New Children’s Trust officially launched in Northamptonshire

A new children’s trust for Northamptonshire has formally been launched – and it’s hoped it can offer a ‘fresh start’ to what has been a failing service over the years.
A new children's trust has been launched, effectively taking over control of the services that look after young people from the county council.A new children's trust has been launched, effectively taking over control of the services that look after young people from the county council.
A new children's trust has been launched, effectively taking over control of the services that look after young people from the county council.

The trust launched on Sunday (November 1), five months after it was originally scheduled to begin its work in June. The formation of the independent body came after a number of damning Ofsted reports on how the children’s service was being run at Northamptonshire County Council over the last few years. The authority was also heavily criticised in two serious case reviews into the murders of the Northamptonshire children Evelyn-Rose Muggleton and Dylan Tiffin-Brown.

In 2019, the Department for Education asked the county council to work towards the establishment of a trust which would be wholly-owned by the council, and then by the two unitary councils that will replace it in April 2021.

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Now after months of preparation the trust is up and running, and Councillor Fiona Baker, the cabinet member for children, families and education, said the launch of the trust could be key in changing fortunes for children in the county.

She said: “We are clear that all children in Northamptonshire, no matter what their background, deserve to be safe and have the best chances in life to achieve their full potential. The trust will play the fundamental role in ensuring this happens.

“Being an operationally-independent children’s trust brings an exciting opportunity to take children’s early help and social care services on a journey into a new organisation that puts children and young people at the heart of all we do.”

The set up has been far from plain sailing however, with a huge churn of senior management. In September the first chairman of the trust, Ian Curryer, resigned his position after being criticised by the Conservative cabinet. This was due to his links with a financial collapse at Nottingham City Council which largely stemmed from his time as chief executive at the authority and its dealings with the Robin Hood Energy firm.

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And three people have already held the role of chief executive of the trust since March. James Thomas started the role early in the year, but left the position in July after taking up a post at Tower Hamlets. Councillors only found out he was leaving after discovering a press release on the Tower Hamlets website. Since then, Clive Heaphy has been in the role on an interim basis until Colin Foster formally starts as the new permanent chief executive in January, joining the trust from Bedford Borough Council.

Cllr Jane Birch, the Labour spokesman for families, children and education at the county council, similarly hopes that the trust can step up and improve the lives of children in the Northamptonshire, but she does have some concerns.

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I think children’s services have been a failing service for seven years and we have had numerous Ofsted reports that have come back that have been severely damaging. We’ve had a very unstable senior management – I think we’ve had four different directors of children’s services since 2017, which is going to have an impact.

“We’ve now got a children’s director who is going to take us into unitary (Cathi Hadley) and she has already made a difference since she has been appointed. So I hope it will prove a fresh start. It needs a rebranding and it needs fresh direction, and I hope it will help our recruitment of social workers as the county council has suffered from reputational damage.

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“What worries me is that some of the main players that are going to be in charge of getting this started are not in position yet, and that must be unsettling for the staff. Going into lockdown will also have its challenges too, and my worry is that the workers won’t get to see the children and families. In the first lockdown there were babies born where they were being shown on the phone to social workers, and new parents need to be supported.”

She also raised concerns that councillors may not have ‘a huge amount of voice’ as there will only be two councillors on the trust’s board.

Andrew Christie, appointed by the Government as the Children’s Commissioner at the council, said the launch of the trust was however ‘a momentous day for the children and families of Northamptonshire’.

He said: “A considerable amount of work has been carried out by the council and trust over the last few months to achieve this significant landmark. It will see a reinvigorated future for children’s services across the county, providing timely and appropriate support to those who need it most.

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“I will continue in my role as Children’s Commissioner to support the trust in its early life to ensure that it is embedded and ready to take on this important improvement journey, working with the county council and subsequently the two new unitary authorities come April next year.”