“I love to learn and be around other children every day. I miss my old friends, which makes me feel sad. I have been looking forward to making new ones, so I don’t feel lonely.”
These are the words of an 11-year-old boy, ‘Jack’, who contacted my advice and support service, Help at Hand. Jack, whose story is captured in detail in this report, had been in care for many years and at the time he got in touch with my team, had been out of school for four months as professionals argued back and forth over how best to support him – ultimately failing to find him an appropriate school place for seven months.
His words illustrate precisely why Help at Hand, made up of just three child’s rights experts, is such a vital lifeline for so many children, especially those living away from their loved ones, or whose social care placements have broken down and the services around them are unable to reach an effective solution that meets their needs.
The role of the Children’s Commissioner is set out in statute as promoting and protecting the rights of all children, with particular regard to children who are living away from home or receiving social care services. This includes children who are in care, leaving care, staying in hospital, or remanded in youth custody, as well as children in need who are living with their families. Help at Hand fulfils the Children’s Commissioner’s statutory duty as set out under section 2D of the Children Act 2004 to intervene on behalf of these children to provide advice, assistance, and representation. This responsibility is fulfilled by the Commissioner’s Help at Hand service.
While the scope of Help at Hand’s advocacy has not changed in the last 10 years, its caseload continues to grow rapidly year on year. This year, my team of three advisors handled more than 1,100 new cases – an increase of nearly 20% from the previous year. These come from children in unsafe or unsuitable care placements to those navigating homelessness or immigration systems, while highlighting the system-wide changes required to prevent such cases in the future. One quarter of the cases supported by Help at Hand related to housing concerns, while 21% relate to complaints about support from a public service, 12% relating to care leaver support and 11% relating to education.
The involvement of Help at Hand in a child’s case can be transformative. Some of the real-life stories of children who contacted the service are featured in this report – they illustrate just why support from a collaborative group of services across education, health and care is essential. Too often, my team and I see examples where, instead of putting the child at the centre of a solution and asking ‘how can we help you?’, the professionals involved dither and delay with decisions, shift responsibility back and forth and focus too narrowly on the problems to be overcome.
More than 29,000 children in care currently live in local authorities judged to be less than good by Ofsted. This casual tolerance of low standards would simply never be allowed in the education sector, where I spent 30 years of my career. Failure in children’s social care means putting a child’s safety and wellbeing, perhaps even their life, at risk – this is not acceptable.
For so many of the children who contact Help at Hand, the conversations with one of my team at the end of the phone may be the first time an adult has properly listened to them, much less advocated on their behalf. In the majority of cases, Help at Hand’s support can change these children’s lives: they remain in a loving home surrounded by people who care for them, or a false debt that should never have been given to them is written off, or they return to education with a suitable school place. These children’s experiences are at the heart of my work as Children’s Commissioner. With a system that is set up to properly meet children’s needs, perhaps the work of Help at Hand might become less urgent. Until then, their stories will continue highlighting where there are gaps in the system, where children are repeatedly being failed by those with power over their lives, and where reform is urgently needed to help children achieve and thrive.
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