Latest figures show continued sharp decline in care leavers, children entering care and looked-after asylum-seeking children

The number of children adopted from care fell to its lowest level in 21 years in 2020-21, Department for Education (DfE) figures show.

Their number fell by 18% on the year to 2,870, the lowest total since 1999-2000. Delays in family court proceedings during Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the latest annual decline in adoptions, but the number has fallen each year since a peak of 5,360 in 2014-15.

The DfE figures also showed the number of children entering and leaving care both fell sharply, by 8% to 28,440 and by 6% to 28,010, respectively, their lowest levels in nine years. But, as the number entering care still outnumbered those leaving, the number of looked-after children increased for the 13th year running, to a record high of 80,850. The rate of looked-after children per 10,000 children remained at 67, the same as the year before.

However, the number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in care fell by a fifth, a second consecutive annual drop, to 4,070, its lowest level in six years.

​Adoptions taking longer
The long-term decline in adoptions from 2014-15 followed two court rulings in 2013, re B and re B-S, which stated that adoption orders should be made only when there was no other alternative, such as placing a child with birth relatives.

It now takes two years and two months for a child to be adopted on average, which has increased steadily since 2018, when it was one year and 11 months. In 2021, the average time between a child entering care and being placed for adoption was a year and four months. It then took a further 10 months, on average, for an adoption order to be granted and the adoption to be completed.

In its latest adoption strategy, published in July, the government said it wanted to cut waits for children with a placement order to less than 18 months, saying it was “unacceptable” that 1,000 children were waiting longer than this. The government has made this one of its key targets for the next three years.

“For children with a plan for adoption, the quicker we can move them out of care and into a permanent family, the better,” said Sue Armstrong Brown, chief executive of charity Adoption UK. “Waiting in care can mean multiple moves to different homes and a high level of uncertainty. This can pile trauma on top of trauma.”

The latest figures show that the average age of a child at adoption rose by three months in 2020-21, to three years and three months, the same level as in 2018. Adoptions for Asian/Asian British children and Mixed/multi-ethnic group children leaving care fell by a higher-than-average rate in 2020-21, of 25% and 24%, respectively. In its strategy, the DfE highlighted the long waits faced by children from ethnic minorities and prioritised recruiting more adopters from ethnic minority communities.

“We know the pandemic has had a significant impact on agencies in securing permanent homes for children,” a DfE spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that adoption numbers had recovered since the turn of the financial year in April.

“Data from the Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board shows that, as of June 2021, the adoption system is recovering, with adoption orders and special guardianship orders back to pre-Covid levels,” they added.

More special guardianship orders
The number of children leaving care on special guardianship orders (SGOs) increased by 2% in 2020-21 to 3,800, following a 4% dip in the year to March 2020. This meant that a third more children left care on SGOs, around one in seven, than were adopted in the year to March 2021.

Most SGOs were granted to relatives or friends – 88% – with the rest mainly to other former foster carers. The average age of children leaving care on an SGO increased by three months to six years and one month.

Dr Lucy Peake, chief executive of charity Kinship, welcomed the increase in special guardianship orders but urged the government to offer more support to such arrangements.

“Despite significantly more children leaving care on a special guardianship order than an adoption order, support is often not available even where children have complex needs,” she said. “Seventy per cent of kinship carers we surveyed stated that they didn’t get the support they needed from their local authority.

“We want to see a government strategy that values, recognises and financially invests in kinship carers who sacrifice so much to give children the love, care and support they deserve.”

Andy Elvin, chief executive of fostering charity TACT, also called for the government to offer as much support to special guardianship arrangements as it did for adoption.

“Despite successive governments, back to Blair, having a myopic focus on adoption, it is clear that the direction of travel is that more kinship arrangements will be created alongside more foster carers taking SGOs,” he said. “It is about time that serious focus and resource was put into supporting kinship families. Occasional one-off grants aren’t investment, they are window dressing.”

Children spending longer in care
The number of children leaving care lagged the average for 2018-20 during the first Covid-19 lockdown in England from April to August 2020, but it matched the long-term trend from September 2020 onwards. DfE said the annual decline is likely to have driven an increase in the average length of time care leavers had spent being looked after, which rose by 79 days year-on-year.

