In September 2010 the Minister, Tim Loughton MP, launched the children’s homes challenge and improvement programme. The programme aims to develop and share examples of effective, good quality children’s homes that address the needs of the children placed within them, so that they can reach their potential.
The programme involves sharing learning from those areas that deliver excellent services, supporting continuing improvement across the children’s home sector as a whole, and driving improvements in those children’s homes with clearly identified underperformance.
The programme has three main elements:
1. A universal programme to support good practice across the children’s homes sector
2. Targeted work to drive improvements in commissioning, quality and care planning so that children are placed in the location that is right for them in a timely way,
3. A programme of work targeted at homes that are significantly underperforming.
Currently the programme is supporting a number of activities, including:
- A communications strategy for the residential sector, focused on helping disseminate best practice.
- Evaluating how local authorities approach their responsibilities for commissioning children’s homes services, especially when this involves placing children out of authority at a distance from their home communities.
- Commissioning the CWDC to develop learning sets to support the professional development of registered managers, supporting the effective delivery of revised regulations, guidance and national minimum standards for children’s homes.
The programme is a first step in creating a sustainable approach to ensuring that all children living in children’s homes access the highest quality care and support, that is matched to address their needs, regularly reviewed and where all transitions are effectively planned.
