Memorandum submitted by the Department
for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)
1. Children should be supported in their
families wherever possible, but a small number of children will
need to be looked after by local authorities during their childhoods.
2. Programmes of work focusing on looked-after
children have been in place for several years as a result of key
reports such as the Utting Report (1997) and major initiatives
such as Quality Protects (1998-2004). These initiatives
focused on vulnerable children were developed further by the far
reaching agenda for improving outcomes for all children first
set out in the Every Child Matters Green Paper and developed
further in the Children's Plan. Central to those programmes is
the argument that better outcomes depend on the integration of
universal services with targeted and more specialised help, and
on bringing services together around the needs of the child and
their family.
3. Most looked-after children spend short
periods of time looked-after, so the care system should not be
seen in isolation from wider children's services. The numbers
of looked-after children have reduced in England in recent years,
but rates of entry in care differ between localities, as does
the quality of services. Of course, looked-after children access
both specialist and mainstream services, so the challenge for
reform is significant, and the wider changes mentioned above provide
a strong basis for future improvement.
4. The Care Matters Green Paper provides
a detailed analysis of the problems facing looked-after children
and the service challenges ahead. While it would be simplistic
to see the poor outcomes achieved by children in care simply as
a failure of the care system, it is clear that children's experiences
of care and of other services while they are in care do not always
do enough to compensate for the harm they have previously suffered
and, in some cases, compound it.
5. The Care Matters Green Paper can
be accessed at:
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/downloadableDocs/6731-DfES-Care%20Matters.pdf
6. A formal three month consultation followed
publication on the Green Paper, including specific consultation
events for children and young people. The Government published
a summary of the consultation response in April 2007.
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/conResults.cfm?consultationId=1406
7. Four independent working groups were
established to consider key questions posed in the Green Paper.
Lord Herbert Laming, who led the Victoria Climbié enquiry,
chaired a group looking at placement reform; Martin Narey, Chief
Executive of Barnardos, chaired a group which explored the characteristics
of the care population now and in the future; Dame Professor Pat
Collarbone, of the Training and Development Agency, chaired a
group looking at ways of ensuring that all looked-after children
receive the best possible education in schools; and Professor
Julian Le Grand, of the London School of Economics, chaired the
fourth group, which explored the feasibility of the social work
practice model. Reports from each of the working groups were published
in June 2007, alongside the White Paper Time For Change.
8. The White Paper Care Matters: Time
for Change was the culmination of this process, setting out
the Government's firm proposals for future reform of the care
system and services for children on the threshold of care, as
well as the changes we wanted to introduce in other services in
order to support improved outcomes for children in care. It is
built on four central principles:
— uncompromisingly high ambitions for
children in care;
— good parenting from everyone in the
system;
— stability in every aspect of the
child's experience; and
— the centrality of the voice of the
child.
9. The White Paper can be accessed at: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/timeforchange/
REFORMING
THE LEGISLATION
10. The Children and Young Persons Bill
is an essential part of the process of implementing Care Matters.
It makes the necessary legislative changes to underpin implementation.
It will:
— enable local authorities to test
a different model of organising social care by delegating social
work functions to "social work practices" and (following
piloting) enable regulation of social work practices if pilots
demonstrate success in improving outcomes;
— increase the focus on the transparency
and quality of care planning and ensuring that the child's voice
is heard when important decisions that affect their future are
taken, in particular by strengthening the role of the Independent
Reviewing Officer (IRO);
— increase schools' capacity to address
the needs of children in care including placing the role of the
designated teacher on a statutory footing and ensuring that children
in care do not move schools, particularly in GCSE years, except
in exceptional circumstances;
— ensure that young people (up to 18)
are not forced out of care before they are ready by giving them
a greater say over moves to independent living and ensuring they
retain support and guidance as long as they need it; and
— improve the quality and stability
of placements for children in care, limiting "out of authority"
placements, securing higher placement standards and ensuring children
in care in custody are visited regularly.
11. The Children and Young Persons Bill
can be accessed at:
www.dcsf.gov.uk/publications/childrenandyoungpersonsbill
12. Once regulations associated with the
new legislation have been laid, we will also take the opportunity
to update and consolidate the nine volumes of statutory guidance
for local authorities covering their duties under the Children
Act 1989, as amended by the current Bill and other legislation
that has been passed since the guidance was issued in the early
1990s. Volume one has recently been revised and reissued, and
the remaining volumes will be revised by the end of 2009. We are
also reviewing the National Minimum Standards for children's social
services and will be bringing those into line with the new regulatory
framework.
ACHIEVING CHANGE
ON THE
GROUND
13. Essential though this regulatory reform
is to our programme, it is only part of the picture. The analysis
in Care Matters is clear—while there are some excellent
initiatives in some areas of the country, and many dedicated professionals
working to improve services for children who are looked-after,
nobody does everything well. The challenge is to achieve greater
consistency of approach and of quality. Many challenges do not
lend themselves to a legislative solution.
14. We are well aware of the workforce challenges
in the children's social care workforce and how damaging social
worker turnover and ineffective basic practice can be for children.
Our forthcoming children's workforce strategy will include specific
proposals to improve the retention and recruitment, as well as
innovative approaches to improving the skills of the workforce.
15. Services for looked after children need
to be planned as part of a wider strategy on children's services,
so that local authorities and their partners understand more fully
the spectrum of needs of the population they serve, and commission
the right services for them. The challenge of securing the right
multi agency support for vulnerable children remains an issue
in many areas, despite some really excellent working.
16. The main challenge now is therefore
implementation. We have given local authorities their funding
allocations for the next three years, which include the change
fund to support Care Matters reforms. We are developing an implementation
plan to be launched in March which will focus on developing a
partnership approach to delivery of Care Matters, working with
key partner organisations in local government and the NHS, as
well as the voluntary sector. The implementation plan will be
focused on the practicalities of ensuring that we work together
to achieve noticeable and lasting change, learning from the areas
that are doing things well, and ensuring that those who are struggling
improve. Accompanying the plan will be a range of toolkits and
other materials to support local areas in assessing their services
against the approach set out in Care Matters and developing a
local change programme which helps them to use their change fund
to tackle the areas they identify as priorities for them. The
implementation plan will also include an update on the various
pilots that we are supporting following Care Matters, and further
information about the planned national stocktake. Once the plan
has been launched, we will run regional conferences for those
responsible for delivery in local authorities and health bodies
to disseminate the messages about delivery.
January 2008
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