The call to keep families together

However, with numbers of children in care reaching a record 80,000 last year there is now a broad recognition among councils and the wider sector that the system has strayed away from one of the key principles of the act - that children should, wherever possible, be brought up in their families and communities. In November the County Councils Network (CCN) published some research which projected that on present trends this number could rise as high as 95,000 by 2025 if nothing is done.

This is counter-productive. Councils’ spending on children in care has risen from less than 40 per cent of children’s services budgets a decade ago to nearly 50 per cent now. This is forcing many local authorities into the invidious position of having to cut the early intervention and edge of care work that we know can make such a difference to families, in order to meet the accelerating costs of keeping children in care placements. Funding is focused on those in acute crises, rather than working to prevent them coming into care in the first place or supporting them to return safely to their families.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Today’s report from the CCN and Newton, The Future of Children’s Social Care, aims to set an ambitious and optimised model for reshaping these vital services and to feed into the government’s ongoing review.

It also recognises that even in challenging circumstances, local government is pioneering new ways of working so the system better supports young people. The study aims to galvanise this great work and use it as a foundation to create a sustainable system. In putting it together, we spoke to over 200 people from across the sector, including senior politicians and policymakers; frontline practitioners; and young people with experience of the care system.

To effectively reshape this system into what Newton terms an ‘optimised delivery model’, the key conclusion of the report is that councils must remain at the centre of delivering services with their democratic, intrinsic knowledge of their people and places. They should be enabled to lead the charge in reshaping children’s social care.

As part of this, councils would use data more effectively and improve co-ordination amongst service areas, such as social care and public health, as well as managing their care markets more effectively.

If this model is put in place as soon as practicable, the potential benefits are enormous: tens of thousands of young people could avoid going into care, whilst hundreds more could be supported to exit the system quicker. A substantial amount of the projected spend for local authorities over the next few years could be addressed.

But whilst cost-saving is important, it is not the main aim of this model. Its focus is to improve outcomes for children and young people and allow as many as possible to remain safely with their families which, as we know, is in most cases their preference.

Indeed, an optimised model requires the government setting out a sustainable funding settlement for children’s services. It also needs all the disparate parts of the public sector – schools, NHS, and the judiciary – to work together in a closer-aligned system where services are wrapped around the individual.

This report aims to set out how councils can rebalance what they do and how they do it; in effect trying to tip the scales back towards prevention.

Whether following the publication of the independent review, the government opts to update and amend the existing act, or rip up and start afresh, we hope our model will help to shape legislation that will stand firm for another thirty years – most importantly improving outcomes for our most vulnerable children.

Jon Rallings is a senior policy officer in social care at the County Councils Network