News from: Reading Borough Council
It was agreed by councillors on Tuesday 28 January 2025 that children’s services in Reading will be brought back in-house, to be delivered directly by Reading Borough Council. Work will begin immediately to complete a successful transition by Autumn 2025. This includes the transfer of around 550 members of Brighter Future for Children’s staff back to the council.
Why there’s a need for change
An independent company, Brighter Futures for Children (BFfC), have delivered children’s services in Reading since December 2018, including children’s social care and education. BFfC’s seven year contract comes to an end in March 2026, and the council needed to review their options for moving forwards. To achieve this, the council worked with an independent body, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).
CIPFA recommended that the council should bring children’s services back in-house if it:
-Provides the council with better, direct control of children’s services
-Removes a layer of governance, helping decisions to be made faster and avoiding repeated reports
-Removes the pressure on council services of maintaining service level agreements
-Helps different council services work better together
How we came to a decision
All representing councillors agreed with CIPFA’s recommendations at the council meeting on Tuesday 28 January 2025. The council also recognised that children’s services would benefit from further improvements. To action this, the council have set up an independent improvement board to help it better support Reading’s children and families.
The next steps
In addition to the transfer of staff members, the decision highlighted more actions including:
-The transfer of around 100 contracts and 12 leases from BFfC to the council
-Closing the independent fostering agency and moving to a local authority fostering service
-Changes to relevant Ofsted registrations
If the transition is successfully completed by Autumn 2025, BFfC’s existing contract will be terminated early.