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Legal Update: Call to action on care

3 mins read Legal
Jen Downie and James Bury set out changes care-experienced young people need from policymakers.
Policymakers are being urged to back a mental health strategy. Picture: Seventyfour/Adobe Stock
Policymakers are being urged to back a mental health strategy. Picture: Seventyfour/Adobe Stock

Of the nearly 12 million children living in England, 83,000 (less than one per cent) are in care at any one time and around 12,000 leave care every year. In the run up to a general election, political parties often aim manifesto commitments at the wider general population to achieve maximum impact, meaning that the needs of children in care are often overlooked. All too often children in care and care leavers are struggling without enough support and face poorer outcomes as a result.

Reform legislation

February 2024 marked the one-year anniversary of the government’s Stable Homes, Built on Love strategy to reform children’s social care, following the independent review into children’s social care by Josh MacAlister. While there have been positive steps – including the first ever national kinship care strategy and a new Children’s Social Care National Framework – there is much more to do. The government commitment to bring forward legislation “when parliamentary time allows” is not the ambitious reform care-experienced children and young people were promised or need.

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