Corporate parents must do their best for children in care

The state is often accused of failing children in the care system. Critics shake their heads in despair and say that local authorities need to be as good as any parent in how they go about looking after children and fulfilling their role as corporate parents.  It is, of course, not as simple as that. Being a good corporate parent is a complex job that like any form of parenting is a considerable challenge. So what is the key to success? A new guide, Putting Corporate Parenting into Practice,  published by the National Children’s Bureau and funded by the Department for Education sets out three key elements of high quality corporate parenting.

Leadership and buy in from senior managers across a local authority is vital. They need to be fully engaged and involved in the corporate parenting panel which should have the authority to provide powerful oversight and leadership. The panel should be part of a wider governance structure and not an isolated, irrelevant forum. Those councils that are good corporate parents ensure panels are central to the council's operations with considerable power to make a difference to the lives of every child in the authority’s care.

Secondly, good quality information for lead members to effectively scrutinise and monitor how children are being looked after is necessary if they are to effectively fulfil their corporate parenting responsibilities. This information needs to be much more than pages of statistics. Lead members need to know what is going well and what is going badly. They must have as full a picture as possible of what the local authority is doing in the form of a detailed narrative setting out the realities behind the raw data that councils collect.  Without this, lead members are simply left asking ‘so what?’

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is for lead members and council leaders to develop their own relationships with the children who are in their care. Those authorities that are the very best corporate parents have very positive relations with their Children in Care Councils. They meet regularly with them and so know in detail about young people’s experiences and what they think needs to change. Consultation with children who are placed outside the local authority area or who are in youth custody is equally important so that the full range of experiences of care is captured.

Overall local authorities are far more aware of the responsibilities that are required of them as corporate parents. The challenge is in discharging those responsibilities in a meaningful way so that lead members and council leaders are proactive parents that always do the very best for every child in their care. 

Enver Solomon is Director of Evidence and Impact at the National Children’s Bureau