Think-tank highlights 'staggering' failings in support for vulnerable children

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) says its research into the cases of 20 vulnerable children who had received little or no social care or mental health intervention had left it “incredulous” to the lengths that some local authorities are going to “withhold or restrain services from being provided”.

It is calling for the creation of a Royal Commission to devise a new model for ensuring all children who need care services can access them.

The centre-right think-tank's 400-page report, Enough is Enough, found repeated incidence of “staggering” delay and shortfalls, in some cases for many years, in the care, protection and support for children and young people by some councils. It also found that thresholds for accessing social care services were higher in some parts of the country, a measure it says is being used to keep the number of referrals to manageable levels.

It says: “A particularly disturbing predicament exists for many children in need, who are either being kept out of social care altogether or, if they do gain access to services, various methods are being deployed by some social care teams to avoid giving them the necessary care and support. Some cases are being left to drift until an incident occurs which lifts them up to the child protection threshold; some can end up in care proceedings.”

Children’s legal experts asked by the CSJ to review the 20 vulnerable children’s cases passed to it by charity Kids Company found an “astounding” number of missed opportunities when services and practitioners could have stepped in to provide support.

It says: “All too often critical opportunities to intervene early and to carry out effective preventative work were missed, all too often with severe consequences for the children and young people who were in desperate need of help.”

It also draws on evidence given by health and social care practitioners and experts, many of whom admitted local authority children’s social care services are “overwhelmed” and “at breaking point”, unable to cope with a child protection demand that is much bigger than indicated in official statistics.

But it is also critical of frontline social workers’ practice, citing examples of practitioners not properly investigating vulnerable parents’ problems, failing to listen to children or take a child-centred approach to decision-making, and prioritising process over building relationships with families and children.

In addition, the report adds that "the lack of knowledge, understanding and application of the relevant law on the part of some social workers, those in more senior positions and even some local authority lawyers” is concerning.

In response to the findings, Alan Wood, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, said: “The 20 cases outlined by the CSJ, while damning, must not be taken as an indicator of widespread failure.
 
“The challenges facing children’s social care are more acute than ever before especially in a climate of diminishing resources and increasing demand. Local authorities work hard to meet the needs of each child they come into contact with and this will sometimes mean referrals to services other than children’s social care.
 
“It is not the case that a child or family that does not meet the statutory threshold for intervention is simply sent away without any further help. Every child will have different needs and those needs could be met by a wide range of services provided by local authorities and their statutory partners.”