Katharine Sacks-Jones, chief executive at charity Become, raised concerns about the increasing number of children who are forced to leave the care system when they become 18. In the year to March 2021, 38% of children that left care had their looked-after status removed on their 18th birthday, , up from 31% in 2017-18.

She called on the children’s social care review to “reimagine the concept of ‘leaving care’ to ensure care-experienced young people are offered the support they need and deserve as they move into adulthood”.

The number of children entering care lagged the average for 2018-20 consistently across the year to March 2021, with the largest year-on-year decline in January 2021, the start of the third national lockdown.

Elvin said while the fall could be due to lockdown measures, it might also be a sign of “better preventative work with families or increased use of kinship arrangements”.

But Cathy Ashley, chief executive of the Family Rights Group, expressed concern about the growing number of children in care overall.

“Many professionals feel overstretched and overwhelmed and too many children and families do not get the direct help they need early enough to prevent difficulties escalating,” she said. “The lack of resources, poverty and deprivation are making it harder for families and the system to cope, and this has worsened during the pandemic.”

Charlotte Ramsden, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, said: “Referrals to children’s social care reduced significantly during the periods of national lockdown which was a worry for us, however, local authorities up and down the country worked hard to make sure they were there providing support for those children and families who need it the most.

“We are only now seeing some of the emerging signs of the impact of the pandemic with families presenting greater complexity of need, but the lasting impacts will remain with us for years to come. It is essential that we have both the capacity and resources to meet these needs as quickly as possible.”

Sharp fall in asylum-seeking children in care
The number of asylum-seeking children fell by 20% on the previous year, likely driven by travel restrictions during the year.

Following the drop, asylum-seeking children accounted for 5% of all looked-after children in March 2021, down from 6% a year earlier. However, numbers remain higher than the period between 2004 and 2015.

Kent and Croydon had the most asylum-seeking children in their care in March 2021, with 291 and 211 children, respectively. This reflects Kent being a major port of entry and Croydon being where a Home Office asylum intake unit is based. Most asylum-seeking children – 52% – were in the care of local authorities in London or the South East in March 2021, a decline on 56% the year before.

The situation has seen Kent stop taking asylum-seeking children into its care twice in 2020 and 2021, and Croydon’s level of unaccompanied children implicated in its significant financial problems.

This Home Office has sought to tackle the concentration of aslum-seeking children in a few authorities by relaunching its voluntary national transfer scheme, in July this year, so that responsibility for children is distributed more evenly between regions.

Anti-trafficking organisation Love 146 said the 20% annual fall is likely linked to a 15% drop in the number of children arriving in the UK and claiming asylum during the same period.

But it expressed concern that the Home Office had placed some asylum-seeking children in hotels over the past year despite the decline in numbers. The Home Office’s use of hotels as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers has increased since March, with 70 children in such places in September this year.

“This highlights the significant need for trained specialist carers, particularly as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic starts to lessen and routes for unaccompanied minors to seek asylum in the UK start to re-open,” a spokesperson for Love 146 said.

Source:
www.communitycare.co.uk

​Ofsted have today released their annual fostering in England statistics, highlighting that many vulnerable children are currently missing out on the care and support they need due to a lack of foster carers. 

We know that one of the biggest challenges facing the fostering sector currently is how to secure the future recruitment and retention of enough, high-quality foster carers. As we emerge from a global pandemic, ensuring there are sufficient numbers of skilled and knowledgeable foster carers is even more pressing. 

The Ofsted figures show that overall, there was a net increase of just 45 local authority carers and a net increase of 960 independent fostering agency carers across England from 1April 2020 – 31 March 2021. They also show that 18% of all foster carers are family and friends foster carers who are typically only approved to care for specific children.  

The Fostering Network identified a need for at least 7,300 new foster families in England this year, which means we are falling far short of being able to meet the needs of all children in care. All children and young people in need of foster care should be placed with a foster family who is able to understand what that child needs to thrive, build relationships, learn and develop while supporting them to navigate the challenges that often come from being in care.  

Kevin Williams, CEO of The Fostering Network, states: ‘We all know that creating stable and loving environments for children in care is vital. Ensuring there are sufficient foster families, through both recruitment and retention strategies, should also be vital as this is key to securing good matching and stability.’  

