New ADCS President calls for “fundamental” regulatory review across children’s services

The incoming President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) has welcomed the government’s implementation strategy for children’s social care reform, while calling for a “fundamental regulatory review”.

In his inaugural speech John Pearce said that over the last 12 months, ADCS has been “sounding alarm bells” about the challenges of children and young people’s mental health services, particularly for those with the most “complex and overlapping needs”.

He described the rise in the number of applications to the National Deprivation of Liberty (DoL) Court as “seemingly unstoppable”.

Turning to the issue of regulation, Pearce described it as “a patchwork of often conflicting legislation and statutory guidance that we add to, yet never take away from, with little or no regard to the resources with which we operate”.

As a solution, he recommended a “fundamental regulatory review” across the breadth of children’s services, to include the role of the inspectorates, that focuses on the impact that regulation has on the daily lived experiences and outcomes for children and young people.

He told directors of children’s services, politicians, senior officials and guests that the negative impact of legislation and regulation is particularly true for those children in care who have the “most complex needs”, noting that the rise in the number of applications to the National DoL Court and the “continued use of unregistered placements for some of our most vulnerable children” evidence this.

He said that the solutions to the challenges cannot have a “single agency focus”.

Pearce concluded his speech by recognising what he described as “our greatest asset” - the children’s services workforce, noting that they “keep showing up for children every day against a backdrop of an endless cycle of reviews, restructures and reforms and of course, most recently, the pandemic”.

Lottie Winson