As part of the ongoing maintenance of the local government information sharing data standards, we have now completed the review of legislation relating to Children’s Services which we told you about back in January. In carrying out the review, we were actively supported by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) and by consultants who have specific knowledge of this area.

The Powers & Duties guidance available to LG Inform Plus subscribers, which contains over 3,700 links to primary legislation affecting local government, and the list of Powers & Duties in the data standards module have now been updated to include all legislative additions and changes associated with this work.

We have also updated the Functions list to make sure that all the functions and services for which the Director of Children’s Services (DCS) is responsible are now in one place. This now means that ‘Youth justice’, ‘Early years and childcare’ and ‘Special educational needs’ can be found under the ‘Children and families’ category, which sits within the 'Health and Social care' function.

Schools and education remains as a separate function as it covers far more than just the schools and other education functions overseen by the Directors of Children's Services (DCS) in each local authority. However, we have reviewed and updated all powers and duties relating to Education which are the responsibility of Children’s services.

We will be publishing the results of our review of Schools and Education in the next few months.

For more information please contact us lginformplus@local.gov.uk