Policy paper

Regional Care Cooperatives (RCCs): pathfinder regions

Published 18 November 2024

Applies to England

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regional-care-co-operatives-pathfinder-areas/regional-care-cooperatives-rccs-pathfinder-regions

Background

As part of reforms to the children’s social care system, the Department for Education (DfE) is working in partnership with local government to develop Regional Care Co-operatives (RCCs).

The ambition is for RCCs to plan, commission and deliver children’s care places in fostering, children’s homes and secure homes.

RCCs will:

  • ensure that there are sufficient placements and support available to meet the needs of children in care through improved forecasting of demand
  • negotiate with providers to make sure that every pound spent makes the biggest impact possible for children, and that there are placements for children and young people with multiple complex needs
  • have greater collaboration with health and justice commissioners to improve services for children in care
  • reform foster parent recruitment and retention and where necessary create new forms of care to meet local need, so that more children in care can stay in family environments and be closer to home

RCC pathfinder responsibilities

DfE is providing £3.46m in programme funding to 2 pathfinder regions in 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026.

We are also providing up to £5m in capital funding to each pathfinder region to develop existing provision or create new regional provision.

Once operational, the department’s expectation is that the RCC pathfinders would be responsible for the following areas as a minimum:

  • carrying out regional data analysis and forecasting the future needs of homes for children in care, alongside health and justice partners
  • developing and publishing a regional sufficiency strategy to set out the current provision and the actions needed to fill any gaps
  • market shaping – working as one customer with providers to:
    • address local needs
    • improve value for money
    • commission the care places required from external providers
  • recruiting foster parents through a regional recruitment support hub and improving the support offer to both new and existing foster parents
  • developing new regional provision where gaps have been identified
  • creating the leadership and governance arrangements necessary to allow the RCC to make swift decisions and invest sums of money over the long term

Participating local authorities

We invited bids from all local authorities in England and the application round closed in October 2023.

The bids were assessed by a cross-government panel involving:

  • DfE
  • NHS England
  • the Ministry of Justice

Greater Manchester and the South East were selected as the successful RCC pathfinder regions.

The following local authorities form the 2 RCC pathfinder regions.

Greater Manchester

  • Bolton
  • Bury
  • Manchester
  • Oldham
  • Rochdale
  • Salford
  • Stockport
  • Tameside
  • Trafford
  • Wigan

South East

  • Bracknell Forest
  • Brighton and Hove
  • Buckinghamshire
  • East Sussex
  • Isle of Wight
  • Kent
  • Medway
  • Milton Keynes
  • Oxfordshire
  • Portsmouth
  • Reading
  • Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
  • Slough Borough
  • Southampton
  • Surrey
  • West Berkshire
  • West Sussex
  • Wokingham

Local and national partners

Both pathfinders are committed to the aim of better meeting the needs of children with complex lives, including severe mental health needs. They will be working with:

  • local NHS integrated care boards and other health partners
  • youth justice partners

The department has commissioned Mutual Ventures to support delivery of the RCC pathfinders.

The department has also commissioned Ecorys UK to carry out an independent evaluation of the RCC pathfinders. This is in partnership with the University of Oxford, Research in Practice and Dr Claire Baker.

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