The Fostering Network supports its fostering services members with their recruitment and retention activity through initiatives such as Foster Care Fortnight, but more needs to be done at a national level to help services attract and keep carers to ensure no child has to miss out on a stable, loving home. With the release of the State of the Nation report due next month, The Fostering Network will be highlighting in more detail the challenge the sector is facing around sufficiency and calling for change across a range of factors which feed into this.  

Source:
www.thefosteringnetwork.org.uk

Local authorities have 'inherently weak' position in market and shift to national or regional commissioning of placements should be considered, says Competition and Markets Authority.

Profits for large children’s social care providers are higher than would be expected in a well-functioning market, as the lack of placements leaves councils in an ‘inherently weak’ position.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said today it had found that the largest children’s home providers charged an average weekly price of £3,830, with an average operating profit margin of 23%. For independent fostering agencies, the average weekly price for fostering was about £820 per week, with an average operating profit margin of 19%.

In the interim report from the competition watchdog’s study into the children’s social care market, it said that such levels of profit were the result of councils’ weak bargaining position relative to providers.

This was because placements were insufficient and councils often had to find somewhere for a looked-after child in a hurry. Each individual authority was also responsible for too few children to be able to accurately forecast demand and shape the market.

To tackle this, the CMA suggested moving towards regional or national procurement or commissioning of looked-after children’s placements. This could take the form of national or regional bodies advising councils or taking direct responsibility for placements.

However, it raised concerns about calls to restrict providers’ profits and prices on the grounds that the fundamental issue was a lack of supply, and this may reduce it further.

Private equity warning
The CMA also raised concerns about the impact of private equity ownership of providers, particularly among children’s homes, because of the high and increasing levels of debt they were carrying.

This could lead to providers failing and exiting the market, creating instability for children, in an echo of what happened in adult social care with the collapse of Southern Cross in 2011. To address this, it suggested creating a financial oversight regime of the kind introduced in adults’ services, and run by the Care Quality Commission, following Southern Cross’s collapse.

The report also called for the regulatory regime around children’s services to be reviewed to enable providers to increase supply.

While it said that it wasn’t a case of regulatory standards being too high but of some regulations “unwittingly creating barriers” to meeting children’s needs. This was in the context of the regulatory regime in England having been in place for about 20 years during which the market for children’s care had changed dramatically.

‘Failing system’
Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA, said: “We are concerned this is a failing system, with children not being placed in the right homes while providers are being allowed to charge high prices and make big profits.

“Vulnerable children rely on these services, but too many are being placed in accommodation that does not meet their needs. And despite many placements not being suitable, local authorities, funded by taxpayers, are paying more than they should to provide them. The levels of debt we have seen being carried by private equity-owned firms is also a real concern due to the effect a firm in financial distress could have on the children in their care.

“We are now considering ways to tackle these issues, including recommendations to the UK and devolved governments, and are inviting comments on these. Our priority remains identifying the best ways to ensure children can get the right care.”

The study was launched in March after the head of the children’s social care review, Josh MacAlister, called on the CMA to investigate insufficiency of placements and providers’ profit levels.

The CMA has launched a three-week consultation into the interim report, closing on 12 November, after which it will do further work evidence gathering and analysis before completing its final report by March of next year.

‘End or limit for-profit provision’
On the back of the report, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) called for an end to – or at least a limitation of – for-profit  provision in children’s social care.

ADCS president Charlotte Ramsden said: “Meaningful change is needed and ADCS calls on government to implement legislation which prevents for-profit operations or as a minimum caps the level of fees chargeable in fostering and residential services, similar to that in Scotland.

“Local authorities would be able to reinvest some of this money and develop more in-house provision and earlier intensive support, closer to the communities in which children grow up. The system must be driven by children’s needs, not maximising profits.”

‘Extremely high profits and concerning levels of debt’
In response to the report, the Local Government Association (LGA) said it reflected concerns it had been raising for years.

“Our members are increasingly concerned about the balance of provision, in particular the growth and market share of the very largest providers which limits councils’ ability to manage the market and ensure the availability of placements to meet the needs of the children they care for,” said Anntoinette Bramble, chair of the LGA’s children and young people board.

She added: “The CMA has confirmed our recent findings that private equity providers are making extremely high profits and carrying concerning levels of debt that risks the stability of homes for children in care, which is paramount if they are to thrive. We continue to call for oversight of the market to avoid a ‘Southern Cross situation’ in children’s social care and to ensure the quality of provision.”

