Inquiry reveals social care system is failing to meet children's needs

The all-party parliamentary group for children (APPGC) last week published the findings of its year-long inquiry into children's social care services.

Co-chaired by Conservative MP and former children's minister Tim Loughton and Baroness Howarth, the inquiry held six hearings between April and October 2016, taking evidence from 25 children's social care experts including chief children's social worker Isabelle Trowler, Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) president Dave Hill, Ofsted social care national director Eleanor Schooling and children's commissioner for England Anne Longfield.

In addition, there were 62 written submissions including from 17 councils and 26 charities.

The inquiry report, No Good Options, distils its findings into seven key areas: the rise in demand for services; levels of funding; the impact that service rationing is having on children's outcomes and access to early help; the variation between different areas in levels of provision; how workforce problems are resulting in instability in placements and relationships; accountability for the system and improvement support; and the participation of children and young people in decision making.

Meeting needs

At an event to launch the report last week, social care experts who gave evidence to the inquiry debated the extent to which funding and demand changes have increased pressures on children's services (see panel).

Most agreed that the system was in, or close to, crisis point, citing figures from the report that show initial contacts, child protection plans and children in care cases have all risen significantly between 2010 and 2015, while funding levels have stayed largely the same (see box, opposite).

The inquiry concluded that local authorities are too often failing to provide early help for struggling families, statutory support for children in need and statutory support for young people in care.

It cites recent Ofsted figures that show that across local authorities, for every £1 spent on preventative help, £4 is spent on reactive child protection work.

"The result is a shift towards late intervention where needs have often escalated significantly before any support is put in place," states the report. "This often results in more children being taken into care and, ultimately, poorer outcomes."

The APPGC has called on the Department for Education and Department for Communities and Local Government to review resourcing of children's social care, and says the government should incentivise councils to invest in early intervention.

Loughton says one way this could be done is to apply the principles used in the Troubled Families programme more widely in children's social care.

"There are considerable financial and social costs to save downstream," he says. "If we do something now, we may prevent a negative outcome for that child. That's the language the Treasury understands."

No Good Options says the crisis being created by rises in demand without commensurate funding is seeing large numbers of referrals being rejected, particularly in the most deprived areas with the greatest pressures.

The inquiry cites an ADCS survey that found 89 per cent of councils are finding it increasingly difficult to fulfil their statutory duties to support children in need under section 17 of the Children Act 1989.

Postcode lottery

The report highlights "significant variation" in application of the law and "wildly different approaches" to early intervention, identification of children in need, and rates of children being taken into care, which cannot be explained by differences in demographics or funding.

For example, the average rate of referrals to children's services in 2015/16 was 532 per 10,000 children, but three local authorities had less than half this rate, while two had more than double. Similar variations were seen in child in need and child protection plan activity by councils. Meanwhile, for looked-after children, six local authorities had half or less than the national average rate of 60 per 10,000 children, while three had double or more than the national average.

It concludes that local policy decisions are leading directly to "stark contrasts" in children's outcomes, including the likelihood they will be taken into care.

Loughton says the issue shows a key problem for children's services - the inconsistent application of statutory duties across the country.

The APPGC has called on the DfE to commission an independent inquiry to investigate the variations in access to children's services across England and the impact this is having on outcomes for children.

The inquiry also heard evidence about the impact that the high turnover of social workers in some parts of the country has on children's outcomes. In some children's services departments, a third of the workforce are agency staff, as a result of high numbers of posts being unfilled and sickness levels.

The APPGC says the DfE should develop a strategy to reduce churn in the social care workforce and wants councils to co-operate regionally on standardising payment levels for agency staff.

Accountability and improvement

The inquiry also heard that there was little correlation between the amount an authority spent on children in need and their Ofsted rating for children's services. National Audit Office figures showed that average reported spend on a child in need ranged from £340 in one authority to £4,970 in another, with some high-spending areas being "inadequate".

