​Minister tells sector leaders that rollout of regional commissioning will be sped up and it will become future model for care system, replacing local authority-based purchasing and provision.

Regional care co-operatives (RCCs) are to take responsibility for children's placements across England from individual local authorities, Josh MacAlister has said.

The children's minister told sector leaders that the government would speed up the rollout of RCCs and saw them as "the future basis for creating homes for children in care", in a speech last week.

RCCs were conceived of by MacAlister in his 2021-22 Independent Review of Children's Social Care as a response to the insufficiency of appropriate local placements for looked-after children. They then became part of the Conservatives' children's social care reform agenda, from 2023-24, and were subsequently taken up by the current Labour government on its election last year.

Click here to read the full article from Community Care 

Children's minister pledges comprehensive measures to reverse decline in foster care recruitment, after declaring ambition to give children choice over placements.

Children’s minister Josh MacAlister has promised “major changes” to England’s fostering system, backed by “tens of millions of pounds” in funding.

He said he would be soon be bringing forward “a comprehensive set of measures” to “boost the numbers of foster carers and the types of foster care that children need”, adding that it was a “personal priority” for him as minister.

MacAlister’s comments, made in a parliamentary debate last week, followed his recent call for children in care to have a choice of where and with whom they lived, enabled by a surge in foster care recruitment.

Click here to read the full article 

A “landmark” study has been launched to inform the design of future mental health support for care-experienced children and young people.

The 18-month ‘Collage’ project will explore the existing barriers and resources for those aged 13 to 25 seeking help for mental health problems, which academics say is "essential to designing support that truly meets their needs".

The project is co-produced with children and young people “as partners in shaping the research” as well as being participants, the researchers state.

The study, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Programme for Social Care, will also look in-depth at the experience of those who are LGBTQ+, racially minoritised, neuro divergent, or disabled. 

With around one in three young people with diagnosable mental health conditions accessing services – exacerbated by barriers like instability, disrupted relationships, and gaps in care – the research will fill a “critical gap” in understanding, according to academics.

Click here to read the full article

The development of a National Care Offer to ensure councils offer a consistent standard of financial and housing support to care leavers is among a raft of recommendations made by an influential group of MPs.

The measures are needed to “fix children’s social care and restore care leaver life chances”, according to the Education Committee report published today (10 July).

As described by the Department for Education in evidence to the committee, care leavers have “some of the worst long-term life outcomes in society across health, housing, education and employment”.

The report highlights how a third of young people are homeless within two years of leaving care.

Click here to read the full article

Overstretched children’s social care services, in the face of rising need, has led to an alarming number of children leaving the care system and becoming homeless, not in employment or not in education. 

A new report by the Education Committee on the children’s social care sector makes a series of recommendations on issues affecting all types of care, including foster care, adoption, kinship care, children’s homes, and support for disabled children. MPs are urging the Government to act now on these recommendations, which they believe are essential to transforming the life chances of young adults leaving the care system. 

Across England, the number of looked-after children stood at 83,630 in 2024 – an increase of over 20% since 2014. Outcomes for young people who leave the care system are also poor. 39% of care leavers aged 19–21 are not in education, training or employment and a third of care leavers become homeless within two years of leaving care. 

The rising level of demand on local authority children’s services departments has been attributed to rising poverty, cost of living pressures, and a decrease in funding for early intervention programmes.  

Click here for the full article and report links

In April 2025, councils and their partners started rolling out reforms to children's social care, which have subsequently faced significant criticism from social work experts. We look at what they mean for practitioners.

In recent months, leading social work academics Eileen Munro and Ray Jones have levelled significant criticisms at the government’s reforms to family support and child protection, which councils and their partners have been implementing since April of this year.

Jones said he believed they would increase the number of child protection cases and reduce support to families, contrary to their aims, while Munro warned the reforms were “very likely to fail”, due to the scale of change and what she saw as a lack of testing.

Click here to read the full article 

A £1.1 billion boost for children’s social care announced in Chancellor Rachel Reeves' Spending Review has received a mixed reaction from the sector.

The sums fall “disappointingly short” of the £2.6bn recommended in 2022 by the Independent Review of Children's Social Care for whole-system reform, said the Children’s Charites Coalition, comprising Action for Children, Barnardo’s, National Children’s Bureau, NSPCC and The Children’s Society, with the proviso that the direction of the money marks an “encouraging shift” away from costly crisis management.

The investment is made up of £555 million over the three-year review period from 2026/27, on top of the £500mn announced earlier this year for family help services.

Click here to read the full article

​Rachel Reeves announces £1.1bn more for children's social care reform and care placements up to 2029, while maintaining existing investment in family help and child protection, in settlement hailed by care review lead
By Mithran Samuel on June 12, 2025 in Children, Social work leaders

Extra funding for children’s social care reform in the spending review shows the government is delivering on the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care’s recommendations, according to the backbench Labour MP who led the inquiry.
​
Frontline founder Josh MacAlister said the funding for reform announced by chancellor Rachel Reeves, up to 2028-29, took total spending allocated to overhauling children’s social care since 2023 up to the £2.6bn he said was required to transform the system in his review, which reported in 2022.

The extra funding was also hailed by chief social worker for children and families Isabelle Trowler, while receiving a cautious, but positive, welcome from sector bodies.

Click here to read to full article

Former javelin world record holder Fatima Whitbread has challenged the government to overhaul the care system in England to improve outcomes for children and young people, following a two-day summit last week.

Care experienced people, professionals and sector leaders came together at the One Voice Summit, organised by Whitbread’s charity, Fatima’s UK Campaign, to discuss a draft white paper on reforming the care system.

The document calls for a minister for children in care and care leavers, for being a care leaver to be a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, providing protection against discrimination, and the extension of the statutory care age up to 25, among 14 action points.

Click here to read the full article

A specialist course believed to be the first of its kind is being launched for foster carers of children who have suffered traumatic experiences.

The University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich will run the pilot therapeutic fostering programme, aimed at carers in the east of England, but it was hoped the course would be offered nationally in future.

It said 7,000 children were in council care in the region and there was an urgent need to provide foster carers with the skills to respond to complex behaviour.

Dr Mark Gregory, from the UEA, said foster carers' ability to "understand the impact of trauma on children and young people's behaviour is crucial".

Click here to read the  full article