In a reference to a number of recent court cases in which placements have not been available for children with highly complex needs, she said such “harrowing cases” were “unacceptable” and a solution could not wait until the outcome of the CMA review next March. She urged the government “to work with us urgently to address these challenges”.

‘Without reform, children’s outcomes will suffer’
The Independent Children’s Home Association (ICHA) also welcomed the report.

“It lays bare what we already know that the current state of the market is due to many complex factors and no single solution will bring about the change required,” said deputy chief executive Elizabeth Cooper. “It also brings a sense of urgency suggesting that without reform, children’s long-term outcomes will suffer.”

She added: “We recognise and share the CMA’s concern regarding leverage and the potential for the collapse of large residential provision if economic conditions change and look forward to future recommendations that enables enterprise to continue in a sustainable and reassuring way.

“Finally, we strongly support the call for a review of regulations to enable more diversity to enter the market and better reflect the current conditions in which we operate.”

The National Association of Fostering Providers (NAFP) also welcomed the report but urged the CMA to do further analysis of fostering services in order to “dispel myths” about independent fostering agencies.

“There are significant differences between fostering and residential care,” said NAFP chief executive Harvey Gallagher. “Trying to cover both in one narrative does not give an accurate picture of each sector’s challenges.”

He said the report implied that most children’s placements were “spot purchased”, leaving councils in a weak position, however, in fostering most placements were made using pre-tendered contracts.

Gallagher added that issues to do with the appropriateness of IFA placements were often beyond agencies’ control.

He said: “The most appropriate care for a child is often more about the carer having the particular skills and experience to meet that child’s needs. Too often, IFAs are sent referral information that misses vital information, contains old information or is completed by someone who does not know the child.”

Source:
www.communitycare.co.uk

​

Local authority and children’s services leaders have called for greater scrutiny of private sector children’s social care providers in a bid to minimise the risks posed by a large operator collapsing.

The Local Government Association (LGA) said it would like to see the creation of a role to monitor the financial health of large children’s social care placement providers, while the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) wants to see changes to the regulatory system to require providers to be registered instead of settings.  

The concerns were raised in responses to the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) call for evidence on the children’s social care market study. Launched in March on the request of Care Review chair Josh MacAlister, the CMA market study – responses to which have just been published - could lead to a full investigation later this year.

In their submissions, both organisations said they were concerned about the growing influence of private equity (PE) investors in the children’s social care sector.

The LGA cites research that shows private equity-owned provision “carries a higher financial risk profile than other types of providers”.

It states: “Four of the seven largest groups of independent providers carry more debts and liabilities than tangible assets, with all of these being PE-owned. In total, six of the 20 groups of providers (the largest in the market) in the study reported negative net assets, with all but one of these having PE ownership.”

The LGA highlights that the collapse of adult care home provider Southern Cross in 2011 led to a legal duty for the Care Quality Commission to monitor the financial health of the “most difficult to replace” adult social care service providers – but that no such duty exists for the children’s sector.

“We would like to see a role introduced to oversee the financial health of large children’s social care placement providers to prevent a ‘Southern Cross situation’ in children’s social care, and also incorporate consideration of how mergers and acquisitions impact on quality of care and the experiences and outcomes of children,” it states.

In its submission, the ADCS echoes growing concerns about the role of private equity in the residential care sector and its impact on the stability of providers.

It states: “For some time, ADCS members have been concerned about how private equity is driving rapid changes in the ownership, financial models and service delivery in residential services for vulnerable children.

“The proportion of the market controlled by just a small number of providers, along with multi-million-pound mergers between providers who are diversifying across the sector and buying up smaller firms, increases the risk within the system. The risks associated with the impact of provider failure are significant and only increase as ownership continues to contract.”

The ADCS highlights that the current regulatory framework is nearly 20 years old and focused on the performance of individual homes rather than “the efficacy of the increasingly common large provider chains/organisations or the contribution they make to children’s outcomes”.  

There is little focus on – or scrutiny of – the financial stability of parent companies, no single record of who owns the services that deliver care for children available for authorities to refer to as corporate parents, nor a mechanism for recording or managing the risk of provider failure, it adds.

