4 Conclusion
100. Our inquiry suggests that the Government's January
2014 reforms are a welcome step in the right direction towards
improving the safety and welfare of children in residential homes.
However, as the Government has acknowledged, further change is
needed and we hope that our report has provided a useful indication
of some of the issues that still need to be addressed.
101. Some of these issues will not be resolved simply
by changing the rules and guidance. Changing the culture in children's
homes, and encouraging collaborative working by authorities and
other agencies, is not simply a question of amending the rule
book. Non-regulatory solutions are also required, and when regulations
are made, they need to be properly implemented and enforced. The
changes introduced by the Government must form part of a national
strategy for care provision, encompassing residential care as
well as other types of care, and informed by assessments of need.
102. It is vital to remember that these policies
and regulations serve some of the most vulnerable children in
society. The Children's Commissioner for England, Dr Maggie Atkinson,
reminded us that children in residential care "are our children;
they are the children of the state".[117]
Residential care can be a force for good in the lives of these
children. It is the responsibility of all to ensure that it reaches
the highest possible standards to help and protect children and
young people in need. We trust that the Government will keep this
principle at the heart of its reforms.
Conclusions and recommendations
Introduction
DFE CO-OPERATION WITH COMMITTEE
1. We regret the failure of the Department
for Education to provide us with the responses received to its
consultations in good time without good reason. We recommend that
a clear protocol be established for the provision of such responses
in future. (Paragraph
9)
GOVERNMENT'S REFORM PROGRAMME
2. We welcome the Government's reforms
to the residential care rules and its plans for a wider programme
of change. We believe that the Government is addressing the main
challenges facing the sector and that its proposals should noticeably
strengthen the safeguarding and welfare of children in residential
care. (Paragraph
13)
GOVERNMENT'S REFORMS IN CONTEXT
Placement stability
3. Placement stability is a crucial factor
in determining positive outcomes for children in care. We accept
that young people living in residential placements can be a particularly
troubled and challenging group. However, we recommend that the
Government supplements its proposals for regulatory reform with
a wider programme of reform to improve placement stability. This
should incorporate changes to the care planning system and assessment
processes to ensure that each individual placement matches the
needs of each individual child and that a series of short-term
moves is avoided. It should also improve the mechanisms for ensuring
that the views and wishes of children in care are both heard and
acted upon. (Paragraph
24)
NATIONAL STRATEGY AND POSITIVE USE OF RESIDENTIAL
CHILDREN'S HOMES
4. We recommend that the Government develops
a national strategy for care provision, with residential care
reconsidered within that context, informed by assessments of need
at local, regional and national level. This should also aim to
re-position residential care as a positive choice for the right
children and young people in the right circumstances. (Paragraph
31)
CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP
5. The culture and leadership of children's
homes is an area which deserves much greater attention. The Government
has put together a working group to help generate proposals for
the training and development of the children's homes workforce
by summer 2014. We recommend that, as part of this exercise, the
working group considers the best ways of ensuring that staff and
managers have the skills and outlook necessary to create a culture
which promotes the safety and welfare of children living in residential
homes. (Paragraph 37)
COMPLIANCE WITH EXISTING REGULATIONS AND GUIDANCE
6. Changing the residential care rules
will only improve outcomes for children in care if those rules
are effectively implemented. The Government's longer term plans
to reform the regulatory and inspection framework must address
the compliance issues raised in evidence to this inquiry, including
the provision of return interviews. (Paragraph
48)
Provision, placements and the voice of the child
CHILDREN'S HOMES
Collaboration between homes and other agencies
7. Whilst the Government appears confident
that its reform programme will encourage providers, authorities
and other services to work together more closely, a significant
number of those on the frontline are more sceptical about this.
We recommend that the Government monitors very closely the effects
that its reforms are having on collaboration between children's
homes and other agencies. (Paragraph
50)
The planning system
8. We recommend that the Government carries
out a review of the planning system to assess the potential role
that it might play in ensuring that children's homes are located
in safe and suitable areas. (Paragraph
58)
9. It is a matter of great concern to us that
there are children's homes situated in areas where the risk to
the safety of young people is increased considerably. The new
area risk assessments are intended to assist in identifying where
homes are in unsuitable or dangerous locations and preventing
children being placed in such homes. Given the importance of this
issue, we recommend that the Government closely monitors the impact
of the new risk assessments and how they are used and reports
back to this Committee within a year. The Government should be
prepared to bring forward further reforms if the evidence indicates
that current measures are not adequately addressing the problem.
(Paragraph 59)
CLOSURE AND RECEIVERSHIP
10. We welcome the Minister's willingness
to consider placing a duty on a receiver to have regard to the
welfare of children placed in a bankrupt children's home. We expect
the DfE to set out a course of action in its response to this
report. (Paragraph
67)
OVER-CRIMINALISATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN CARE
11. We recommend that the Government works
with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) to develop
a national protocol for residential children's homes that follows
the protocol for schools whereby school managers and staff, rather
than the police, are given responsibility for dealing with behavioural
incidents involving children on a school site in the first instance.
(Paragraph 71)
OUT-OF-AUTHORITY PLACEMENTS AND COMMISSIONING
Distant out-of-authority placements and the "sufficiency
duty"
12. We strongly endorse the view that, except
where it is clearly in the interests of that individual child
to move out of the area, local authorities should provide a placement
as close as possible to the child's home and that they should
have sufficient placements within their own area or that of their
neighbouring authorities to fulfil this requirement. We will closely
scrutinise the next DfE Data Pack for an indication of whether
the current reforms are having the desired effect in reducing
the numbers of children given distant placements.
(Paragraph 81)
13. To go further, we recommend that the Government
commissions a study, assessing the impact of a rule prohibiting
local authorities from placing a child more than 20 miles from
home, unless there is a proven need to do so. (Paragraph
82)
COMMISSIONING CONSORTIA
14. The Government should do more to encourage
the creation of commissioning consortia, particularly consortia
that take account of local health structures as recommended by
the Expert Group.
(Paragraph 91)
LISTENING TO CHILDREN
15. Many of our witnesses emphasised that,
alongside formal qualifications, personality, interpersonal skills
and experience are important factors in making for good residential
care workers. We agree that if children in care played a greater
role in selecting care workers, they would be more likely to find
staff that they could relate to. We recommend that the Government
works with local authorities and children's homes providers to
set up pilots where children in care are given a greater role
in selecting their care workers. (Paragraph
99)
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