City first to transfer voluntarily running of children services to outside company

Sunderland City Council has become the first local authority in the country to transfer voluntarily the day to day running of children's services out of its control.

A new company, Together for Children, will deliver children's services on the council’s behalf. The move is the latest change Sunderland has made since an Ofsted inspection report in July 2015 found services to be inadequate.

Together for Children will provide integrated children's services covering education, children's social care and early help to the Sunderland's 57,630 children and young people and their families.

More than 800 staff across a wide range of disciplines and professions transferred to the new company from 1 April. They included social care staff, early years, family support, education and other specialists such as youth offending and substance misuse.

The company will be owned by and be accountable to the council, but it will have its own board of directors who will set the direction of the company, supervise the management of the business and hold the management team to account.

The new company will be run by Alex Hopkins, chief executive of Together for Children, alongside a team of five directors and children's services staff who have transferred from the council. Hopkins joined Sunderland as Director of Children's Services from Northamptonshire County Council last July.

Plans for the new organisation were developed in partnership with Nick Whitfield, the Government's Commissioner for Children's Services in Sunderland, and the Department for Education.

Sunderland’s Leader, Cllr Paul Watson, said: "We recognised early on that there was a need for a fundamental change in the way children's services were delivered to ensure the best possible future for our children and young people.

"There has been a tremendous amount of hard work to improve the service since July 2015, with some significant improvements, and the last three Ofsted monitoring visits have all reported steady progress.

"We believe Together for Children is best placed to build on what has been achieved already and to drive forward the further improvements that are needed."

Whitfield said: "This is a real opportunity to deliver innovative children's services that can ensure further improvement and sustained delivery.

"Sunderland is the first council in the country to voluntarily transfer the day to day running of children's services out of council control in co-operation with the DfE, so Together for Children is unique and I look forward to seeing it continue to build on the steady progress that has been made so far.

"The council deserves the credit for recognising that it needed to do something different to make a  difference to children's lives and for forging ahead with those plans to drive forward further improvements."