Statutory guidance http://education.gov.uk/g00206029/statutory-guidance-on-the-roles-and-responsibilities-of-the-director-of-childrens-services-and-the-lead-member-for-childrens-services/the-director-of-childrens-services-and-lead-member-for-childrens-services 2012-04-03T09:29:02 The director of children’s services and lead member for children’s services The director of children’s services Guidance for local authorities in England with responsibility for education and children’s social services functions. <![CDATA[<h1> The director of children’s services (DCS)</h1> <p> 5. Section 18 of the Children Act 2004 requires every top tier local authority to appoint a Director of Children’s Services. The DCS has professional responsibility for the leadership, strategy and effectiveness of local authority children’s services and, as such, this post should be at first tier officer level. The DCS is responsible for securing the provision of services which address the needs of all children and young people, including the most disadvantaged and vulnerable, and their families and carers. In discharging these responsibilities, the DCS will work closely with other local partners to improve the outcomes and wellbeing of children and young people. The DCS is responsible for the performance of local authority functions relating to the education and social care of children and young people. The DCS is responsible for ensuring that effective systems are in place for discharging these functions, including where a local authority has commissioned any services from another provider rather than delivering them itself. The DCS should have regard to the general principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and ensure that children and young people are involved in the development and delivery of local services.</p> <p> 6. The DCS is a politically restricted statutory chief officer post<sup>1</sup>. This means the post holder is prevented from taking part in certain political activities. In particular, the DCS is disqualified from being an elected member of the local authority. The DCS should report directly to the chief executive (head of paid service), who in turn is accountable to the council for the performance of its chief officers<sup>2</sup>. Local authorities are strongly encouraged to involve children and young people in the appointment of the DCS.</p> <h1> The lead member for children’s services (LMCS)</h1> <p> 7. Section 19 of the Children Act 2004 requires every top tier local authority to designate one of its members as lead member for children’s services. The LMCS will be a local councillor with delegated responsibility from the council, through the leader or mayor<sup>3</sup>, for children’s services. The LMCS, as a member of the council executive, has political responsibility for the leadership, strategy and effectiveness of local authority children’s services. The LMCS is also democratically accountable to local communities and has a key role in defining the local vision and setting political priorities for children’s services within the broader political context of the council.</p> <p> 8. The LMCS is responsible for ensuring that the needs of all children and young people, including the most disadvantaged and vulnerable, and their families and carers, are addressed. In doing so, the LMCS will work closely with other local partners to improve the outcomes and wellbeing of children and young people. The LMCS should have regard to the UNCRC and ensure that children and young people are involved in the development and delivery of local services. As politicians, LMCSs should not get drawn into the detailed day-to-day operational management of education and children’s<br /> services. They should, however, provide strong, strategic leadership and support and challenge to the DCS and relevant members of their senior team as appropriate.</p> <h1> Ensuring a clear line of accountability</h1> <p> 9. Integrating education and children’s social care services under a single officer and a single member provides both a strategic and professional framework within which the safety and the educational, social and emotional needs of children and young people are considered together. The DCS and LMCS roles provide a clear and unambiguous line of political and professional accountability for children’s wellbeing. The DCS and LMCS should report to the chief executive and to the council leader or mayor respectively as the post holders with ultimate responsibility for the political and corporate leadership of the council, and accountability for ensuring that the effectiveness of steps taken and capacity to improve outcomes for all children and young people is reflected across the full range of the council’s business. The DCS and LMCS (in their respective roles) will also need to work closely with the director of public health as the principal adviser on health to officials and members.</p> <h1> Additional functions not related to local authority children’s services</h1> <p> 10. It is legally permissible for the DCS and LMCS roles to be combined with other operational and political functions of the local authority. However, given the breadth and importance of children’s services functions that the DCS and LMCS cover, local authorities should give due consideration to protecting the discrete roles and responsibilities of the DCS and LMCS before allocating any additional functions to individuals performing these roles. In particular, local authorities should undertake a local test of assurance so that the focus on outcomes for children and young people will not be weakened or diluted as a result of adding such other responsibilities (see paragraphs 13 to 16). Given the demanding nature of the DCS and LMCS roles, local authorities should consider all aspects of any combined posts (e.g. the impact on both children and adult services where there is a joint DCS and director of adult social services post).</p> <p> 11. The DCS should report directly to the chief executive, so it is not appropriate for the chief executive also to hold the statutory role of DCS (except possibly as a temporary measure whilst the council actively takes steps to fill a vacant DCS post and an alternative interim DCS appointment is not considered appropriate).</p> <h1> Joint DCS appointments</h1> <p> 12. It is legally permissible for two or more local authorities to appoint a single joint DCS to cover children’s services responsibilities across all the local authority areas concerned.</p> <h1> Local assurance</h1> <p> 13. Local authorities will, as a matter of course, want to ensure their structures and organisational arrangements enable them to:</p> <ul> <li>  fulfil their statutory duties effectively (including ensuring that children, young people and families receive effective help and benefit from high educational standards locally);</li> <li> be transparent about responsibilities and accountabilities; and</li> <li> support effective inter-agency and partnership working.</li> </ul> <p> 14. A local authority should carry out effective assurance checks, integrated as part of their usual decision-making and scrutiny work, of their structures and organisational arrangements. Once any new arrangements are in place, local authorities should review their arrangements regularly to satisfy themselves that they continue to be effective.</p> <p> 15. These assurances should be agreed within the council. They should be subject to self-assessment within the local authority, and to peer challenge and review, as part of the process of securing continuous sector-led improvement in the quality of services. Where, as part of Ofsted’s assessment of the quality and effectiveness of local authority leadership and management, inspectors identify an issue arising from the local authority's arrangements for discharging the DCS and LMCS functions, they may decide to look at the quality and effectiveness of the authority's assurance process.</p> <p> 16. It is for each local authority to determine the precise nature of its own assurance process and how to provide transparency for local communities about which individuals are fulfilling the statutory roles of DCS and LMCS, taking account of local circumstances. However, in doing so, the following elements are likely to be essential in assuring that effective arrangements are in place:</p> <ul> <li> clarity about how senior management arrangements ensure that the safety and the educational, social and emotional needs of children and young people are given due priority and how they enable staff to help the local authority discharge its statutory duties in an integrated and coherent way;</li> <li> clarity about how the local authority intends to discharge its children’s services functions and be held accountable for them from political, professional, legal and corporate perspectives (including where, for example, services are commissioned from external providers or mutualised in an arms length body);</li> <li> the seniority of and breadth of responsibilities allocated to individual post holders and how this impacts on their ability to undertake those responsibilities (especially where a local authority is considering allocating any additional functions to the DCS and LMCS posts);</li> <li> the involvement and experiences of children and young people in relation to local services;</li> <li> clarity about child protection systems, ensuring that professional leadership and practice is robust and can be challenged on a regular basis, including an appropriate focus on offering early help and working with other agencies in doing so; and</li> <li> the adequacy and effectiveness of local partnership arrangements (e.g. the local authority’s relationship with schools, the local safeguarding children board (LSCB), the courts, children’s trust cooperation arrangements, community safety partnerships, health and wellbeing boards, youth offending team partnerships, police, probation, multi-agency public protection arrangements and multi-agency risk assessment conferences) and their respective accountabilities.</li> </ul> <p> <sup>1</sup> Under section 2 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (as amended).<br /> <sup>2</sup> See Schedule 1 to the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) Regulations 2001 SI 3384.<br /> <sup>3</sup> In local authorities with executive governance models.<br />  </p> ]]> false English