Solihull children’s services to receive £650k government grant

Solihull children’s services will receive an urgent £650,000 government grant after the department was chastised by MPs last month.

Education Secretary Kit Malthouse said in October there were ‘high levels of unmanaged risk’ within children’s services and pledged government intervention.

The money will be used to improve the quality of social work in the borough and ‘capture the lived experience’ of a child through more effective visiting and supervision. The funds will also ‘manage grip on the quality of practice’ and ensure staff receive proper supervision themselves.

Documents mention an ‘urgent’ need to begin improvement activity within the department. Senior leaders within the council have sought to ‘immediately mobilise’ a workforce to tackle issues raised by the Department for Education.

MPs wrote to Mr Malthouse in September and expressed ‘extreme concern’ over the council’s handling of the case of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, who died at the hands of his father and stepmother in 2020. The trial revealed that social workers had visited Arthur in the months before he died but found no issues despite the concern of relatives.

The £642,402 will help deliver a project until the end of this financial year (March 2023) when the council is set to request further funding. Mr Malthouse has also announced the government will be sending Sir Alan Wood, former director for children’s services in the London borough of Hackney, to work with the council.

Assistant director of education and skills at Solihull Council Tim Browne said: “This additional funding provides resources for various aspects of our improvement journey and it has been well-received.

“Whilst we were hoping for more funding, we are using that to the best effect and actually the results are already beginning to show. Our improvement journey is a five-year journey in order to address some of the issues that we are all very much aware of.”

Green Party councillor Ben Groom (Smith’s Wood) said: “The plan looks very sound and it’s great that we have got this funding to head out on our improvement journey.”

Cllr Groom went on to ask how the new practices will be embedded within the department once the funds run out in March 2023. Mr Browne replied: “I suspect we will be looking to the Department of Education for further funding in subsequent years because they could only fund up to the end of this financial year. That is certainly our intention.

“Clearly, our work is about embedding all of this practice and reviewing everything that has been going on. We will be driving that really hard now that we have a permanent leadership team.”

Cabinet member for children and education Cllr Michael Gough (Cons, Silhill) said he would certainly be approving the funding.