Care Review: sector leaders set out their priorities for change

The government has launched its long-awaited Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in England. The “wholesale” review, promised in the Conservative Party’s 2019 general election manifesto, will be “bold, wide-ranging and will not shy away from exposing problems where they exist”, according to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.

Led by Josh MacAlister, the founder of the Frontline social work training scheme (see box), the review is set to “listen deeply” to the care-experienced population through an “experts by experience” group, planned to be at the heart of the project.

Here, professionals working with vulnerable children, sector leaders and charity chiefs set out the key areas they want the review to tackle.

Stabilise funding

With cuts to budgets for local authority children’s services estimated to be £2.2bn in the past decade and forecast to increase by a further £100m following the Covid-19 pandemic, stabilising funding for services for children in care and on the edge of care is high on the list of the sector’s priorities.

“Support for children and young people is too often determined by funding shortages, artificial barriers and systemic flaws rather than by the help children need,” says Mark Russell, chief executive of The Children’s Society.

“Early help services have been stripped back by councils in many areas due to funding pressures and it’s important this is addressed. Without timely support, children’s problems are more likely to escalate and increase demand on more expensive statutory services for those at crisis point.”

Jenny Coles, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, says investment in early help and an increased capacity to deliver national standards for the care system “will mean fewer children need to be in care but that those who do can flourish”.

Supported workforce

Coles also calls for increased plans for a “well-supported workforce” to support the most vulnerable through “high-quality support services”.

Latest government figures show an increase of 14 per cent in full-time equivalent children’s social workers employed by English local authorities between 2014 (26,810) and 2019 (30,700). Local authorities reported an average caseload per social worker in 2019 as 16.9, which is lower than the averages of 17.4 and 17.8 reported in 2018 and 2017 respectively, however, some local authorities, including North East Lincolnshire reported caseloads as high as 32.7 per social worker.

Mark Owers, co-author of the 2018 Review of Fostering in England and a member of the National Stability Forum, says the review must “prioritise the needs of frontline practitioners and managers”.

“To what extent do they feel safe, valued and trusted to enable them to be kind and compassionate to the children and families they serve,” adds Owers, now director of safeguarding and care in Jersey.

Terms of reference

According to the review’s terms of reference, the sustainability of current funding, workforce structures and resources will be a focus for the as yet unnamed review panel.

The document lists seven areas that will shape the review’s themes and questions: care; support; strengthening families; safety; delivery; sustainability and accountability. It states: “It is vital that recommendations are made following consideration of the key questions of sustainability and how social care funding, workforce and other resources can be used most effectively to change children’s lives and represent good value for money.”

However, specific areas of care likely to be explored by MacAlister and his team appear ambiguous.

The Department for Education vows to take “a fundamental look at the experiences of the people who matter most, children and young people themselves, and the services they receive through children’s social care and partner agencies”.

It also promises to “look at the whole system of support, safeguarding, protection and care, and the child’s journey into and out of that system, including relevant aspects of preventative services provided as part of early help”.

“This will include children throughout their interaction with children’s social care, from referral, child in need and child protection plans, through to becoming looked after,” it adds.

Post-care focus?

However, while the document states the review’s focus “should” include children in foster care, residential care and under kinship care arrangements it only suggests reviewers “may” want to focus on support offered to adopted children and those “preparing to leave care”.

David Graham, national director of the Care Leavers Association, expresses concern over the phrasing of the terms of reference, saying: “The review must focus on care leavers. For too long the leaving care part of the system has been the poor relation, with care and levels of support tapering off in relation to age not need. We would want the review to explore a ‘stage not age’ framework alongside a ‘right to remain right to return’ option.”

Charity Become, which supports children in care and care leavers, warns that too many children are facing a “care cliff” when they turn 18 despite care leavers being likely to achieve lower educational attainment and more at risk of entering the prison estate or becoming homeless (see graphic).

Support for carers

Meanwhile, foster care leaders have called on MacAlister to ensure it puts “foster care at its heart”.

Kevin Williams, chief executive of the Fostering Network, says foster carers are “holding up the weight of the care system, looking after almost three quarters of the children in care in England” (see graphic).

Williams has called for “a range of issues to be addressed to improve recognition of, and support for, foster carers and the children they care for, including a national register and standards for foster care”.

Meanwhile, Lucy Peake, chief executive of kinship care charity Grandparents Plus, has urged MacAlister to end “marginalisation” and “inequality” faced by around 150,000 relatives looking after children under kinship care arrangements.

“Kinship care has been marginalised for too long, receiving too little recognition, policy attention and funding. The current children’s social care system is riven with inequality, with too many children in kinship care and their carers locked out of systems that should be supporting them,” Peake adds.

It is not known how long the review is expected to take but those successful in securing a spot on the experts by experience panel have been asked to commit for a year. The Scottish Care Review, which published its findings a year ago, took three years to complete. Whether a similar lengthy process is needed to fully scrutinise the English system is unclear, but experts remain positive about the review’s potential.

“There are many more questions to ask and there will be some difficult hurdles for Josh and his team to overcome,” Owers says.

“I hope the many diverse stakeholders he will seek to work with approach the review with optimism to make the most of this opportunity.”

JOSH MACALISTER
WHO IS THE CARE REVIEW CHAIR?

After qualifying with a Masters in politics and social policy from the University of Edinburgh, Josh MacAlister (pictured) trained as a teacher through the TeachFirst scheme, working in a secondary school in Greater Manchester from 2009-11, before spending 18 months as head of department at Reddish Vale Academy.

After leaving education, MacAlister led a nine-month project for the Institute for Public Policy Research to create a “case for change” for a new approach to bring graduates into children’s social work. This led to him founding Frontline in 2013, which delivers fast-track training for children’s social workers. The scheme has been lauded by successive governments for the high calibre of graduates it attracts, but has drawn criticism from some over the amount of public funding it receives.

MacAlister will step down from his role as director of Frontline, however, critics have questioned his suitability as chair, citing his role as lead author on a Blueprint for Children’s Social Care, published by the Centre for Public Impact.

The blueprint’s “focus is on cutting red tape and focusing on the relationships between children, families and children’s professionals”. In it, MacAlister claims social worker caseloads could be cut by a fifth allowing them to spend more time face-to-face with families.

Others question MacAlister’s “close knit” links to government as the Department for Education funds Frontline to train new social workers and to work with existing social workers.

Children’s counsellor John Radoux, who also has experience of the care system, says government claims that MacAlister is an “independent” chair is a “denial of objective reality”, and adds: “He already influences and is harnessed to much of the government’s existing policy agenda.”

Carolyne Willow, director of children’s rights charity Article 39, says MacAlister’s work on the blueprint “which could have been subject to rigorous, independent scrutiny through this review” has left parts of the sector “wondering whether that vision is the shape of things to come”.

MacAlister has already confronted the criticism, writing on Twitter: “I ask that those who are sceptical to judge me by my actions. Helping to get children a decent and fair start in life has been the focus of my career and that’s what will drive this review.”