THE WAY children in care are treated will be “one of the acid tests” for the Government’s children’s strategy, says Chris Waterman, executive director of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services. “How we treat this particularly vulnerable group will test whether every child really does matter.”

The Government has made a good start with its Children in Care White Paper, which gives children in care “absolute priority in terms of being admitted to school”, a move Waterman describes as “a significant step forward”.

It means that, even if children turn up outside of the normal admission round because, for example, their care placement has changed, they will still get a place. “It’s bad enough being in care, but not being able to get into any school at all, or into a not very good school, just compounds the difficulty,” says Waterman.

How will the acid test be measured? Significant improvements in educational achievement, says Waterman, since statistically, children in care do not realise their potential. Automatic admission will help, as will efforts to keep kids at the same school even if their care placement changes, because, for many of them, the school is their continuity.

While the White Paper has taken steps in the right direction, clarity is still needed around how it relates to the youth justice services. “There are tensions, because the youth justice system is almost by definition punitive,” says Waterman.“The local authority system is by definition preventative and so that is where they rub against one another.”

There needs to be a “more sensitive look” at the police performance indicators and how they mesh with those for local authorities, he says, adding that one of the new duties of the Secretary of State is to coordinate across Government, including the Ministry of Justice, on this sort of issue.

One of the challenges for directors of children’s services is their statutory responsibility for ensuring the cooperation of the justice system and health, and the delivery of integrated services. At the level of strategic health authorities and primary care trusts, Waterman says “there is still a need to move children up the health agenda”. And while the White Paper will ensure that children in care get admitted to schools, Waterman would like to see this group “given the same priority when it comes to health services”.

ContactPoint will be another mammoth responsibility. Set to go live in 2008, the data-base will hold the name, address, medical and school details of all under18s in England, and be used by 330,000 vetted head teachers, doctors, youth and social workers, and fire and rescue staff.

Waterman says its value is that it will enable professionals to see the contacts children have had with statutory agencies and flag up regular contact that needs attention. But he adds that directors of children’s services are “very aware of the responsibility that such a system brings to them”.

With children’s services representing 50 per cent of local authority spending, could performance in this area be the acid test for deciding the amount of freedoms councils are given locally? “I think that’s inevitable, because it’s half the budget and an even higher percentage of the responsibility,” Waterman says.

He notes with interest the attention being paid by Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, to children’s issues and education, which includes that his “first lieutenant from the Treasury”, Ed Balls, is Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families. “And it’s significant that the childcare strategy was launched from number 11, not from number 10. Even then Gordon Brown was moving in that direction.”

Born: January 28, 1948, in Portsmouth.

Career: Primary teacher then deputy head at a further education college; education roles, London Borough of Hillingdon; education and arts officer, Association of London Government; executive director, Confederation of Children’s Services Managers. Now executive director, Association of Directors of Children’s Services. Also runs a management consultancy and writes pamphlets.

What he says: “You can’t make simple quantitative assessments about Sure Start not being successful because society is changing.”

Little-known fact: Cabaret performer and lyricist.

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