Bexley's Children's Services is undergoing a significant transformation, the Future Bexley Children's Transformation
programme, with a focus on improving outcomes for young people and families while aiming to achieve substantial cost savings. The programme has set a validated savings target of £1.98 million for 2026/27, with full achievement anticipated by March 2027.
The transformation includes a commissioning redesign, which involves shifting to an 'active market shaping' strategy. This approach moves away from a traditional brokerage model to develop commissioning practice to achieve better value for money with the market.
A key element of this strategy is the proactive review of high-cost children's placements to ensure children are moved to less intensive, safe, and needs-appropriate settings. This strategy is projected to deliver £1.2 million in savings for 2026/27 and is intended to contribute to improved outcomes.
In addition to the commissioning redesign, the programme involves a review of the Practice Leadership model, leading to the introduction of an Advanced Practitioner Model. This new model reconfigures teams, replacing assistant team managers with advanced practitioners who will undertake a mix of development work and complex practice. This change has already resulted in a saving of £0.78 million and is reported to be effective in maintaining high practice standards while reducing delivery costs.
The Future Bexley Children's Transformation
programme aims to modernise operations and enhance resident outcomes through structural efficiencies, with an overall goal of delivering excellent outcomes for children in care while ensuring value for money. The Families First
programme also seeks to improve outcomes through earlier intervention, integrated working, and strengthened multi-agency collaboration. Furthermore, the Best Start in Life
strategy has a local target of 80% of children achieving a Good Level of Development (GLD) by 2029.
The new digital platform for families is already live as of June 2026, and the mobilisation of four Best Start Family Hubs is targeted for completion by March 2027.
Bexley's Children's Services is actively managing potential risks associated with these transformations. For the Future Bexley Children's Transformation,
savings are being closely tracked to mitigate the risk of not delivering anticipated financial targets. The Families First
programme has a robust governance structure to ensure delivery in line with national requirements. For Kinship Zones,
a targeted strategy is in place to encourage eligible families to participate in new Kinship Allowance Payments. The Best Start in Life
strategy involves rolling out support programmes and targeted interventions to help meet the GLD target. In response to potential inequality from Education White Paper reforms, regular data reviews and intervention programmes are being implemented, and the council is investigating the formation of a Local Authority led Multi-Academy Trust to address system fragmentation. Cross-programme risks such as sustainability, workforce capacity, and managing interdependencies are being addressed through forward planning, resource prioritisation, and aligned governance.
Further details on the transformation programme can be found in the Public reports pack and the Agenda frontsheet for the Children's Services and Education Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting.
