External social work providers to take over some care tasks
The Department for Education proposes changes to the law to allow local authorities to delegate work for looked-after children to external organisations.
Following its recent consultation, the DfE will take forward proposals allowing local authorities to delegate some decision making and tasks around children in care and care leavers to external social work providers. The Government plans to use existing legislation to let local authorities which are already using external providers to continue to do so, which will give local authorities greater flexibility around how to look after children in their care.
The DfE also plans to amend legislation so that social work providers do not need to register with and be inspected separately by Ofsted. Ofsted will instead consider the experiences of children receiving services under delegated arrangements as part of their new inspection framework. The change will be made through a legislative reform order.
SOURCE: Family Law Week
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