Local authority leaders have welcomed a call from MPs to build on the success of the children's social care innovation programme.

A new report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) praised the Department for Education's 14-year, £333m children's social care innovation programme, which aims to stimulate innovation and replicate successful approaches in children's social care.

However, the PAC report said the programme now needed to disseminate learning from the programme to deliver ‘widespread improvement'.

The committee noted the Department for Education had ‘further to go to embed a culture of evaluation in social care' so that the opportunities to secure better outcomes for children were not lost when dedicated funding for these innovation projects ended.

PAC chair Meg Hillier said: ‘The Department for Education has established a proper approach to assessing whether its new programmes will actually deliver better outcomes for children in the care system and the taxpayer.

'It is vital that it is continued to make sure that these children receive the best support possible.'

Chair of the Local Government Association's children and young people board, Louise Gittins, said: ‘It is good the committee backs our call to build on the success of the children's social care innovation programme as councils face both financial pressures and increasing numbers of children requiring support for more complex needs.

‘The programme has been shown to decrease the rate of children in care in participating council areas, which highlights what councils can achieve when they are given additional funding.'