Our current regional priorities have been distilled into three key projects being managed centrally by the North East ADCS team:
1. Sufficiency & Complex Needs
Directors identified region-wide (and national) challenges around managing appropriate provision for our children with the most complex needs. In the longer term, the aim is to improve provision and therefore outcomes for children with complex needs and reduce the need for expensive placements which are not meeting those needs. This project aims to identify how working together on a regional footprint can help understand and address the challenges being experienced, and the project focuses on four key workstreams:
- Markets
- Prevention
- Transitions
- Regional Care Cooperative Framework Development
Project Manager: Caroline West, NE ADCS
Project Sponsor: John Pearce, Durham County Council’s Director of Children’s Services
2. Workforce
The ‘Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Agency Rates and the use of Agency Workers within Social Work in the North East’ is a regional commitment to implementing capped social work agency rates from 4 November 2017 onwards. The latest version of our regional MoU is available on our Publications page.
The Social Work to First Line Manager Programme aims to enhance professional development and leadership within the social work sector, equipping staff with the skills and knowledge needed to develop in their roles.
The project also aims to deliver a System Leadership Programme to support north east leaders to gain system leadership skills, confidence, and decision-making abilities, fostering cross-agency collaboration and innovative approaches to challenges.
Project Manager: Jude Dickinson, NE ADCS
Project Sponsors: Danielle Swainston, Redcar & Cleveland’s Director of Children’s Services
3. SEND & Inclusion
Through the work of the Regional Education Group and the outcomes of the regional SEND and AP challenge sessions, NE ADCS have identified key a number of workstreams which come together under the priority theme of SEND & Inclusion, supported by the DfE-funded RIIA SEND programme activity. This includes a number of workstreams including a range of mainstream inclusion projects within individual LAs as well as a central SEND Knowledge Exchange programme, consisting of a range of events including the 2025 ‘SEND: Emotional Safety’ conference and a series of webinars.
Project Manager: Caroline West, NE ADCS
Project Sponsor: Audrey Kingham, Northumberland County Council’s Director of Children’s Services
4. Care Leavers Common Core Offer
The experience of children and young people in care is important to us and to maximise support for care experienced young people, the north east have committed to delivering a common core offer for all care leavers so that young people are offered strong support regardless of where in our region they are living and working.
Project Manager: Jude Dickinson, NE ADCS
Project Sponsor: Joe Tynan, Middlesbrough Director of Children’s Services
5. Foster with North East
The North East region is the national pathfinder for the DfE’s regional fostering hubs rollout, with Together for Children, Sunderland as the lead local authority. Website: Foster with North East – Foster with North East