The Family and Children's Services business group is one of five within the Council. The others are: Corporate Services; Transport, Environment and Leisure Services; Housing, Health and Adult Social Services; Planning and Conservation.
The business group exists to deliver the every child matters agenda and to promote strong families as the key to successful outcomes in children's lives. Its principal aims are:
- To maximise accessibility to services.
- To secure high quality and standards.
- To maximise use of resources.
The business group was formed in 2006 when Family Services joined Education and Community Learning. During the year review reports on a number of services were published. These included a review of Early Years Services, Services for children with Disabilities and Services to Adolescents and their families. In Addition in March 2006 the report ‘towards a Children's Trust' was published. Recommendations and consultation following these reports has resulted in decisions to take forward the formation of Partnership Working with the PCT.
Each of the business group's directorates has a clear focus and a sense of purpose. They work in collaboration with colleagues across the business group and the Council. The current directorates are:
Family Services
Children's Social Care Services provide support services to children in need including children who are looked after and children who require safeguarding. The service also includes the Youth Offending Team. Plans for looked after children are supported by independent reviewers, and child protection conferences chaired by independent professionals. The service recruits its own foster carers and adopters, and has two children's homes, a residential short break service for children with disabilities and a hostel for young people who are care leavers. Additional placements for children are purchased from the private and voluntary sectors. The service is supported by a wide range of performance indicators, and well established service standards. In the past year the service has established an integrated service to meet the needs of young people with complex needs or disabilities, and their families. The service works closely with the PCT, the PCT's Community Nursing Team being part of the service and reporting to the Head of Service.
Community Learning
The Community Learning directorate secures opportunities for learning, development and enjoyment that promote personal, social and economic well-being. It covers four broad areas of service.
The Library Service comprises six libraries, a Local Studies and Archive section, and a service for housebound people. There is a strong emphasis on services for children and young people and on supporting adult learning.
The Adult and Family Learning team commissions both adult and community learning and family learning from a range of community providers. It also runs projects aimed at enabling adults to enter employment. The Student Support Service, which deals with higher education grants, Education Maintenance Allowance, and home to school transport grants, is also based in this area.
The Play section covers out of school provision for 0-13 year olds. The service runs after school and breakfast clubs during term time, as well as very popular holiday schemes. We also provide support for study support provision in schools and the voluntary sector.
The Youth Support and Development Service covers a broad range of services for 13-19 year olds, including youth centres, detached youth work, Connexions, and the Education Business Partnership. Health and drug education is managed by the service, incorporating the Healthy Schools programme and Teenage Pregnancy Strategy. There is a strong emphasis on arts and sports, including two water activity centres, and a thriving Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme.
Schools, Quality and Standards
Schools directorate encompasses a wide range of services dedicated to providing schools with the highest quality of support, monitoring, guidance and challenge. Services provided include:
- The School improvement Service;
- Access and Inclusion services, comprising Education Psychology, Education Welfare, Pupil support and the Language Development Service;
- School Organisation and Admissions Service and
- The Continuing Professional Development Service.
The schools directorate also includes the Early Years Service a recently established service for the under 5s, that brings together childcare services, children's centres, and family centres.
The Childcare Services team provides support for childcare providers, facilitates childminding networks, manages the Nursery Education Grant scheme, provides registration advice, and support for children's centres.
Kensington and Chelsea has one of the best resourced and most successful education services in the country. The range and diversity of our school population is well served by our four secondary schools, twenty-six primary schools, four nursery schools / children's centres, one special school, one hospital school and a pupil referral unit. We plan to develop, with the London Diocesan Board, a specialist science academy in Chelsea, and have plans to fundamentally improve the physical environment of Holland Park School.
High standards are achieved through excellent teaching, high expectations, a broad and rich curriculum and the outstanding leadership of our headteachers and their leadership teams. Considerable emphasis is placed on partnership with parents and governors.
While our achievements are considerable, we are not complacent and seek to develop our provision and practice. We are planning to develop more children's centres, and our extended schools provision is developing well across the borough.
Strategy, Commissioning and Performance Reporting
The Strategy, Commissioning and Performance Reporting Directorate is a new directorate whose services include commissioning, contracting, handling and responding to residents, customers and councillors' enquiries, performance monitoring, research, business planning, performance improvement and policy development. The team leads on the Business Group contribution to Council-wide plans and initiatives such as the Community Strategy, Cabinet Business Plan and the Comprehensive Performance Assessment. The Council's Annual Performance Assessment and preparation for the Joint Area Review are the responsibilities of this service.
The service provides research and statistical support through the collection, analysis and interpretation of data to inform commissioning, service delivery and improvement. The data collected is also used to inform the Business Group's needs assessment and mapping exercises. A key function of the service is to co-ordinate performance indicators and statistical returns to Government departments. The team also works with services to involve children, young people, parents and carers and other stakeholders in service planning and service improvement.
Resources
The Resource Department provides professional advice, support and training to the managers and staff within the Family and Children's Services business group. Areas covered include finance, asset management, information technology and administration.
The Resources department plays a pivotal role in providing timely, up-to-date and high quality advice. In addition to its advisory function, the directorate plays a significant regulatory role in the areas of finance, and health and safety management.
The Head of Finance will lead the Finance team and be a member of the Resources department management team, reporting to the Head of Resources.
Further Information
There are a number of documents relating to the business group that you may find interesting. To access these, please visit our website www.rbkc.gov.uk/excellence.
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