Educationalist Chris Waterman last week branded the idea "naive and disingenuous" in his damning report (CYP Now, 9-15 January) while Lord Adonis has bemoaned the apparent fuss it has attracted, given the pilots are yet to begin (see p11).
But the initiative is recognition that improvements are urgently needed to a system which is failing both clients and professionals. Looked-after children are eight times likelier to be excluded from school and nearly half suffer mental health problems. Social workers in local authorities meanwhile are increasingly demotivated and disempowered by risk-averse managers and mountains of written reports, eroding their ability to make decisions and care for children. The result is high staff turnover and instability for children who desperately need that continuous relationship with an adult.
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