Moving to a system that registered providers instead of settings “would allow the flexibility needed to make emergency/crisis placements while also allowing authorities to tailor the care and support around the individual needs of children and young people”, it added.  

The CMA received submissions from 35 organisations to its study. A decision on whether to hold an investigation will be made by September.

Source:
www.cypnow.co.uk

The government has announced an additional £51m to support care leavers and young people transitioning to independence.

The funding will extend existing Department for Education flagship schemes Staying Put and Staying Close for an additional year.

The package includes:

• £33m for the Staying Put scheme, which helps looked-after children stay with their foster carers after their 18th birthday
• £3.6m to extend the Staying Close pilot, which gives extra support for young people leaving residential care
• £12m for councils to continue to provide personal advisers to support care leavers up to the age of 25
• £2.7m to provide intensive support to care leavers at high risk of homelessness, as part of the government’s Rough Sleeping strategy.

The DfE is also set to provide more than 5,000 more laptops for care leavers through the Get Help with Technology scheme, which will help to prevent loneliness and isolation among this group of young people. The laptops and routers will mean they can more easily keep in touch with their personal advisers and wider support networks, as well as helping them access support services such as for education, mental health support and searching for employment opportunities online.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said: “Every young person in care deserves to live in accommodation that meets their needs and keeps them safe – anything less is unacceptable, and so continuing to prioritise children in care or leaving care is absolutely vital.

“The measures build on our shared ambition across government to level up outcomes and opportunities for everyone, but especially the most vulnerable – by providing safer homes, reducing isolation among young people leaving care, and by making sure they have a strong support network to rely on as they take steps into adult life.”

"This new funding will help care leavers as they navigate the sometimes perilous transition into living independently, whether that's through advice from a personal adviser or rapid support if they find themselves with no roof over their head,” he said.

"Taken together with the recent exemption from the shared accommodation rate, this is a real step forward for care leavers."

Meanwhile, a report by charity Barnardo’s reveals the extent of unsafe, unsuitable and unhealthy accommodation offered to vulnerable young people when they leave care and how this differs from that offered to children.

Its survey of 2,000 adults found that only one in five received no support from parents when they first moved out of the family home to live independently. Interviews the charity did with 23 care leavers about their experiences found an overwhelming proportion reported having little or no choice about where they moved after leaving care, many found the whole process of finding somewhere to live and moving in to be "scary" and did not feel ready to live independently.

Its No Place Like Home report calls on the government to provide more support for the Staying Close scheme, double to £4,000 the ‘setting up home’ grant, and develop robust standards for semi-independent accommodation.

Barnardo’s chief executive Javed Khan said: “Many young people leaving the care system enter adulthood without a strong support network, leaving them particularly vulnerable.  

“Having a safe and stable home is one of the most important factors in helping care leavers to recover from past trauma, gain qualifications and secure stable employment. Yet our research has demonstrated that care leavers are too often expected to live in conditions that are unsuitable and at worst unsafe. 

“The government has a unique opportunity to improve the system for care leavers, through the Independent Review of Children's Social Care. We must also make it easier for young people to stay with their foster carers up to the age of 21; and when they do live independently, accommodation must be safe and appropriate to meet their needs.” 

Source:
www.cypnow.co.uk

Children’s charities have stepped up their campaign to call for an end to private care companies profiteering from fostering.

The campaign group Fairer Fostering Partnership (FFP) has launched a social media push using the hashtag #forchildrennotprofit, to promote commissioning care placements using not-for-profit and charitable fostering agencies, rather than commercial fostering firms.

The group is concerned that commercial fostering organisations are owned by private and venture capital companies that make “significant profits for shareholders”.

Instead, the FFP believes that any profit from foster care should be re-invested into children’s services.

“Excessive profit has no place in the care of vulnerable children,” says the group.

It adds: “FFP members work purely for children, not for profit, and in a financially strapped sector funded by taxpayers helping thousands of vulnerable children in care, it is important that local authorities and foster carers are able to make an informed choice as to which fostering providers they work with."

FFP members include Action for Children, Barnardo’s and The Adolescent and Children’s Trust (TACT).

TACT chief executive and FFP chair Andy Elvin said: “All our members’ resources are invested in meeting the needs of vulnerable children and young people, and not in making a profit from them.

