‘OLD-fashioned’ ways of working in Dorset children’s service are being challenged to put children and their families first.

Director Sarah Parker says that almost all the children who used to come into contact with the former county council ended up with a formal assessment – more than double the national average.

She says that a review of working practices, currently underway, should dramatically reduce the number of children and young people who come into the care of the local authority with more emphasis on early intervention and working with families.

“We used to speak about processes and structures – we didn’t speak about children enough and their needs,” she told the Dorset Council audit and governance committee on Monday.

“We want to be effective and modern and to be an employer of choice,” she said, explaining her Blueprint for Change consultation which runs until November 22.

The plan could see the re-introduction of detached youth workers, greater partnership working with the NHS and schools as well as the police, and more staff being available for longer hours, including weekends.

It should also save more than £1million a year, councillors on the audit and governance committee were told.

“We will be talking about children’s needs, not thresholds, and working with partners to get decisions right the first time…children should be our focus and we should put them first, not trying to fit them around our structures,” she said.

She said she also wanted to work on reducing the number of social workers a child in care came across and would bring services together in six or seven local offices, rather than have some teams work across the whole county – cutting down on the time, and cost, of social workers travelling relatively long distances.

Around 600 full and part time staff will be affected by the changes.

When asked by Weymouth’s Cllr David Gray how staff morale was being affected she said: “Some are delighted but others still need to be taken on that journey. You may hear some rumblings about not wanting to go to locality working but we need to be close to our families and that is really important.”