CYP Now - Early help focus is the solution to care crisis

Children’s social care costs are now the biggest budgetary pressure facing nine out of 10 English councils and a key reason 44% say they may be forced to turn to the government for a bailout within two years.

Derren Hayes: “Enhancing the working conditions of children’s social workers must be central to the government’s reform agenda”

Derren Hayes: 'Only by focusing on prevention can we reduce the numbers coming into care'

The findings, drawn from a Local Government Association (LGA) survey of council leaders, is indicative of the dire financial situation facing authorities and why Westminster policymakers must do more to help them support our most vulnerable children, if not at the Budget, then the Comprehensive Spending Review next spring.

This was one of the key issues discussed at CYP Now’s recent debate on the future of children’s services, with care experts and sector leaders agreeing that additional funding must be accompanied by system change.

Care Review chair Josh MacAlister MP left the debate audience in no doubt that the solutions, while known, need to be properly backed. Investing in family support and recruiting more foster carers “is the right formula” he says but the small-scale trials of the previous government were “the wrong dose”.

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