Key changes for children and young people’s sector in 2024
Amrit Virdi, Hannah Rashbass and Fiona Simpson
Thursday, December 21, 2023
As the UK enters a general election year, CYP Now looks at key changes expected for the children and families’ sector and examines questions that remain unanswered.
2023 saw the government respond to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care with an offer backed by just 10 per cent of funding called for by the review and announced major changes to the funded childcare offer.
Such key moments were set against a backdrop of increasing child poverty rates, record numbers of children on education, health and care plans (EHCPs) and soaring waiting lists for mental health support.
Key party pledges on childcare costs, local government funding for children’s social care and the future of Ofsted are high priorities for the electorate.
CYP Now looks at what the sector can expect in 2024:
Early years
A report by the Early Education and Childcare Coalition, published in September, found that nearly half of UK voters believe that childcare and early education reform will be key in deciding who to vote for at the next general election.
The government is due to begin its phased roll-out of expanded funded childcare hours for two-year-olds in the spring, following an announcement in this year’s spring budget that funded hours will be available to eligible children as young as nine months from September 2025.
Eligible two-year-olds will be offer 15 hours childcare per week for 38 weeks a year offered to eligible two-year-olds from April and to eligible children under two from September.
This roll out is likely to coincide with a reduction in the amount of early years funding local authorities can retain from five per cent of supplements to three per cent.
Council leaders have raised concerns that this could lead to a delay in local authorities publishing upcoming budgets.Meanwhile, early evaluations of the government’s early adopter areas for family hubs will continue to materialise as the sector awaits news of funding to further roll-out the scheme.
Education
Teachers, parents, young people and employers can now have their say on the development of the government’s new qualification to replace A Levels, the Advanced British Standard (ABS) until March.
The new qualification is designed to increase teaching time and will require the study of maths and English to 18, but union leaders have said the longer hours and extra classes in maths and English would overstretch the teaching workforce, especially given that schools are already short of teachers in these subjects.
The number of pupils with an education, health and care plan (ECHP) has increased over the last year. Many children are unable to access the help they need and local authority budgets are struggling to cope.
The government outlined plans to tackle this in its special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) improvement plan released in March.
However, local authorities and sector leaders were underwhelmed by the government’s response and concerned proposed improvements would take a long time to implement.
President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services John Pearce has warned that without reinstating the defunct Schools White Paper, recommendations in the Send and AP Improvement Plan will not be passable.
After the inquest into head teacher Ruth Perry’s suicide ruled that her death was “contributed to by an Ofsted inspection”, calls for Ofsted reform have been reignited.
The Beyond Ofsted inquiry released in November, chaired by former school’s minister Lord Jim Knight, recommends that schools could “self-evaluate their progress” while working with an external School Improvement Partner over a longer period of time.
Discussions over the future of the inspectorate, particularly its one-word judgments are expected to continue into the new year.
Health
The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition has called for an extra £1.7bn a year of funding to improve children’s mental health going into the new year, as well as an increased focus on wellbeing in education settings, early intervention support and an overhaul of the 1983 Mental Health Act to better protect children’s rights.
This comes after children’s mental health received no specific mentions in the Autumn Statement or King’s Speech. Throughout 2023, there has also been an increasing number of studies detailing the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis and Covid-19 pandemic on children’s mental health.
Changes to the availability of vapes and cigarettes will also be implemented in the new year as part of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s aim for a ‘smoke-free generation’.
Young people aged 14 and under will never be legally allowed to purchase tobacco products as the legal age limit to buy cigarettes will increase year on year.
The government also launched a consultation on its delayed guidance on gender identity in schools in December, after missing its initial deadline in July 2023. The guidance has been in the works since 2018.
Key points in the consultation include making parents aware of children requesting to change gender, and also that primary school aged children should not be referred to using pronouns which differ from that of their biological sex.
Social care
The Department for Education pushed out a series of key documents linked to its response to the Care Review in early December.
Its first ever National Kinship Care Strategy will see carers in eight pilot areas benefit from an uplift in financial support to match that of foster carers.
Meanwhile, local authorities will be getting to grips with the new National Children’s Social Care Framework which commits to changes to statutory guidance, putting a duty on local authorities and safeguarding partners to embed new child protection standards for practitioners and on all partners to deploy a multi-disciplinary workforce to provide direct support that meets the needs of children and families.
A new data strategy sets out how DfE will transform data and digital services in children’s social care, stating that between 2023 and 2025, it commits to improving information sharing through new research and evaluation.
The document also reiterates plans shared in the government’s response to the Care Review to publish its children’s social care data dashboard in spring next year.
Meanwhile, debates rumble on about the cost of private children’s social care placements.
Speaking at the National Children and Adult Services Conference in Bournemouth in December, children, families and wellbeing minister hinted that an announcement from government on curbing high profits being made could come in the new year.
He said that the current commissioning system is "not delivering outcomes for children", adding "we are looking at how the market operates around profiteering and looking at transparency around that".
Youth Justice
England’s first secure school is set to open in January, welcoming pupils two months later in March. Oasis Secure, based on the site of the now closed Medway Secure Training Centre in Kent, will offer education to young offenders, supporting them into training and jobs when they are released.
The institution has been long-awaited after various delays after it missed its initial opening date of December 2020.
Oasis Charitable Trust founder Steve Chalke told CYP Now: “We need to understand that our education system hasn't worked for most of these young people because they are non-typical learners – our task is to ensure that what we provide works for them.”
The Ministry of Justice has also said it is exploring options for a second school.
Meanwhile, debate continues around proposals to use pelargonic acid vanillylamide (PAVA), a synthetic form of pepper spray, is increasingly being considered as a solution to rising incidents of violence in young offender institutions (YOIs).
Children’s commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza wrote in a blog that she is against the use of PAVA, calling it “entirely counterproductive”.
This comes as Independent Monitoring Boards warned of increasingly poor conditions in YOIs in August, alongside high levels of violence.
Youth Work
Many local authorities are facing increasingly difficult decisions on how and where to provide essential youth services.
Over the last fifteen years, youth services have been cut by 77 per cent, according to the National Youth Agency’s (NYA) recent report.
Trade union Unison found that councils across the country face a budget gap of more than £3.5bn collectively for the coming financial year, suggesting youth services are set to face greater funding cuts next year.
An outdoor adventure park in Nottingham is the latest youth centre to face closure amid Nottingham council’s bid to tackle a £50m budget gap.
However, architecture practice RCKa, has recently (15 December) submitted a planning application for a new youth centre in east London - one of the first jobs awarded through the Mayor of London’s Architecture + Urbanism Framework.
The scheme aims to redevelop and refurbish an existing community hall that has stood empty for 15 years and bring it back into use for the community.
The NYA commissioned a review of the impact of youth work delivered in schools in June, finding that the holistic approach taken by youth workers, alongside teachers and pastoral staff can support young people to develop a positive relationship with their school and help address barriers to attendance.
It also showed that an overwhelming majority of submissions agreed that youth work in and out of schools has a positive impact on young people’s health and wellbeing, directly affecting their attendance, behaviour, and attainment.