It concluded that the existing system to support struggling departments often fails to drive improvement and can sometimes lead to a "period of instability" as a result of staff and leaders departing. This can filter down to children and families, it adds.

"What is required is strong, stable leadership bolstered by external support," the report states, adding that the government should adopt a more flexible approach to intervening in failing services and develop an outcomes framework to help drive practice improvements.

Loughton says more emphasis should be placed on supporting councils before problems become entrenched, while sector-led improvement programmes should play a greater role.

Report from www.ncb.org.uk


Rise in care demand

29%
rise in children on child protection plans between 2010/11 and 2015/16

17%
rise in the number of children entering care over the same period

2%
rise in children's services spending by councils over the same period

Source: Department for Education, looked-after children data 2016; Section 251 returns

Social care experts respond to the inquiry findings on funding, demand, participation and system accountability

Ashley McDougall, director, National Audit Office:

"There has been a 65 per cent rise in the number of initial contacts with local authorities in the last 10 years, but the number of referrals and assessments are broadly flat. The problem is the nature of the workload. Both child at risk investigations and child protect plans have gone up and the workload is getting more complex.

Spending on children's services is rising, but it is a question of where you spend your money. Not enough is known about what is spent and how it needs to be spent in different ways. An interesting question is: what is the early intervention that will stop a problem escalating? The new What Works Centre will help find the evidence on what the balance of spending is.

There is no correlation between Ofsted rating and the amount spent on children in need. Some are spending £1,500 [per child] to get a ‘good' judgment and others £3,500 to get ‘requires improvement'. It is about how you spend the money and understanding why that is the right way to spend it. We need to understand more about why variation between authorities occurs."

Ray Jones, emeritus professor of social work, Kingston University and St George's University of London:

"This is an important report, but it gives a baseline view from 2010, when the trends we see today started to happen after the Baby Peter case in 2008.

Since then, section 47 child protection investigations have gone up 93 per cent; child protection case conferences have increased 63 per cent; child protection plans have risen 72 per cent; and care proceedings have gone up 105 per cent. It's a colossal increase in workload, not just for social workers but everyone involved with children.

We're spending more on the child protection system and children in care, the numbers of which have gone up from 60,000 to 71,000. At the same time universal spending across the sector has gone down.

The story being told is that local authorities are failing and social work is inadequate - the narrative is about quality and competence. I'm not hearing much about capacity. Children's services are in crisis and are being overwhelmed, but it is being reflected back that they are not competent. That has to be challenged."

Anne Longfield, children's commissioner for England:

"The report highlights the issue of stability for children.

The impact on children of instability in care placements is something that we have been emphasising. It means children have to retell their story time and again; that they don't really know the people that are there to help with decision making; and that those advocating for you are not trusted to make those decisions.

From our research, 50 per cent of children in care didn't know why they were in care, while less than half said they knew how to access an advocate when they needed to raise concerns about their care. In addition, 30 per cent didn't know if they left care at the right time.

Significant numbers of looked-after children felt their wishes weren't taken into account at the time decisions were made about moving placement.

Children in care councils are doing a good job of representing looked-after children's views, but access to advocates and independent reviewing officers was inconsistent. Too many young people said they simply didn't know about them."

Eleanor Schooling, national director for social care, Ofsted:

"Local authorities do not become inadequate on the day we arrive: these are places where there are piles of unallocated cases and a huge amount of churn in staff. When we go in most social workers will say 'finally something is going to happen about this'. The corporate leaders and chief executive officers are the ones that appoint staff.

Funding helps, but there are plenty of good choices local authorities can make.

The local authority needs to make sure social workers' caseloads are reasonable and can be coped with. They need technology that helps rather than hinders. Managers need to help staff to control the system and not be overwhelmed by it. Practice leaders must ensure they help workers to learn the skills to support families.

There's been a focus on process, and it is important, but more emphasis was needed on what happens to these children.

There has been a tendency for innovation funding to be in places rated 'good', but it is important that we have confidence in areas that are improving."