Strategy to tackle issues in children’s social care simply doesn’t go far enough - Baroness Morris

In general, we have found that it does not.

Our report, published today, acknowledges much that is good about the strategy. The fundamental direction, towards helping children live with their parents or family networks, is clearly right. There is a focus on intervening earlier, and on helping wider family networks to look after their kin. Where that is not possible, the Government aims to attract and recruit additional foster carers to address the desperate shortage we face. So, there is much to commend.

The approaches, though, are too small, and too slow. The bulk of the actions within the strategy will not impact most people for a long time. Reforms will too often be introduced only on a trial basis, in only a few parts of the country. But our witnesses told us that the Government’s plans include tried and tested approaches – interventions we know work.

In other cases, the strategy commits only to ‘exploring’ approaches, and discussing possibilities with other Whitehall departments.

It is simply not enough. We have recommended that the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit be tasked with responsibility for driving implementation and drumming up the political will that will be necessary.

During the inquiry, we met with a group of young people who had experience of the care system. Many of them had had horrendous experiences and had been let down by the people who should have cared for them. We have made several recommendations that, if implemented, would help protect other young people in the future.

We have recommended that advocates, who are tasked with pressing the children’s best interests, should be truly independent so that they can speak truth to power when mistakes have been made.

We are clear that foster care recruitment processes should ensure that only those who are able to provide appropriate care for a child should be allowed to do so.

Sometimes an uncle, a grandma, or an older sibling, will care for a child when parents can’t. The strategy rightly recognises this and recognises that there are more positive outcomes for children who live with their extended family than for those who leave their families and are taken into care.

It is a system formally known as ‘kinship care’, and the strategy rightly provides some support for the adults. Far better for the child and the public purse than other forms of care. But it will not be available to those that are not recognised as ‘kinship carers’.

Making sure that informal arrangements are recognised, and eligible for support, is crucial. We recommend that a definition encompassing informal arrangements should be placed into law. The meeting with young people brought home to us just how unstable young lives could be. And the social care workforce, the people who make decisions about children’s care; has a huge retention problem. Children’s social workers are constantly changing. New faces and new names come in regularly.

One young person described going through social workers like tic tacs. This undermines any sense of stability for the young people and prevents trust from forming. Partly it is because the staff are overworked, underpaid, and compelled to take on an extreme caseload – it is too much, and so they move on. The Government has taken some sensible steps here, too – but again, they are unambitious and limited to certain areas.

There are significant gaps in the strategy. Residential care gets very little mention. The focus on families is positive, but there will always be children who need residential care. The Government must address standards.

But too often, because of a chronic shortage of places, local authorities must take what they can get. This means young people are often being placed far from their families, homes, and communities, and at an extremely high price to their “home” local authority. The Government’s approach to tackling this dual problem of sufficiency and profits, is to have it arranged regionally. We are not convinced that this change will result in better or more homes for young people, and we have urged the Government to consider other options. Many different young people told us that they had not felt listened to in the course of their care experience. We hope that our recommendations will help to ensure that other young people need not go through the same experiences. Now we need the Government to act upon them.

Baroness Morris of Yardley is chair of the House of Lords Public Services Committee.