“This transparency and accountability is welcomed by local authorities and foster carers alike, but we need to continue promoting the message that excessive profits are being made by some agencies at a time when there is less money in the system. That clearly can’t be a good thing for children in care.”

This week the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) also raised concerns about the use of profit-making companies to provide children’s care.

Its 2021 position paper says there is a “worrying increase in the number of large organisations, backed by private equity investors, entering into children’s residential and fostering services”.

It adds “the ability of private equity companies to extract huge profit from the care of children is concerning, as is the level of debt and the implications that financial failure would mean for children and young people”.

Source:
www.cypnow.co.uk/

In 2012 and 2013, ADCS published position statements articulating members’ collective aspirations for the care system with a particular focus on how we support adolescents, taking into account the balance of parenting responsibility between the state and a young person’s family.

Much has changed in the intervening period and this updated position statement considers the purposes of care in light of the challenges facing children, young people and families in 2021 and the context in which local authorities currently operate. This paper maintains the focus on adolescents as their needs continue to be less well met by our current very binary construct of care.

View Position Statement

Source:
https://adcs.org.uk/care/article/what-is-care-for-2021

It is a huge privilege to lead this review, which is a once in a generation opportunity to transform the children’s social care system and improve the lives of children and their families.

This review is a chance to look afresh at children’s social care. It will look at issues through the perspective of children and families throughout their interactions with children’s social care, from having a social worker knock on the door, through to children being in care and then leaving care. 

Over the coming months as our work gets underway, me and my team will be seeking out a wide range of views to feed into the review’s work. By listening to and engaging with a wide range of voices we will be able to build the best possible recommendations about how to achieve real change.

The stakes are high and if we get this review right, we will be able to set out a plan for a future system that can better guarantee love, safety and stability for children growing up in England.

Source:
https://childrenssocialcare.independent-review.uk/​

Experts highlight the review of residential care, social work practice ‘blueprint’ and investigation into children’s care market as key pieces of work that could influence what issues the review of children’s social care covers.

The work of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in England has ramped up after it officially launched on 1 March, raising questions over the main influences on its scope and direction.

The appointment of civil servant Shazia Hussain, who previously worked on Sir Martin Narey’s 2016 Independent Review of Children’s Residential Care and A Blueprint for Social Care, co-authored by review chair Josh MacAlister in 2019, has been seen by some in the sector as offering clues to which direction the review will head in. Here, experts point towards key existing reports and ongoing investigations they feel may influence the review.

A Blueprint for Children’s Social Care
Frontline and the Centre for Public Impact’s blueprint is loosely based on the Buurtzorg model which was developed by nurses in Denmark in 2007 in response to “public service reforms” aimed at meeting targets and cutting costs.

The document co-authored by MacAlister lays out a similar structure for local authority children’s social care departments based around a self-managing, family-facing team working with families and children with the aim of reducing social worker caseloads and time spent carrying out paperwork and “box-ticking exercises” in favour of more time spent with families.

A family-facing team would be supported by other teams including a referral team, strategy team and insight and enable teams to increase face-to-face time with families by 40 per cent.

Sector leaders have questioned whether MacAlister’s ties to the blueprint suggest it may influence the direction of the review.

Robin Sen, lecturer in social work at the University of Dundee and an honorary research fellow at the University of Sheffield, says it may be difficult for MacAlister to step away from his “intellectual entanglement” with the blueprint.

“To author it must mean he has some belief in it,” says Sen, raising questions over high-profile government figures throwing their weight behind the blueprint.

“Another question is whether or not Josh is able to move away from key players like children’s minister Vicky Ford and chief social worker Isabelle Trowler, both of whom backed the blueprint,” he says.

“The key players obviously have their own agendas and what they would like to see pushed through and that influence is a worry.”

He also raises concerns over the use of the model in the blueprint which aims to slash paperwork for social workers, warning that “anti-bureaucracy has transpired in the past as a code word for cuts to regulations”.

“What we risk here is losing regulations and safeguarding practices similar to the statutory instrument 445 exemptions put in place to reduce the responsibility of local authorities during the pandemic,” says Sen.

The sector has also drawn parallels between the contract for running the Care Review and wording in the blueprint which states that “no extra funding is needed to bring about the transformation proposed in this document”.

The contract states the “DfE cannot assume any additional funding from the Exchequer to meet the recommendations”.

