LIIA Programme

ALDCS has identified a range of priorities requiring innovation in London’s children’s services. As a result, LIIA has developed and progressed an ambitious programme that addresses these areas of collective challenge through innovation.

The following are highlights of work in 2022

• Adolescent Safeguarding: ‘Your Choice’ violence reduction programme has been designed by LIIA with the support of young people and practitioners. The programme is an entirely novel design drawing on an evidence base of the most effective practice in psychology and social work. Your Choice has been delivered in every borough, with 600 of London’s most vulnerable adolescents having benefited from the intervention. Quotes testifying to the impact of the Your Choice programme have included: “We believe two of our ‘Your Choicers’ will no longer go into care” (social worker) and “putting theory behind what we do has empowered our practitioners and given them renewed confidence.”(team manager).
• The ‘London Pledge’ is a regional commitment by 32 London Boroughs to control the rising costs associated with the agency social worker market. The project has advanced the existing systems of engagement with the agency recruitment market, bringing together the wide range of roles within the system to collaborate and communicate transparently through a single, sustainable initiative. A key part of its success has been the effective engagement and partnership with private sector partners who have been mobilised to uphold the agreement on behalf of London’s Boroughs. The innovation underpinning the London Pledge provides a new platform to enhance quality and capacity while controlling the costs of the social work workforce.
• Anti-racism and Disproportionality: in 2022 ALDCS celebrated two years of the ‘Leadership in Colour’(LinC) programme. LinC has been co-designed by LIIA and the LiNC Reference Group to address racial disproportionality within children’s services. In 2022 a further 50 global majority professionals graduate from the LiNC development programme and 60 formed the LinC Reference Group to support ALDCS policy development. The formation of the LinC Reference Group, who provide a critical friend to LIIA and ALDCS in a range of programme and policy development, is a unique feature of the London landscape.
• The Pan-London Vehicle (PLV) for commissioning has been developed by LIIA to provide a legal vehicle for risk-sharing and joint commissioning for children’s placements across London (including the building of the new London secure children’s home). In order to create the PLV endorsement has been required from London’s leaders requiring navigation through the political structures in each borough. The PLV provides a platform for cost saving at scale which has the potential to radically change the conditions in which children’s services commission services.
• Developed and introduced London’s Care Leavers Compact including securing partnerships with transport, health and the private sector to deliver reduced travel, free prescriptions and the creation of 200+ employment opportunities for care leavers. The Compact provides evidence of innovation and ambition on behalf of one of our most vulnerable cohorts of young people and has started to deliver a more equitable offer to them.

LIIA’s primary customers are the 33 London LAs, with whom a unique partnership has been formed. This has enabled each LA to address those issues which require scale (political, economic and logistical) to address challenges which had previously appeared intractable when approached individually.

The current Terms of Reference are attached.

The LIIA team has been a catalyst for a culture shift in the way children’s services work together in London and, in the words of the ADCS national chair for Resources and Sustainability, "LIIA has brought together the collective skills and expertise of the capital to drive the change for children we need, strengthening systems and processes, facilitating innovation and improvement" Chris Munday, DCS Barnet

London Authority Sub-Regions

Map of sub-regional footprints
 

Upcoming Events

Click on the calendar to see this month's LIIA events.