Somerset Council’s Executive has approved plans for a significant and ambitious programme of change which aims to provide better outcomes for children and families in Somerset while also reducing costs.
The My World, My Tomorrow programme – named by young people at the centre of the plans – aims to support children earlier and reduce avoidable escalation into care. This directly addresses areas for improvement recently identified by Ofsted.
The programme will strengthen available support for families, increase the capacity of existing foster carers, ensure support for more children to be able to return home, and reduce the reliance on higher cost residential care placements.
At the meeting, Councillors heard how transformation is key as the authority responds to the recent Best Value Notice issued by the Government and takes steps to address ongoing financial challenges.
My World, My Tomorrow has been developed as part of the council-wide Inspiring Innovation transformation programme which is expected to deliver £135m in cashable savings by March 2030 from an investment of up to £45m. This includes a £7m investment in the My World My Tomorrow business case with an expected return on investment of £28.4m by 2031/32.
Cllr Bill Revans, Leader of Somerset Council, said: “We know our Inspiring Innovation transformation programme is absolutely critical to the council’s future. The recent Best Value Notice and CIPFA review have both confirmed what we already knew – we must increase the pace of change.
“Approving the My World, My Tomorrow business case is significant as a great example of what we mean when we talk about transformation. We’ve seen demand and costs escalating in this area of children’s services so we have to do something different, something better.
“This is an investment in prevention, bringing together several improvement plans to help us reduce costs, but more importantly, also providing better futures for our children and families.”
My World, My Tomorrow has a number of objectives grouped into four workstreams:
Promoting Excellent Outcomes for Children Looked After – this will focus on stepping children across from residential care to family-based care, increasing stability of homes for children in care, and increasing the number of children who are able to return home.
Maximising Internal Fostering Capacity – this will focus on improving how we support our existing foster carers, increasing the use of foster homes, increasing the average number of children per carer, and reducing the rate of foster carers de-registering.
Promoting Excellent Outcomes for Children with Their Families – this workstream is aiming to ensure pace of change through child protection plans, reduce the number of children escalating into care, and when they do escalate into care supporting as many children as possible into family-based care settings.
Getting the Best Value for Money from the External Market – this work will focus on ensuring we are able to achieve fair and transparent prices for residential homes for children in care.
The full business case and further details can be found in the opens in a new windowExecutive papers.