Any requests for new funding should “be offset by savings across national and/or local public services (including local government children’s social care)”, it adds.

Director of children’s rights charity Article 39, Carolyne Willow, says: “The review’s current terms of reference make no suggestion of additional funding for services to children and families and refer only to the effective use of resources and value for money – both of which are essential but only when sufficient funding has been provided in the first place.”

However, Gavin Moorghen, professional officer at the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) England, says the blueprint only covers “such a small part of what the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care is expected to look at” with the terms of reference promising a “bold wide-ranging review”.

Moorghen notes that children’s social care could benefit from “relationships-based” practice championed in the blueprint which was backed by BASW prior to its publication.

“The blueprint seems like too narrow an avenue to become the main focus of the Care Review but elements like increasing time with families, especially in a post-Covid world, is something that could be developed within the system,” he says.

MacAlister echoes this point in a tweet which reads: “The blueprint was a project shaped by social workers to apply one approach into the existing structures of children’s services. The review is much bigger than this.”

However, he adds: “I’m very open to the review making different recommendations.”

Narey Review of Children’s Residential Care
Questions have also been raised over the influence that Sir Martin Narey’s independent review of children’s homes could have on the Care Review following the appointment of civil servant Shazia Hussain as head of the review panel.

Ray Jones, social worker and emeritus professor of social work at Kingston University, points out that in his report on residential care Narey concludes “Shazia Hussain led the DfE team brilliantly. I hope very much indeed that if Ministers accept these recommendations that she might lead their implementation”.

“This opportunity is now arising,” Jones says, adding that this could lead to “the government’s ideological commitment to further move children’s social care into a privatised marketplace and away from publicly accountable and locally based councils.”

He adds: “Sir Martin has been a champion for the involvement of private companies in children’s social services and child protection.

“His review of residential care, like his review of foster care [published in 2018], did not recommend that local authorities ought to regain the ground they have lost by no longer providing services themselves. Instead, it recommended that local authorities should be better commissioners and purchasers in an expanded marketplace.”

Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) examination of children’s social care
Jones also warns that the CMA investigation of children’s social care provision could shape “the likely direction of travel” for the Care Review.

“The CMA has the brief of promoting competition – it is hardly likely to conclude that care for children should be a public service rather than a commercial profit-generating business,” he says.

The CMA launched the examination in March to investigate “the lack of availability and increasing costs in children’s social care provision, including children’s homes and fostering” following a request from MacAlister.

Andy Elvin, chief executive of charity TACT foster care and adoption, has mixed feelings on the probe and its influence on the Care Review.

Elvin explains that currently “fostering, 16+ provision and children’s homes are, outside the statutory sector, dominated by private for-profit providers”.

“On one hand it is deeply depressing that the CMA is central to a review of the children’s social care system,” he adds, “however on the other hand, I am delighted”.

He adds: “Asking them demonstrates a keenness of thought and a willingness to use all means available to fight for a children’s social care system that has children and their families and care-experienced adults at its heart.”

Harvey Gallagher, chief executive of the Nationwide Association of Foster Care Providers, echoes Elvin’s optimism around the inclusion of the CMA’s findings in the Care Review.

He says: “Where a child in care lives, is still too much of a lottery characterised by bureaucracy, lack of choice and fragmentation between organisations. From the perspective of independent fostering agencies (IFAs), one change that could make a huge difference would be to see local authorities and IFAs truly working in partnership with each other. This is where the CMA study could shine a light on historical and baseless divisions.”

However, Jonathan Stanley, manager of the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care, says that, like the Blueprint for Children’s Social Care, the CMA’s findings may “not take a wide enough view”.

He cites the Local Government Association’s Barriers and Facilitators to Local Authorities and Small Providers Establishing Children’s Homes report, published by Newgate Research, as “an example of the approach that will be helpful”.

“This looked at the actions of providers and local authorities, separately and as they interact,” he says, adding that “to enable understanding and planning for the Care Review the CMA must bring into focus all parties” including local authorities, the government and Ofsted.

Such agencies are “active” in creating a competitive market for children’s residential care and could play a part in “resolving it”, Stanley adds.

“It could be that authorities open homes to fill that gap for high-level needs using local partnerships with health and education. The CMA can assist by being creative and solution focused,” he says.

