Six reasons Care Review reforms need strengthening to succeed

An inquiry by the parliamentary education committee analysing the government’s response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care has received responses from children’s charities and key children’s services organisations.

The review, which closed on 15 January, called for evidence to assess the social care market, based on the findings of a Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) report which informed the Care Review.

The 2022 report revealed that three-quarters of residential and foster care places come from independent providers, with the largest now charging prices that are “materially higher” than would be expected “if the market were functioning effectively”.

The group of cross-party MPs also sought opinions on plans to reform the children’s social care workforce and the effectiveness of the government’s response to the Care Review, Stable Homes Built on Love.

Backed by around £200m in funding, the strategy is underpinned by policies designed to increase early intervention and keep families together where possible.

While elements of strategy have been cautiously welcomed by key sector organisations, concerns have been raised over levels of funding committed to its implementation that fall well below the £2.6bn investment called for by Care Review chair Josh MacAlister as well as the long-term vision of the government’s plan, which is based on the results of numerous pilot schemes lasting no longer than four years.

Here, organisations highlight their key concerns and what needs to change.

1. Placement sufficiency

The committee’s inquiry questions whether “current provision of children’s social care is sufficient to meet demand”.

Stable Homes Built on Loveproposes the implementation of regional care co-operatives (RCCs) to increase sufficiency of residential and foster care placements for local authorities.

Children in care and care leaver’s charity Become warns in its submission that “the care system is overwhelmed, with an increasing number of children in care and a lack of appropriate homes able to adequately meet their needs”. It also raises concerns about high numbers of children being placed far away from home due to a lack of suitable accommodation locally.

It argues that this is based on a combination of factors including double the number of older teenagers entering care in 2023 compared with 2013, an increase in poverty rates and a reduction in the amount of care placements provided in-house by local authorities.

Become says: “We do not believe that the proposal to introduce RCCs will solve the sufficiency challenges within the care system. We remain concerned that introducing RCCs would be a costly reorganisation that would not lead to a substantial increase in supply, without significant additional investment; risks children being moved to the cheapest areas of a region and would move decision-making further away from the professionals that know children best.”

Children’s rights Charity Article 39 also raises concerns around children being placed far away from home, recommending that “secondary legislation is amended to make explicit provision for dedicated establishments for older children, thus ensuring that all looked-after children receive care where they live”.

2. Care 'market' reforms

The CMA report describes the children’s social care market in England as “dysfunctional”.

In response, the Department for Education pledged, in Stable Homes Built on Love, to “seek to increase the financial transparency of providers to strengthen local authorities’ understanding of the financial position of the organisations they commission to deliver care”.

As part of their inquiry, MPs sought views on “the current social care market, including private sector care homes and care homes run by local authorities” and “the reasons behind the rising cost of children’s social care for local authorities, and ways to mitigate this”.

In its response to the inquiry, Article 39 recommends that “profit-making is largely removed from the accommodation and care of looked-after children”.

“Legislation making it a condition of registration that providers of children’s care operating on a not-for-profit basis could be drafted so to empower the Secretary of State to authorise the registration of an ‘excepted provider’ from the profit-making sector when this is in the best interests of children, and those running the service have relevant expertise,” its submission states.

3. Social care workforce

Stable Homes Built on Lovealso puts forwards a series of proposals to “strengthen” the children’s social care workforce, particularly through greater regulation of the use of agency social workers with the introduction of national rules on the use of such workers.

In its inquiry response, the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) states: “One of the foremost concerns is the alarming shortage of skilled workforce within local authorities.

“England is currently grappling with the highest level of turnover in the children’s social care sector since 2013. This disturbing trend is further exacerbated by the first decline in overall numbers of children’s social workers in a decade, despite a rising demand for their services.

“The ensuing difficulties in recruitment and retention have compelled the sector to heavily rely on agency staff, significantly inflating operational costs.”

As part of its submission, BASW issues a series of recommendations for government to strengthen its response to the Care Review.

These include calls to “launch a national recruitment campaign for social workers, as we see with other public sector professions such as teaching and policing” and increase financial support for social work students.

