CYP Now - Can the Children’s Social Care Review ignore poverty, austerity and cuts to services?

The ‘feedback’ from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care on its first report, ‘The Case for Change’, summarises over 300 submissions - from parents and carers, young people, social workers, child care organisations and researchers.

Mike Stein is a professor at the University of York. Picture: Mike Stein

However, in a very short report and blog it does little more than gently touch upon a range of thoughtful responses to much debated weighty issues, including family help, child protection and support, kinship care, keeping teenagers safe, building lifelong loving relationships with young people in care, residential care, direct work with children and families, multi-agency work, and; inspections.

The Review’s response to the feedback on ‘poverty, austerity and cuts to services’, is very concerning. In his blog, Josh MacAlister comments ‘‘some wanted the review to be more directly critical of the government for spending cuts and rising poverty or to attribute worsening outcomes in children’s social care to these factors…even if the review did have the broader welfare system in its scope (we don’t) there would still be problems in children’s social care that need addressing’’

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