Published on Friday 15 December 2023
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council have agreed a new way to deliver services which will help improve the lives of children and young people in the area.
As part of its wider improvement journey, following recent Ofsted inspections, the council will be introducing more local based services and integrating teams to make sure the needs of children and young people remain at the heart of its work.
This proposed new approach will bring together services and support for children and families into two geographical areas. It will join up services and teams and reduce the number of people children and families receive their support from. By working in this way communication between practitioners will improve and deliver a more seamless service for families.
These services will also build stronger relationships with other local organisations, schools, and the local community. This approach has proved to be successful in several other local authorities and builds on other recent improvements in practice and performance. By working more efficiently and redesigning the Children’s Services, it will also deliver savings of £2.9m by March 2025 growing to £5.3m by March 2027.
Councillor Richard Burton, Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services said:
“I am delighted that Cabinet have approved this innovative and ambitious programme. We have seen through research and outcomes from other local authorities, that this approach can significantly improve the lives of children and young people and provide the ongoing support for families which we want to deliver.
“We are absolutely committed to improving our services and this is a big step forward in this journey."
The new service delivery will create a more flexible and responsive organisation and approach, so that staff are able to meet changing levels of need for children and families.
Cathi Hadley, Director of Children’s Services added:
“Our new service delivery model is one of the ways that we can continue to improve and make sure that we are providing the best possible support for children and young people in our care.
“We’ll be working hard to make sure we start to deliver this from October 2024, and we will be working with staff, children and families to make sure that our approach is making a difference."