Bruce Clark, divisional manager for looked-after children at theDepartment for Education and Skills, made a series of announcements atthe National Children Bureau's residential childcare conference lastweek.
These include 731,000 over the next three years to set up anational centre for excellence in residential child care - arecommendation made by Sir William Utting in 1997.
Inspectors have told the Government that local authorities do not alwaysrecognise that residential care can be the right care for somelooked-after children, said Clark.
He added that the Government was "in no doubt" that residentialchildcare should be the placement of choice, not last resort, for somechildren.
"This is a significant change," said Jonathan Stanley, seniordevelopment officer at the Children's Residential Care Unit.
"For the last few years residential care has been marginalised. For manypeople residential care is tainted by historic abuse inquiries and fartoo many placements are made without much thought," said Janet Rich, atrustee of the Bryn Melyn Foundation.
But funding for England's centre is nowhere near levels in Scotland,where the Executive provides 2.7m each year for the ScottishInstitute for Residential Child Care.
"Let's be grateful for what we've got, but it is an extraordinarydifference. These figures give a clear message about the different levelof priority. The population of looked-after children in Scotland is muchsmaller as well, so on funding per child the difference is phenomenal,"added Rich.
Clark also signalled that the review of national minimum standards willinclude new measures that focus on the quality of relationships betweenchildren and staff in children's homes.
And he said local authorities must do much more work on commissioningplacements.
One aim of the centre will be to forge new relationships between careproviders and commissioners. In particular, it will try and establishclear links between the costs of services and the quality of careprovided.
"We want to move to a situation where people can purchase placements onthe basis of outcomes and evaluations made not just by the Commissionfor Social Care Inspection but by young people as well," saidStanley.
The centre will be based at the National Children's Bureau. It has beenwidely welcomed. "It's an important ingredient in developingchild-centred care in this country," said John Kemmis, chief executiveof charity Voice for the Child in Care.
- See NCB Now, page 28.
