ResearchInformationSystems &Knowledge:

The life of a DCS in 2008

Dr Maggie AtkinsonVice President ADCS

andDCS for Gateshead

A bounded universe, or infinity? What DCSs do

Every Child Matters 2003, Children Act 2004

National Children’s Plan 2007

Statutory Guidance: Directors and Lead Members

Act applies to: Every English top tier LA with responsibility

for •Education•Children’s Social Care

Health (Primary & Secondary Care) are in

Early Years to 19, to 25 in care or with disabilities

Youth services (prevention, intervention)

14-19 strategy & delivery,

School planning & commissioning,

Service integration,

Governance & accountability (children’s

trust arrangements)

Second tier LAs: Leisure, Housing, etc

Circle ofintimacy

Mum, Dad, carer,brothers & sisters

others at home

Circle ofexchange

Circle ofparticipation

Circle offriendship

Aunt oruncle

godparent

grandfather

bestfriend

cousin

grandmother

placesof

worship

Peoplein

the park

Parents’friends

other childrenin school

neighbours

classmates

Footballor other sportsclub

scoutsbrownies

guidescadets

Nurses

PoliceAnd support

officers

Firefighters

Nannyor

childminder

shopkeepers

Community wardens

Therapy services

baby sitter

librarian

educationalpsychologist

supportassistant

dinnersupervisor

lollipopperson

Doctorsand health

workers

Teachers,tutors

LeadPractitioner(s)

Outreach workers

Adviser, mentor

EWS

Social worker

Semi-absent step sibling

Neighbourhood Services?

Local authority & statutory agencies

Neighbourhood

Tailored Influenced

Possible neighbourhood services?:

Services that can be tailored or devolved to n’hoods. Service

standards shaped or set by n’hood.

Strategic services:

Services that require central planning, delivery & oversight. Service standards set by LA.

Education

Health

Social services

Recyling

Community safety

Public space & infrastructure

Frontline youth services

Housing management

Waste management

Frontline services delivered at n’hoodlevel & tailored to local needs through partnerships with service providers &

participatory planning.

Mainstream services delivered authority-wide. Scope for local

priorities to be reflected through consultative processes.

Neighbourhood

Services commissioned or delivered by neighbourhoods. Priorities & service standards set through community-led

participatory planning.

N’hoodpolicing

Source: Young Foundation, March 2006

Youth & play facilities

Social care

Health & well-being

Crime

Local transport

Devolved

ParkingCultural services

Road safety

Therapists Nursing Services & Midwives, Health

development Children’s Centres, Early Years Youth and Community learning

Integrated youth support Prevention & early intervention (young

offenders) SEN services

Social Care (C&F) prevention & support Education Welfare, Education Psychology

Tiers 1, 2, early 3, CAMHS

Every school in the area: all

extended schools, relate to core service offer

Joint pledge: no child falls,

fails, languishes or is

passed on

Borough-wide services, “play

into” areas.

Most specialist high level

intervention for children and

young people

Same joint pledge

Area management arrangements, multi-service and multi-agency

Area focused element of Heads of Service work, and links to Area Forums

Area board/mini partnership: writes compacts/area plans contributing to the whole-borough picture of what is planned and intended for children and young people.

Commissioning function backed by strong, differentiated data/knowledge, from all sources.

DCS, Lead Member, Cabinet, Council, Partnership

Maybe:Gateshead children and young people’s services by 2010-2011

Some Joys and Frustrations: SHORT Version!

JOYS: On the ground: “street level bureaucrats” doing

change, shape local policy, bottom up Osmosis: managers & leaders follow, “middle-up-

and-outwards” Workers: find things that unite and don’t divide

them: teams around child/young person/family Preciousness falls away in favour of “getting on with

it” Safeguarding is everybody’s business …… and …… Joy of joys …… So is every other outcome If you’re on my bus, you bought your ticket! Children, young people, families, communities

benefit

Time lags in understanding:

“Duty to cooperate” means what it says “Publish, then pool, your funding” ditto “Co-author your plans” too! “Co-locate in teams round the child” affects

us all Schools are neither monsters, nor

independent states. They are partners. You can’t “just tell them!”

Frustrations Next! Local First…….

Uncommon language, uncommon practice:

What does COMMISSIONING mean?

And PARTNERSHIP?

Is CONFIDENTIAL the same as SECRET?

Do I HELP and EMPOWER you when I intervene?

Or exercise my professional power?

Does what I do improve your life chances?

How do you know?

Who decides?

And National (Government First)

Frenetic, relentless, top-down, sometimes “one-size-fits-all” change: it’s become endemic

Poor ties between research & policymaking, despite policies’ impacts on practice and vice versa

Conflicting targets and plans: Health, differs from Policing, differs from Justice, differs from Schooling, differs from Local Government, differs from …… You get the picture………

Talking to the crew(s) of the Marie Celeste(s)

Talking to the mutineers from the Bounty

Field forces and regulators:

Finding jobs for the boys and girls?

Or helping us find the best practice that will challenge the worst?

Ensuring we have some standards to live by?

Generating premature, unproven orthodoxies?

Communicating with each other to avoid duplication and confusion?

Other: non-Governmental,academic,interdisciplinary

Headline: PRECIOUSNESS, summed up as follows

“Can never get a social worker” (Head)

“Schools just don’t care” (Social Worker)

“When they come they don’t help” (Head)

“When we go they don’t meet thresholds” (Social Worker)

“Not our business” (Every profession)

“Go ahead, integrate your services. Training and research stand by the unified nature of x” (where x is either teaching, or social work!)

“We’ve never done it that way” (most places, most teams)

“We’ve always done it that way” (ditto)

“Ah yes, but it won’t work here.” (ditto)

“What do you expect? Look where they come from”

“Going too fast, this change, Maggie.”

“Going too slowly, this change, Maggie.”

DCSs would share with you:

KNOWLEDGE and our use of it is a thing that sets us apart as humans

Toilers in the field must act on what we know ……

Even when it’s uncomfortable

SYSTEMS we use to help us must:

Interlock to serve each other, AND

Enhance proven, demonstrable outcomes of practice

INFORMATION provides power to make things better

It is not there to safeguard status quo, or

To defend territory you can’t enter, but I can

RISK of things going wrong? It is often less than likelihood that it will!

The change we lead is real, and lasting.

We can be disempowered, or

We can carry on getting on with it

As the eternal optimist DCS I believe:

We are on the right journey here in “Service Land”

Integration is the way forward, even if it’s hard

Maggie the ethnographer considers that

Practice in real places must inform, …… and ……

the evidence derived from it must drive, Both academic research, and policymaking

Dialogues like yours are vital. So………

Here are five hard questions to contribute to it:

What IS “Social Services” please, in 2008?

How does research activity tangibly influence policy and inform its debates?

Where is the voice of your community of research and practice heard?

Where is it acted on?

How do you know?

How will you change your focus, as practice in the field goes on changing?