Report to:

Corporate Parenting Panel

 

Date of meeting:

 

2 April 2025

By:

Director of Children’s Services

 

Title:

Regional Care Cooperative update

 

Purpose:

To update the panel on the development of the Regional Care Cooperative and the involvement of East Sussex County Council

 

 

RECOMMENDATION:

The Corporate Parenting Panel is recommended to note the update on the development of the Regional Care Cooperative and the involvement of East Sussex County Council.    

 

1.         Background

1.1       The Department for Education (DfE) published Stable Homes, Built on Love, an implementation strategy and consultation, on 2 February 2023. The consultation was backed by £200m additional investment. The DfE launched a competition for regions to bid for the opportunity to be funded to implement a Regional Care Cooperative (RCC). East Sussex County Council (ESCC) committed to the successful regional bid and are working with the other 18 Local Authorities (LAs) involved to design and develop the RCC.

1.2       The Stable Homes, Built on Love Strategy set out a vision to re-balance children’s social care away from costly crisis intervention to more meaningful and effective early support.
It set out actions that seek to:

·         Address urgent issues facing children and families now

·         Lay the foundations for whole system reform

·         Set national direction for change

1.3       The DfE are running two regional Pathfinders to pilot Regional Care Cooperatives. The South East region was successful in bidding for one of the pathfinder projects and has been awarded a grant of £1.95m of revenue funding and up to £5m of capital funding for the 19 authorities in the region.  As one of two regions taking part, ESCC will play a key role in shaping future delivery of this key development in children’s services.

1.4       The implementation of the South East RCC is one strand of much wider transformation activity that is being implemented across the children’s system in East Sussex, with a focus on driving improvements in outcomes and reducing costs, and responding to the Government’s strategy Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive (November 2024), and the current Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (currently going through Parliament) will allow government to mandate regional cooperation.

2.         Supporting information

2.1       RCCs are viewed as a radical shift in the care system and are part of a broader package of measures the DfE is beginning to deliver to transform the care placement market. In line with the Competition and Market Authority report recommendations, it is intended there will be national forecasting, procurement, and market shaping support; introducing a financial oversight regime; and reforming care standards. DfE are also considering changes to ensure that planning requirements, or local interpretation of them, are not a barrier to the creation of more homes for children.

2.2       The Department for Education has set out minimum requirements for RCCs, they are:

·           Carrying out regional data analysis and forecasting future needs of homes for children in care, in partnership with health and justice.

·           Developing and publishing a regional sufficiency strategy setting out current provision and action to fill gaps.

·           Market shaping, working as one customer with providers to address local needs, improve value for money and commission the care places required from external providers.

·           Developing new regional provision where gaps have been identified.

·           The Department will want to see evidence of appetite for shared spending through the RCC as part of the application process. Examples of new regional provision could include:

-          Developing new children’s homes / expanding existing homes or developing new models of fostering.

-          Piloting integrated models of safe, therapeutic care for children who are currently (or who are at risk of) being deprived of their liberty and who are in the most complex situations.

-          Developing innovative approaches to supporting children who are looked after and in touch with the criminal justice system.

-          Delivering new provision for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), which could include supported lodgings and short-term transitional accommodation at a regional level.

-          Delivering a new regional approach to running secure children’s home(s), if there is one in the area.

·           Create the leadership and governance arrangements necessary to allow the RCC to make swift decisions and invest sums of money over the long term.

2.3.      The £1.95m of grant revenue funding is being provided to the South East region to help develop a model that delivers these requirements and works well for all the authorities in the region. This work will also include key partners most notably health and youth justice agencies. The project is being led by a Director of Children’s Services (Lucy Butler – West Sussex County Council) from the South East who has been seconded from her role to lead the work. The RCC will be co-produced and designed by the 19 authorities in the region.

2.4       Authorities that are part of the RCC project are set out below.

·         Bracknell Forest Council

·         Brighton and Hove City Council

·         Buckinghamshire County Council

·         East Sussex County Council

·         Hampshire County Council

·         Isle of Wight Council

·         Kent County Council

·         Medway Council

·         Milton Keynes City Council

·         Oxfordshire County Council

·         Portsmouth City Council

·         Reading/Brighter Futures for Children

·         Slough Borough Council /Slough Children First

·         Southampton City Council

·         Surrey County Council

·         West Sussex County Council

·         West Berks Council

·         Wokingham Borough Council 

·         Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council /Achieving for Children

2.5       Further information is included in Appendix A, including the strategic priorities for the South East RCC and how the organisation will work.

 

           

 

3.         Conclusion and reasons for recommendations

3.1       The looked after children placements market is in a fragile position andLocal Authority budgets are under extreme pressure. Asignificant factor is the current sufficiency of, and spend on, placements. There is a clear need to do something differently. The RCC represents the best prospect of developing new and innovative ways to secure the placements needed for our looked after children. As one of two regions taking part in the RCC pathfinders, ESCC will play an important role in shaping future delivery of this key development in children’s services nationally.

3.2       Corporate Parenting Panel is recommended to note the update on the development of the Regional Care Cooperative and the involvement of East Sussex County Council.

 

 

CAROLYN FAIR
Director of Children’s Services

 

Contact Officer: Deborah Ennis
Email: deborah.ennis@eastsussex.gov.uk  

 

 

LOCAL MEMBERS

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BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS

Stable Homes, Built on Love: Implementation Strategy and Consultation