Research
Information
Systems &
Knowledge:
The life of a DCS in 2008
Dr Maggie Atkinson
Vice President ADCS
and
DCS for Gateshead
A bounded universe, or infinity? What DCSs do

Every Child Matters 2003, Children Act 2004

National Children’s Plan 2007

Statutory Guidance: Directors and Lead Members

Act applies to:
 Every English top tier LA with responsibility for
• Education
• Children’s Social Care
Health
(Primary & Secondary Care) are in
Early
Years to 19, to 25 in care or with
disabilities
Youth
services (prevention, intervention)
14-19
strategy & delivery,
School
planning & commissioning,
Service
integration,
Governance
& accountability (children’s
trust arrangements)
Second
tier LAs: Leisure, Housing, etc
Lead
Practitioner(s)
Teachers,
tutors
dinner
scouts
supervisor brownies
guides
cadets
Social
grand
worker
father
lollipop
person
Football
or other
sports
club
Doctors
and health
workers
class
mates
Circle of
exchange
Nurses
Adviser, mentor
Circle of
participation
Outreach
workers
places
of
worship
Circle of
friendship
Circle of
intimacy
Police
And support
officers
grand
mother
best
friend
Fire
fighters
Mum, Dad, carer, Aunt or
brothers & sisters uncle
others at home
cousin
godparent
Semi-absent step sibling
support
assistant
People
in
the park
Parents’
friends
Nanny
or
childminder
Community
wardens
EWS
neighbours
librarian
other children
in school
shopkeepers
educational
psychologist
Therapy services
baby sitter
Neighbourhood Services?
Local authority &
statutory agencies
Possible
neighbourhood services?:
Strategic services:
Services that require central
planning, delivery & oversight.
Service standards set by LA.
Services that can be tailored or
devolved to n’hoods. Service
standards shaped or set by n’hood.
Road safety
Parking
Public space
& infrastructure
Community
safety
Recyling
Social care
Youth & play
facilities
Cultural
services
Local
transport
Health &
well-being
Devolved
N’hood
policing
Crime
Housing
management
Frontline youth
services
Tailored
Services commissioned or delivered by Frontline services delivered at n’hood
neighbourhoods. Priorities & service
level & tailored to local needs through
partnerships with service providers &
standards set through community-led
participatory planning.
participatory planning.
Neighbourhood
Neighbourhood
Source: Young Foundation, March 2006
Education
Social
services
Waste
management
Health
Influenced
Mainstream services delivered
authority-wide. Scope for local
priorities to be reflected through
consultative processes.
Maybe:Gateshead children and young people’s services by 2010-2011
Area board/mini partnership: writes compacts/area plans contributing to the whole-borough picture
of what is planned and intended for children and young people.
Commissioning function backed by strong, differentiated data/knowledge, from all sources.
Every school in
the area: all
extended
schools, relate to
core service offer
Joint pledge:
no child falls,
fails,
languishes or is
passed on
Therapists
Nursing Services & Midwives, Health
development
Children’s Centres, Early Years
Youth and Community learning
Integrated youth support
Prevention & early intervention (young
offenders)
SEN services
Social Care (C&F) prevention & support
Education Welfare, Education Psychology
Tiers 1, 2, early 3, CAMHS
Borough-wide
services, “play
into” areas.
Most specialist
high level
intervention for
children and
young people
Same joint
pledge
Area management arrangements, multi-service and multi-agency
Area focused element of Heads of Service work, and links to Area Forums
DCS, Lead Member, Cabinet, Council, Partnership
Some Joys and Frustrations: SHORT Version!

JOYS:
 On
the ground: “street level bureaucrats” doing change,
shape local policy, bottom up
 Osmosis: managers & leaders follow, “middle-up-andoutwards”
 Workers: find things that unite and don’t divide them:
teams around child/young person/family
 Preciousness falls away in favour of “getting on with it”
 Safeguarding is everybody’s business …… and ……
 Joy of joys ……
 So is every other outcome
 If you’re on my bus, you bought your ticket!
 Children, young people, families, communities benefit
Frustrations Next! Local First…….
 Time
lags in understanding:
 “Duty
to cooperate” means what it says
 “Publish, then pool, your funding” ditto
 “Co-author your plans” too!
 “Co-locate in teams round the child” affects us
all
 Schools are neither monsters, nor independent
states. They are partners. You can’t “just tell
them!”
Uncommon language, uncommon practice:
What does COMMISSIONING mean?
And PARTNERSHIP?
Is CONFIDENTIAL the same as SECRET?
Do I HELP and EMPOWER you when I intervene?
Or exercise my professional power?
Does what I do improve your life chances?
How do you know?
Who decides?
And National (Government First)
 Frenetic,
relentless, top-down, sometimes “onesize-fits-all” change: it’s become endemic
 Poor ties between research & policymaking,
despite policies’ impacts on practice and vice
versa
 Conflicting targets and plans:
 Health,
differs from
 Policing, differs from
 Justice, differs from
 Schooling, differs from
 Local Government, differs from
 …… You get the picture………
Talking
to the crew(s) of the Marie Celeste(s)
Talking
to the mutineers from the Bounty
Field
forces and regulators:
Finding
jobs for the boys and girls?
Or
helping us find the best practice that will
challenge the worst?
Ensuring
we have some standards to live by?
Generating
premature, unproven orthodoxies?
Communicating
and confusion?
with each other to avoid duplication
Other: non-Governmental,academic,interdisciplinary

Headline: PRECIOUSNESS, summed up as follows
 “Can
never get a social worker” (Head)
 “Schools
just don’t care” (Social Worker)
 “When
they come they don’t help” (Head)
 “When
we go they don’t meet thresholds” (Social Worker)
 “Not
 “Go
our business” (Every profession)
ahead, integrate your services. Training and research
stand by the unified nature of x” (where x is either
teaching, or social work!)
“We’ve
never done it that way” (most places, most
“We’ve
always done it that way” (ditto)
teams)
“Ah
yes, but it won’t work here.” (ditto)
“What
do you expect? Look where they come
“Going
too fast, this change, Maggie.”
“Going
too slowly, this change, Maggie.”
from”
DCSs would share with you:

KNOWLEDGE and our use of it is a thing that sets us
apart as humans
 Toilers
 Even

in the field must act on what we know ……
when it’s uncomfortable
SYSTEMS we use to help us must:
 Interlock
 Enhance
to serve each other, AND
proven, demonstrable outcomes of practice
INFORMATION
provides power to make things better
It
is not there to safeguard status quo, or
To
defend territory you can’t enter, but I can
RISK
of things going wrong? It is often less than
likelihood that it will!
The
change we lead is real, and lasting.
We
can be disempowered, or
We
can carry on getting on with it
As the eternal optimist DCS I believe:

We are on the right journey here in “Service Land”

Integration is the way forward, even if it’s hard

Maggie the ethnographer considers that
 Practice
in real places must inform, …… and ……
 the evidence derived from it must drive,
 Both academic research, and policymaking

Dialogues like yours are vital. So………
Here are five hard questions to contribute to it:
What
IS “Social Services” please, in 2008?
How
does research activity tangibly influence policy
and inform its debates?
Where
is the voice of your community of research and
practice heard?
Where
How
How
is it acted on?
do you know?
will you change your focus, as practice in the field
goes on changing?