A local government leader has warned of the danger of allowing the costs of working in children’s social care to outweigh the benefits for staff. Margaret Eaton, the chair of the Local Government Association, was responding to the results of a survey by UNISON which pointed to high levels of unfilled posts in care teams.

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Almost 400,000 professionals working with children will have access to the ContactPoint database of details of every child in England, according to the Children’s Minister, Baroness Delyth Morgan. Speaking as the system was rolled out, she said it would save five million hours in professionals’ time.

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This evaluation of the impact of policy changes on accountability and public confidence takes account of the 20-plus policies that followed the 1998 and 2001 white papers. It assesses the cumulative impacts of the individual policies over the 1998-2007 period and identifies the initiatives that have been key enablers of desired change.

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