4. Supported accommodation

The government’s response to the Care Review was heavily criticised after it failed to act on recommendations to ban the use of supported accommodation for all children in care aged up to 18. The use of such settings was banned for all children aged under 16 in 2022.

In its response, BASW argues that “this should be considered a scandal of national importance, particularly as many children in these placements have already died”.

It says that “the government has ignored concerns about the need for protection in favour of focusing efforts on befriending and mentor schemes”.

“Whilst such measures are positive, BASW finds it concerning that we have a government that wants to offer friendship, but not protection as these plans do nothing to solve the issues with unregulated accommodation that puts young people over 16 at risk,” adds BASW’s submission.

Become says: “We strongly recommend that all children in care must be guaranteed care where they live, to prevent the introduction of a two-tier care system.”

5. Care leaver support

Stable Homes Built on Love puts forward recommendations designed to support care leavers including increasing the care leaver grant and introducing opt-out advocacy for young care leavers.

Become says it welcomes many of the proposals put forward by government to support care leavers but adds: “We were disappointed that the government’s reform strategy did not include any proposals to increase access to appropriate and timely mental health support for care-experienced young people; or to introduce consistent professional training and development, or standardised qualifications for personal advisers.”

It also highlights a need to improve access to “safe, appropriate and affordable housing for young people leaving care”.

Other organisations have criticised a failure to take forward a recommendation to implement legislation which would see care experience recognised as a protected characteristic in law.

BASW notes: “Recognising care experience as a protected characteristic under the Equality Act is crucial for addressing historical disadvantages, dismantling stereotypes, and promoting equal opportunities. Care-experienced individuals often face systemic barriers in education and employment, compounded by intersecting factors such as race, gender, and disability.”

6. Investment

The government plans to spend £200m to pilot a series of reforms to children’s social care until 2025 – but this is less than 10 per cent of the £2.6bn investment over four years recommended by MacAlister in his final report.

The Children’s Charities Coalition, made up of Action for Children, Barnardo’s, the National Children’s Bureau, NSPCC and the Children’s Society, says in its submission to MPs: “Despite the Care Review proposing an evidenced four-year spending plan, it was not accepted in full by government and wholesale reform has been delayed until 2025. We estimate that this delay will cost the country a further £1bn over 10 years. Addressing the financial pressures on local authorities and committing to an ambitious strategy would help make sure children get the right help at the right time.”

BASW adds that “this funding gap poses a severe impediment to implementing the necessary reforms and improving the overall efficacy of the children’s social care system”.

While key organisations which shared their responses to the inquiry with CYP Now say they “welcome” many of the government’s proposals, concerns remain over the sustainability of reforms past 2025, raising questions over whether children are at the “heart” of such plans.

BASW argues that “the government needs a long-term funding solution for children’s social care and to match the £2.6bn funding required to deliver its reform agenda”, while Become calls for care-experienced children and young people to be “actively and meaningfully involved in the development, implementation and evaluation of all reforms”.

At the time of going to press, the education committee was yet to publish its response to the inquiry

Education committee inquiry: Terms of reference

• Is the current provision of children’s social care sufficient to meet demand?

• What factors are causing the increase in demand for children’s social care?

• What are the recent trends and causes of out-of-area placements?

• The current social care market, including private sector care homes and care homes run by local authorities

• The reasons behind the rising cost of children’s social care for local authorities, and ways to mitigate this

• What measures can be undertaken to improve early intervention?

• How combinations of kinship care, residential education, foster care and adoption could provide alternatives to residential care

• How children’s social care can impact a child’s educational or long-term outcomes and ways to improve outcomes for care leavers

• The specific experiences of disabled children or children with additional needs within children’s social care, how they differ from their peers, and ways to improve their experiences

• The current system of safeguarding in children’s social care

• How effectively Ofsted works as a regulator and inspector for children’s social care

• The government’s children’s social care implementation strategy, Stable Homes, Built on Love, published in February 2023, including how effective the strategy has been so far and how effective it is projected to be in the long-term.