children’s services through other roles, such as community planning, partnership coordination, general local well-being initiatives, and through more general safeguarding duties.
Notable features
A centralised delivery model means that council involvement in children’s services is usually ancillary to their other duties and roles within the communities they serve.
System overview
A national agency, Tusla, has responsibility for children’s social services, including child protection, welfare, and family support services. There is a more mixed picture in education. Regional Education and Training Boards, which have majority local authority membership, operate some schools and further education, however, the large majority of schools are religious and managed by their relevant church structures.
Local authority contributions to children’s services are mostly through partnership working, such as on Education and Training Boards, or their other responsibilities.
Key responsibilities of councils
The most direct input into children’s services councils have is through their community and youth development roles. They can also have an impact on children’s services through their housing, recreation, and partnership work.
Notable features
Although councils have some influence through partnership work, there is a separation between local government and child protection.
Funding and resources at a glance
Funding model | Key pressures | Structural differences | Who delivers? | Level of local control |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Combination of central grant and council tax. Schools are funded through the ring-fenced Dedicated Schools Grant. |
Rising demand, placement costs, workforce shortages |
Variation between council models |
Local authorities and commissioned providers |
High local responsibility within national statutory framework |
Funding mode | Key pressures | Structural differences | Who delivers | Level of local control |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Scottish Government grant plus local taxation |
Financial pressures, workforce challenges |
GIRFEC and integrated planning approach |
Councils working with health and third sector |
Local authority leadership, but shared responsibility through partnerships |
Funding model | Key pressures | Structural differences | Who delivers? | Level of local control |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Welsh Government funing plus local taxation |
Prevention funding pressures, recruitment, demand |
Strong wellbeing and partnership focus |
Local authorities and regional partnerships |
Local authority leadership, although often in coordination with key partners |
Funding model | Key pressures | Structural differences | Who delivers? | Level of local control |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Centralised funding through devolved structures |
Fiscal pressures and service sustainability |
Health and social care integrated outside councils |
Health and Social Care Trusts |
Limited council involvement |
Funding model | Key pressures | Structural differences | Who delivers? | Level of local control |
|---|---|---|---|---|
National funding through Tusla and departments |
Capacity pressures and service coordination |
National agency-led model |
Tusla and partner organisations |
Limited council involvement |
Current challenges and pressures
Demand pressures
The demands on children’s services have increased dramatically over the last decade. A general trend in all nations is both an increase in the volume of demand – the number of children needing services – and the level of demand – the intensity of services they need.
The increase has been driven by several, sometimes overlapping factors, particularly:
- poverty and cost-of-living pressures, which can have an impact on issues like family breakdown, housing, and mental health,
- increases in exploitation and online harm, which can see children exposed to risk or criminality, and
- increased SEND demand, some of which may be down to better and increased diagnosis, but the level of individual need has also risen.
Collectively these put pressures on finances and other resources. England, in particular, has seen severe pressure on placements. Many councils, especially urban boroughs, do not have sufficient places for children who need residential accommodation, resulting in use of out-of-area or unregistered homes.
Workforce issues
Social work faces significant recruitment and retention challenges. The role can be challenging, carrying a heavy emotional burden. Combined with high workloads and pressure from inspection, there is a high level of burnout among social workers. Many councils rely on agency staff, who come at a higher cost.
Many areas also report difficulties in recruiting foster carers, exacerbating both placement and workload pressures.
Demographic change
Falling fertility rates are reducing the number of children across the UK and Ireland. While this may reduce pressure on children’s care services, it is creating problems in education. Many schools have surplus places. In England, for example, there are more than one million fewer school-age children than the total school capacity. This reduces the per-pupil income for schools while their fixed costs continue to increase.
While there is variance, most areas are seeing a fall in school numbers, and urban areas are tending to feel it more acutely. This, in turn, creates pressure for councils that have a strategic role in education to make difficult decisions about school closures. In England, where many schools have become academies and, therefore, are not controlled by councils, this may be a particular concern if maintained schools have to bear the brunt of those difficult decisions.
Financial sustainability
Children’s services, along with adult social services, are the most frequently cited source of financial pressure in councils with responsibility for delivering them. Increasing costs, whether that’s in placements, SEND provision, or the premium charged by agencies, are taking up a growing proportion of the budgets of local councils with children’s services responsibilities.
There is evidence that many councils are cutting discretionary services, as well as increasing borrowing and reducing reserves to balance budgets. While this can provide a temporary solution, for many councils it is not sustainable in the long term. Even before then, it can create tensions between local and national expectations of councils, which may be unable to find the resources to meet local priorities.
Policy tensions
Many areas of children’s services have inherent tensions, especially at a time when finances are restricted.
A notable tension is between the increased emphasis on early support and prevention work and crisis interventions. While prevention is a commendable aim, it requires investment in services and there is a time-lag before those benefits are realised, creating short- and medium-term budget pressures.
There is also a difficulty in managing partnership arrangements – reliant on positive working relationships and shared responsibilities – when all the partners will have competing priorities and their own financial challenges.
Finally, operational decisions are not always easy. Social workers and their managers face an almost impossible task and, inevitably, have to make at least some less-than-perfect decisions as they attempt to balance a child-centred approach with the pressures the system faces.