Questions of independence
As further details of the Care Review and its scope emerge week-by-week, questions around its independence and the 12- to 15-month timescale continue to raise concerns across the sector.

What experts agree on is that the review must be influenced, not by previous attempts to reform the sector or by a raft of recently announced investigations (see box), but by how best to meet the needs of England’s most vulnerable children.

The key question, many say, is whether MacAlister and his team can break the ties with previous projects to deliver the “bold, broad” review the sector was promised by ministers.

ONGOING REVIEWS AND TIMESCALES

• SEND review; Department for Education

          Expected publication: early 2021

• Independent Review of Children’sSocial Care; chaired by Josh MacAlister

          Expected timescale: 12-15 months

• Study of children’s social care provision; Competition and Markets Authority

          Consultation closes 14 April 2021

• Children in care homes inquiry; education select committee

          Call for written evidence closes 23 April

• Spotlight inquiry into the care system; APPG for looked-after children and care leavers

          No timescale announced

• The role of public services in addressing child vulnerability; House of Lords

          Call for evidence closes 24 April

• The Childhood Commission; Children’s Commissioner for England

          Interim report due summer 2021

Source:
www.cypnow.co.uk

​A new Coram survey on public attitudes to children in care and care leavers is published today to mark the first Care Experienced History Month UK

The findings show that while most people are sympathetic to the challenges faced by children in care, some continue to hold negative judgements that potentially stigmatise care-experienced young people. The survey of over 2,000 UK adults finds that while 81% of those asked thought that children in care are neither a good nor bad influence on other children, around one in eight (12%) believe they are a bad influence.

The survey, undertaken for Coram by YouGov, also suggests evidence of some negative and stigmatising associations which risk reinforcing fixed stereotypes of care-experienced young people. When asked for the first three words that came to mind when thinking about ‘children in care’, most respondents reported negative terms. The most popular responses included the words “sad”, “poor”, “abused”, “vulnerable” and “orphan”, with other commonly reported terms including “unloved”, “trauma” and “troubled”.

The findings show that public attitudes are little changed on previous research carried out for Coram by YouGov in 2017, which found “lonely/loneliness”, “sad” and “troubled” to be among the most commonly reported terms to describe children in care.

Today’s survey, part-funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, also reveals that the majority of respondents had some awareness of the unique challenges that care leavers face, highlighting inadequate support into adulthood and difficulty accessing education and jobs. A majority of people (62% to 76%) also favoured a range of support measures for care-experienced young people including education, housing, financial, apprenticeships and mental health support.

The findings are published following the recent launch of Coram’s #RealStoriesOfCare campaign which showcases the personal stories of care-experienced young people today and through history. The campaign has been co-produced with care-experienced children and young people who identified that it would make a huge difference if the diverse experiences of care were more widely understood, with a balance of positive and negative aspects of care, instead of inaccurate or stigmatised perspectives which so often affect them.

Dr Carol Homden, CEO of Coram, said: “Whilst it is encouraging to see that a majority of people recognise the importance of specialist support for young care leavers, the findings also suggest a failure to see children in care and care leavers as individuals who are more than their label of being care experienced.

“Care-experienced children and young people have told us that negative associations can ‘follow them around’, undermining their efforts and limiting their potential. The government’s independent review of children’s social care is a timely opportunity for us all to hear young people’s voices, to ensure we portray their experiences in a more balanced light, and to celebrate their aspirations and achievements. The care-experienced young people working on Coram’s #RealStoriesOfCare campaign are sharing their own inspiring stories and working hard to challenge these limiting and stigmatising attitudes.”

Julian Brown, a care-experienced Ambassador for Coram’s Voices Through Time programme and the creator of the Foundling: Found podcast series, said: “We need to change the notion that those in care are always journeying through life being ‘scared’, ‘lonely’, ‘troubled’, ‘unloved’ and ‘unfortunate’. Just reading these words is degrading in itself. People assume that that is all we may feel or think and that a care-experienced young person’s life cannot improve - if we can change this message, then I believe we can change the public perception around those in care. I know from care-experienced people that I have spoken to that being care has been ‘life-saving’, ‘freedom’, a ‘second chance’ and a ‘life they never knew existed.” 

Read the full report

Source:
www.coram.org.uk