South East Market Engagement

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Who are we?

We are the South East Sector Led Improvement Programme (SESLIP), a group of 19 local authorities, all of us with responsibilities for children in care. Four of our group (Kent, Milton Keynes, Portsmouth and West Sussex) are leading this approach. I am Lucy Butler, Executive Director of Children’s Services in West Sussex and I believe services offered by the independent sector have a critical role to play in caring for our children.

What are our challenges?

We all buy places for our children in care with your foster carers and in your children’s homes and like you, we want to ensure that our young people receive the highest quality of care, education, health services and accommodation.

We often find that, when we need them, your homes and carers in our local areas are already occupied, often with children placed with you by local authorities from outside of our local area.

This is especially the case when we are looking for homes for children and young people with more complex needs.

Increasingly, we’ve had to look for homes and education for our children and young people much further afield. This can make life challenging for us all. For example, keeping children in touch with family and friends, making sure we come and visit and the planning of appropriate transitions of children back into more local services including family reunification are all made more difficult at a distance.

Sometimes when we search, an appropriate home is not available anywhere and we have no option but to find a solution in a setting where there is no external regulation or inspection of standards, so requiring us to put in our own mechanisms to monitor and inspect.

We all want to do better for children and young people than this.

Accessibility statement:

If you need this information in an alternative format, please contact us on 0330 222 7172 and stephen.humphries@westsussex.gov.uk(External link). If you are deaf or hard of hearing and have an NGT texting app installed on your computer, laptop or smartphone, you can contact us on 18001 0330 222 7172.

We are committed making this website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. West Sussex County Council has created an Accessibility Statemen(External link)t(External link), and details about the general accessibility of the Your Voice Engagement Hub can be found by clicking on the 'Accessibility tab' right at the bottom of the page.

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact us at haveyoursay@westsussex.gov.uk(External link).

Data Protection/Privacy Notice

The Children's Contract and Commissioning team will use this questionnaire to collect personal and special category data the processing of which is necessary to enable us to be compliant with the law (general well-being duties), and for reasons of substantial public interest. The data will be processed in accordance with the 2018 Data Protection Act, the General Data Protection Regulations, and any subsequent data protection legislation. The data we collect be securely stored and kept for period of up to 2 years before being appropriately destroyed. The data we will collect will not be used for any other purpose than that stated above without your prior written consent. West Sussex County Council is registered as Data Controller (Reg. No. Z6413427). For further details and information about our Data Controller, please see www.westsussex.gov.uk/privacy-policy(External link).

Who are we?

We are the South East Sector Led Improvement Programme (SESLIP), a group of 19 local authorities, all of us with responsibilities for children in care. Four of our group (Kent, Milton Keynes, Portsmouth and West Sussex) are leading this approach. I am Lucy Butler, Executive Director of Children’s Services in West Sussex and I believe services offered by the independent sector have a critical role to play in caring for our children.

What are our challenges?

We all buy places for our children in care with your foster carers and in your children’s homes and like you, we want to ensure that our young people receive the highest quality of care, education, health services and accommodation.

We often find that, when we need them, your homes and carers in our local areas are already occupied, often with children placed with you by local authorities from outside of our local area.

This is especially the case when we are looking for homes for children and young people with more complex needs.

Increasingly, we’ve had to look for homes and education for our children and young people much further afield. This can make life challenging for us all. For example, keeping children in touch with family and friends, making sure we come and visit and the planning of appropriate transitions of children back into more local services including family reunification are all made more difficult at a distance.

Sometimes when we search, an appropriate home is not available anywhere and we have no option but to find a solution in a setting where there is no external regulation or inspection of standards, so requiring us to put in our own mechanisms to monitor and inspect.

We all want to do better for children and young people than this.

Accessibility statement:

If you need this information in an alternative format, please contact us on 0330 222 7172 and stephen.humphries@westsussex.gov.uk(External link). If you are deaf or hard of hearing and have an NGT texting app installed on your computer, laptop or smartphone, you can contact us on 18001 0330 222 7172.

We are committed making this website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. West Sussex County Council has created an Accessibility Statemen(External link)t(External link), and details about the general accessibility of the Your Voice Engagement Hub can be found by clicking on the 'Accessibility tab' right at the bottom of the page.

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact us at haveyoursay@westsussex.gov.uk(External link).

Data Protection/Privacy Notice

The Children's Contract and Commissioning team will use this questionnaire to collect personal and special category data the processing of which is necessary to enable us to be compliant with the law (general well-being duties), and for reasons of substantial public interest. The data will be processed in accordance with the 2018 Data Protection Act, the General Data Protection Regulations, and any subsequent data protection legislation. The data we collect be securely stored and kept for period of up to 2 years before being appropriately destroyed. The data we will collect will not be used for any other purpose than that stated above without your prior written consent. West Sussex County Council is registered as Data Controller (Reg. No. Z6413427). For further details and information about our Data Controller, please see www.westsussex.gov.uk/privacy-policy(External link).

  • CLOSED: This survey has concluded.

    Commissioning and Procurement

    Help us to make commissioning and procurement better.

    We’d like you to give us your perspective on these challenges, with a view to shaping a new way of working together with providers, as partners. The questions that follow have been designed to collect your insights, anonymously if you prefer, although no individual respondent will be identified in reporting of the combined feedback.

    As part of this initial stage we are also inviting providers to attend workshops or one-to-one conversations so we can better understand your views on this most important topic. You will have the opportunity to choose your workshop or conversation slot at the end of the survey.

    Please don’t forget to provide your email address if you wish to participate in the workshops or one-to-one conversations, as we shall be need it to send you further details.

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Page published: 08 Mar 2021, 04:33 PM