Accountability tensions
While many in the sector can point to the reward the work offers, it is a job that comes with one of the highest levels of accountability in the public sector. Social workers and councils, in different ways, must demonstrate their compliance with statutory duties and standards, the positive impact of their work, the effectiveness of partnerships, and good financial management both internally and externally.
The external inspection regime is intentionally rigorous. Each country has a different body, or bodies, that conduct differing levels of assurance and compliance visits: The Ofsted-led Inspecting Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) framework in England, the Care Inspectorate in Scotland, the Care Inspectorate Wales in Wales, the Regulation and Quality Improvement Agency in Northern Ireland, and the Health Information and Quality Authority in Ireland. While these create a necessary culture in which service quality must be maintained, it can create an overhead for organisations that have to evidence they are meeting standards, and for many, it becomes an additional stressor to manage.
On top of this, there will be local scrutiny from elected members, judicial and quasi-judicial oversight of decisions, and families who will be prepared to challenge decisions made about them and their children.
All of this must be managed while juggling incredibly demanding cases and trying to ensure the best outcomes for children. However, for many in the sector, there may also be the awareness that – as the past has shown – getting it wrong can be a high-profile mistake.
What does this mean for councillors
For councillors, involvement in children’s services can be incredibly rewarding, but it can also be abstract. The nature of the work means that most councillors will never know exactly whose lives they have improved or, often, know exactly how their contribution can make a meaningful difference to children’s lives.
An executive member will want to understand the statutory duties their council has, and how the council is meeting them. This will include:
- safeguarding duties, and how they are embedded within the council and partnerships,
- provision for SEND,
- provision for looked-after children and care leavers,
- understand the local education system, including other private and public providers, and
- the financial and workforce issues that affect their local authority.
It will also be important, as a strategic leader, to understand the outcomes their council achieves. This will include the experiences of the children and families, and of the partners who are critical to the delivery of many services.
While portfolio holders will have the most direct responsibility and involvement, every councillor can be considered a corporate parent, whether as part of the legal framework or morally, in their role as strategic system leaders and safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. Councillors should approach their role bearing this in mind, considering the needs of children, even in those areas that may not be directly related.
Some councillors may also play a role as members of specific boards or panels that consider thematic or operational matters, such as a safeguarding partnership or oversight for adoption and fostering.
Councillors can play a role in children’s services through scrutiny of services, understanding their collective corporate parenting and safeguarding duties, setting appropriate budgets, understanding local need to set appropriate strategic goals, and championing young people and children.
Throughout, councillors should be aware that children’s services can be one of the council’s most important responsibilities. The decisions they take can have long-term consequences, both for the individuals affected and the council’s budgets. It is also an area that has significant public scrutiny and comes with a high reputational risk.
What does this mean for officers
Officers must deliver the operational service while balancing the needs and demands of external and internal governance, budgets, and partnerships. The statutory demands of children’s services will be paramount for officers, as well as the need to ensure there is a well-developed and fully embedded safeguarding culture in place.
For most in children’s services, this will be made all the harder because much of the work involves partnerships. Ensuring that everyone around the table – who will all have their own professional pressures – is aligned and delivering will usually require significant effort, not just in the work involved, but also in building strong, productive relationships.
Finally, faced with the pressure that pervades all of local government, officers will need to strike a balance in their services, such as between national statutory regulation and the local political vision or between funding immediate needs or investing in prevention programmes.
Key questions to ask
- What are the biggest drivers of demand locally?
- How are early help and family support services reducing demand, how do we know?
- What are the pressures on our SEND system? How are partners, especially schools, managing these pressures?
- What are the workforce issues the council is facing? How much are agency used? What causes staff turnover?
- What risks are there around placements? How are they being mitigated and managed?
- How are children involved as fully as possible in service design? How do we hear their voice? What has changed as a result of children’s input?
- How effective are the safeguarding arrangements? How do we test that they are embedded in the council and with partners?
- What support is in place for care leavers? How do we know it’s effective? How are care leavers’ voices heard within the system?
- How sustainable are our services? What are the pressure points in one year? In five years?
- Would we be ready for an inspection if it happened tomorrow? What would we be proud to show off? What would we hope the inspectors don’t ask about?
- How reliable is the data? What are they telling us?
- What gaps are there in our systems? What impacts do they have elsewhere or in the future? How can they be filled?
Where local leadership makes a difference
Local leadership matters enormously. Councillors, in particular, have to ensure that their children’s services are appropriately resourced, even if this might make difficult decisions on the budgets of other council services. Both councillors and officers are well-placed to understand the needs and demands of their local area and communities and ensure that their children’s services can address those.
Children’s services can sometimes overlook the voice of their main client group, who, by definition, are usually minors. However, corporate parenting should mean that children’s voices are considered, and structures should be put in place to hear them.
By providing cultural leadership, councillors and officers can ensure that every council decision considers the needs of children and young people, helping to support the work in prevention and providing opportunities for every child to thrive.
Further reading and support
United Kingdom
- Association of Directors of Children’s Services
- NSPCC safeguarding resources
- The Children’s Society
- Institute for Government local government explainers
England
- Department for Education children’s social care guidance
- Ofsted children’s services inspections
- Ofsted
Scotland
Wales
Northern Ireland
Ireland
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