Children’s services have returned to council control in Reading after seven years being run by a not-for-profit company.
Brighter Futures for Children (BFfC) ceded responsibility for services in the borough last month, with about 600 staff members transferring to Reading council.
Though the authority will retain the BFfC brand, it will have direct control over services, which were outsourced in 2018 at the direction of the Department for Education after the authority was rated inadequate by Ofsted.
Under BFfC, the borough’s rating improved to requires improvement in 2019, but it did not achieve the overarching aim of its contract with the council, which was to attain a good rating. Instead, Ofsted graded the borough as requires improvement again, in 2024.
Review of outsourced service
With the contract due to end in March 2026, the council commissioned public finance body CIPFA to review options for the future, and it recommended that Reading take back control of children’s services. The recommendation was accepted by the council at the start of this year.
CIPFA said that a “significant factor” behind its recommendation was that BFfC had not achieved a good rating, though it recognised that there were factors beyond its control that had contributed to this.
It said that benefits for the council from insourcing services included:
- Greater direct control over service delivery and operations.
- Reducing demands on officers’ time to maintain service level agreements with the company and eliminating a ‘layer of separation’ between children’s services and the council.
- Potential for greater integration of children’s services into wider council operations, enhancing the cost-effectiveness of service delivery.
- Assurance that children’s services are supporting the wider corporate plans and are more responsive to the council’s changing needs.
- Potential cost savings resulting from the removal of governance structures and operational duplication of approximately £200,000-£300,000 a year.
Council ‘now has better direct control over services’
Following last month’s transfer, Reading council’s leader, Liz Terry said, while there had been “a significant number of successes over the past seven years”, the authority was “committed to continuing the improvement journey to ensure that all Reading’s children get the best possible start in life”.
She paid tribute to the BFfC board, which supported the transfer, and the company’s staff, for their “dedication to children in Reading”, adding: “The council now not only has better direct control over children’s services, but an additional layer of governance has been removed, helping to further integrate the services with other council responsibilities.
The move brings down to 10 the number of children’s services being operated outside of council control.
Decline in children’s services outsourcing
From 2014-20, setting up children’s trusts to take over provision was a common response, strongly supported by government, to persistent poor performance, though services were outsourced voluntarily in a few areas, including where they were performing well.
However, in recent years, the model has fallen out of favour, with just one trust created since 2020, in Bradford. During that time, three areas – Doncaster, Worcestershire and now Reading – have handed back services to councils.
Trusts have been considered in other areas subject to statutory directions due to poor performance, but eventually rejected on the advice of DfE-appointed commissioners. This was often on the grounds of the potential disruption to improvements of transferring services to a new body, and the delay to progress that would result from creating such an organisation.
Instead, commissioners have tended to recommend that the authority be supported to improve by a high-performing council, such as those listed as sector-led improvement partners by the DfE.
