This Tuesday, St Mary's Church in Cheadle hosted the Together Trust's Christmas carol concert. Parents, carers, and staff were moved by touching readings and performances by children and young people from the Together Trust's services.

Led by Rev. George Crowder, the evening began with 'Once In Royal David's City' and included classics like 'Away in a Manger' and 'Silent Night', alongside modern favourites like 'Last Christmas' and 'Jingle Bells'. Children and staff shared prayers and poems, filling the church with holiday spirit.

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​On 18 November 2024, the government issued a press release announcing plans for major reforms to address years of neglect within the children’s social care system. 

We’ve proudly been a member of the Keep Caring to 18 steering group since February 2021. We firmly believe that all children in care should receive care where they live until at least the age 18.

As part of the Keep Caring to 18 group, we are calling on the government to end the wilful neglect of teenagers in care. 

The timeline below outlines key legal and policy developments spanning over a quarter of a century – from the landmark 1998 ‘Dobson Letter’ to councils, to secondary legislation introduced in 2023 that allows homes not providing care for children aged 16 and 17 to operate legally.  

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​On 18 November 2024, the government issued a press release announcing plans for major reforms to address years of neglect within the children’s social care system. 

We’ve proudly been a member of the Keep Caring to 18 steering group since February 2021. We firmly believe that all children in care should receive care where they live until at least the age 18.

As part of the Keep Caring to 18 group, we are calling on the government to end the wilful neglect of teenagers in care. 

The timeline below outlines key legal and policy developments spanning over a quarter of a century – from the landmark 1998 ‘Dobson Letter’ to councils, to secondary legislation introduced in 2023 that allows homes not providing care for children aged 16 and 17 to operate legally.  

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2024 Budget - What does it mean for us?

On 30 October, Rachel Reeves MP, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered the Budget Statement in the House of Commons.

We’ve highlighted some of the key findings and how they relate to our campaign goals below.

Children’s social care 
£600 million of new funding for local authorities to support social care
An additional £250 million in 2025/26 aimed at testing measures to support children who need social care.  

The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care  in 2022 recommended £2.6 billion over four years for a comprehensive reform program, highlighting the need for systemic change. Therefore, the proposed funding allocation is insufficient to address the ongoing crisis in children's social care.

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We're delighted to announce that we have appointed Melanie Dunn as our new Chief Executive!

Our charity, which has almost 50 services across the North West, delivering individual care, support and education to thousands of people and their families each year, has been led by Mark Lee for over a decade. He announced his retirement earlier this year for the end of December 2024.

“After 11 wonderful years working at the Together Trust and having the privilege to meet some many wonderful people, I am delighted to pass on that pleasure to our new Chief Executive, Melanie Dunn,” shares retiring Chief Executive Mark Lee.

During his time at Together Trust, Mark Lee has led the Trust through nationally difficult times and strived for growth when the people the charity supports required more diverse and specialist services, including the development of the charity’s campaigning arm to advocate against the daily discrimination, hardship and barriers that people in the community face.

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​As we celebrate World Mental Health Day, we want to update you on the Together Trust campaigns team’s priorities for improving mental health support, and the key commitments the government has made.

In response to the Major Conditions Strategy (June 2023), we urged the government to create a dedicated mental health strategy for children in care and care-experienced individuals, and to address the risk factors that contribute to poor mental health.

The Labour government has since made significant commitments to tackle the broader determinants of mental health. This includes developing a Child Poverty Strategy, led by a new ministerial taskforce co-chaired by the Work & Pensions Secretary and the Education Secretary.

We were also encouraged by the announcement of the Children’s Wellbeing Bill in the 2024 King’s Speech. This upcoming legislation aims to place children's wellbeing at the core of both education and social care, ensuring that every child is safe, healthy, happy, and treated fairly. As the Bill is still in its early stages, we have an opportunity to influence its development.

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Last year, in collaboration with The Observer, we conducted an investigation revealing that over 700 children in the UK are living in unregistered accommodation. Alarmingly, 2 in 3 of these children are under 16.

On 18 September, our research was featured on BBC Radio 4 by Andy Smith, president of ADCS.
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Background
Most children in care are placed with foster carers or in registered children's homes. However, an increasing number are being placed in unregistered homes, which are illegal (Croxton, 2024). Shockingly, the number of such homes has risen by 277% over the past three years.

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Mark Lee, Chief Executive of charity Together Trust, announced this month his upcoming retirement in December 2024.

After 11 years at the Together Trust and three decades committed to the social care sector, Mark Lee reflects that, although it was a difficult decision, he now wanted to spend more time with his family. 

“What I’ve enjoyed most about working at the Together Trust is the sense of camaraderie and purpose,” says Mark Lee. 

“At the heart of everything we do are the people we support, their families, carers, and all the staff who put their time and effort, beyond what you would expect someone to do, working together to try and improve lives year on year.”

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On 17 July, the new government announced through the King’s Speech their priorities for the United Kingdom over the next five-years.

But what we want to know is – what are yours?

Let us know in this short survey

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This week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared 4th July as the date for the next general election.  

Parliament is set to be dissolved on the 30th of May, and the vote will occur 25 working days later.  

In light of this announcement, we want to highlight the key commitments we expect to see from the next government, whichever political party is voted in. 

What are some of the changes we want to see? 

Children's social care  

1. All children in care to receive care where they live  
2. Action to end the practice of children living in unregistered (illegal) homes 
3. At least 2.6bn investment in the children’s social care system, with dedicated early intervention to help families in crisis 
4. Full incorporation of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child 
5. A commitment to addressing high levels of relative child poverty in the UK  

All children in care to receive care  
We have been members of the Keep Caring to 18 steering group since February 2021.  

In March 2024, our Policy, Public Affairs, and Campaigns Manager, Lucy Croxton, gave evidence to the Education Committee at Parliament as part of a panel on children's social care. 

Our position is clear, we believe that all children in the care system should receive care where they live until they are at least 18.   

Following data we gathered with journalist Tom Wall being published in the Observer and bringing national attention to the issue of children in care living in illegal homes, we’d also like to see a joint national strategy from Ofsted, the Department for Education (DfE) and other relevant government departments to end the use of unregistered accommodation for children once and for all.  

Due to the impact of inflation and the additional costs stemming from delaying reform to the care system, we will need to see more than the original £2.6bn figure requested by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care. So far, only £200 million has been allocated by our current government. A significant amount of the new funding should go to dedicated early intervention help, so that children can be supported to be cared for in their families wherever safe to do so. 

Alongside this, we want to see the full incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Child (UNCRC) as the most comprehensive declaration of children’s rights. This would create a mechanism to ensure that children’s voices and ambitions are at the heart of policymaking and put children in England on equal footing with those in Scotland, Norway and Sweden.  

We also want to see a commitment from any new government to address drivers of relative child poverty in the UK. Child poverty has been shown to increase the likelihood of children being taken into care (Bennett, 2022). 

Source:
www.togethertrust.org.uk