Development of definitions of LA services and guidance for the new Children in Need census
Department for Children, Schools and Families.
The Children in Need (CIN) Census aims to collect data on all children receiving support from Children’s
Social Care Services, including children looked after (CLA), those supported in their families or
independently (CSF/I) and children subject to a Child Protection Plan. The Census provides evidence on
which the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) can develop policy, make Spending Review
bids, allocate resources to Local Authorities, understand the growth in spending on children’s services and
measure their output in the National Accounts.
The CIN Census was suspended after 2005 but is being reintroduced in 2008-09. The present research was commissioned to discover whether the scope of the Census could be extended after 2009 to include
some of the numerous additional services used by Children in Need, including those provided by or in
partnership with education, youth justice, Connexions, health services and the voluntary sector.
This study therefore explored whether data on the delivery and use of such services is available, is
recorded, can be accessed and could feasibly be systematically collected for the CIN Census. It examined
not only the likely quality and completeness of such data, but the practical difficulties of extracting it from various management information systems (MIS) and the constraints of consent, confidentiality and data
protection.
Download the DCSF research brief here for an overview of our methodology and key findings
- The rationale for the CIN Census needs to be
revisited to clarify the boundaries of the ‘spending on children’s services’ and the ‘output of Children’s Social Services’, which
the Census seeks to explain.
- The definition of Children in Need in the CIN Census 2008-09 needs to be re-examined.
- Adding additional services to the scope of the Census and broadening the census definition of children in need will almost certainly require
changes to the design of MIS systems.
- Experience suggests that these require a minimum of two years to implement. It may be
possible to collect data on specific additional
services (e.g. Youth Justice and SEN) from
the MIS of the relevant service without
requiring major changes, and a faster timetable
may thus be possible for these particular
services.
Mike Gatehouse, Harriet Ward, Lisa Holmes
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