Earlier this month I published a new report setting out in one place the reforms I believe are urgently needed to raise standards and outcomes for the country’s most vulnerable children, those in or on the edge of care. Today’s statistics from the Department for Education showing that the number of children with a social worker has risen to over 402,000 underline this urgency.
In the four years since becoming Children’s Commissioner in March 2021, and with just over 16 months left to go in my term, I wanted to look at what has changed for children living in care – there has been much to acknowledge, beginning with the 2022 independent review of children’s social care led by now Children’s Minister Josh McAlister.
But too much of this activity has been piecemeal rather than a joined-up, ambitious look at what will bring the biggest benefits to the biggest number of children. It has resulted in some positive changes for some children – but we can do so much better.
Children’s social care must no longer be treated as the junior partner in the services that improve children’s lives. That was a major theme of my recent School Census, which found that school leaders tend to be more concerned about wider services in their children’s lives, those outside the school gates, than their own funding or capacity. Education leaders are acknowledging what many of us have known for some time now: that if we are to give our most vulnerable children equal opportunities to achieve and thrive as their peers, we need services that work together and treated with equal importance by policy makers.
My report based on the census, The Children’s Plan: Vision for Care, makes clear that standards in children’s social care have been allowed to languish for too long in a way that would never be tolerated in the education system – despite the best efforts of the many thousands of dedicated professionals working in the sector. That alone was and remains one of the biggest motivations in taking on the job of Children’s Commissioner.
Safe and sufficient accommodation
For too long, the system designed to protect and support our most vulnerable children has been stretched to its limits. My report last year on Illegal Children’s Homes revealed that on one day alone, 775 children, some as young as ten, were living in unregistered, illegal settings, including caravans. As I made clear at the time of the report, this is wholly unacceptable and should be seen as a national scandal.
Even in local authorities rated good or better, there have been breaches of children’s rights with children being moved out of loving foster homes and placed in accommodation where they cannot legally receive care – often for cost-saving reasons. Concerningly, some 16 and 17-year-olds are not even being brought into care but instead treated as homeless. We cannot be in a situation where older children in care are treated as adults – especially those who have had difficult, often traumatic childhoods. They are still children. They deserve protection, stability and love.
Across the country, siblings are being separated due to lack of space for them to remain together. Sibling bonds can be vital in childhood, yet too often these important bonds are broken without good reason – these family connections must be enshrined in law, so that siblings are placed together wherever possible and that contact is protected.
Children in care are frequently missing out on education when they fall under the radar of professionals. Care must not end at 18, every child in care must be in a setting where they can legally receive care, not just support – and no young person should face a cliff edge on entering legal adulthood, just when they most need guidance and security.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Children Act
The time to act is now. While there is no silver bullet that would address all of the ongoing issues in the care system, incorporating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child would be a major step forward in how we protect children’s rights – and protect childhood itself.
Many of the Convention’s principles are reflected in laws like the Children Act 1989. Full incorporation would make those rights directly enforceable, meaning public bodies must also uphold children’s rights in every decision they make and every service they deliver.
We must also ensure our laws are fit for the next generation. As a landmark piece of legislation, the Children Act 1989 has undoubtedly improved the lives of children, but the world in which children are growing up has changed. Today, many children face harm outside the home – through exploitation and grooming – and professionals are having to adapt and stretch outdated laws to protect them. A new Act must recognise these modern risks and equip services to respond effectively.
Standards of children’s services
Consistency must be at the heart of reforms to children’s social care. At present, the help a child receives is too often dependent on the capacity or quality of services where they live, or even who answers the phone on the day they seek help. This simply isn’t good enough. Moving forward there must be a national threshold for intervention and clear entitlements to support that make the system fairer and more transparent for every child who needs help.
Disabled children deserve dignity and care. The current legal definitions when it comes to supporting a child with disabilities are outdated and offensive, failing to reflect modern understanding, language or a child’s experience.
Every child deserves equal protection from harm – that is non-negotiable, yet a legal defence still exists that treats children as lesser than adults, or even animals. That defence of “reasonable punishment” to an accusation of assault sends a terrible message about children’s rights, offering greater protection to an adult than a child. No child should live in fear or have fewer protections from assault than an adult. I want that defence removed as a matter of urgency.
Reforms must also extend to inspection and accountability, with a single, trusted local framework, judging outcomes across social care, SEND and family services. This would create clearer responsibility for every child’s wellbeing – every professional should be accountable for keeping the most vulnerable children in their area safe.
Support for families
We need strong family support, including Family Hubs in every area, and reforms to reduce child poverty, including scrapping the two-child limit and ending the five-week wait for support from Universal Credit.
For those in care, every child deserves a loving, family-based home where they feel loved. This means a national foster care recruitment plan, ending profit-making in residential care, and ensuring every placement is built around love and stability.
Finally, every young person leaving care must be supported to thrive – with priority housing, council tax exemption, and access to the higher Universal Credit rate from 18.
We have a once in a generation moment to build a system founded on children’s rights, focused on consistency, and surrounded by love. Only then can we give every child the security and hope they deserve.
