Care Review lays out key reforms for ‘shaky’ social care system in first report

Josh MacAlister, who was appointed as chair of the long-awaited Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in England by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson in January, has today (17 June) published the review’s first report A Case for Change.

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The report calls for major reform of and investment in support for vulnerable children and families in England, describing the current system as financially strained and risk-averse.

Echoing comments made in MacAlister’s first media interview as review chair in the Sunday Times, the report states that “the children’s social care system in England investigates too readily whilst not doing enough to support families, protect teenagers or care for children who are looked after by the state”.

“The system is under significant strain with support for families being cut back as money is increasingly spent on crisis intervention,” it adds.

The Case for Change advocates for more support in keeping families together as opposed to launching safeguarding and child protection investigations, noting that last year 135,000 were launched which resulted in no child protection plans.

Mirroring proposals made in a Blueprint for Children’s Social Care, authored by MacAlister in his previous role as chief executive of Frontline social care, the report recommends a “shift in social worker time spent with children and families”.

It also calls for more “stable alternative homes for children where they cannot remain with their birth parents” through adoption and the use of kinship care.

“Throughout the system there are opportunities for things to both work better as well as cost less – avoiding parents having repeat removals, taking fewer children into care by supporting families where possible, making better use of kinship arrangements, avoiding children entering costly residential and secure placements, curbing profit and reducing the number of agency social workers,” the report states.

In terms of residential and foster care, “the ‘placement market’ is broken”, the report adds, calling for a “pragmatic re-think” of the commissioning of placements based on the results of an ongoing investigation into the issue by the Competition and Markets Authority.

Meanwhile, the review will also make a case for policy changes to tackle poverty, deprivation and inequality.

The report notes that children living in the 10 per cent most deprived neighbourhoods in England are 10 times more likely to be on a child protection plan than children in the least deprived areas.

Deprivation and, in some cases, ethnicity was a causal factor in child abuse and neglect, it adds.

“Improving children’s social care will take us a long way to solving some of the knottiest problems facing society - improving children’s quality of life, tackling inequalities, improving the productivity of the economy, and truly levelling up,” MacAlister said.

Other key issues raised in the report include a government “failure” to create joined-up working between local authority children’s services, the police and youth justice system to protect teenagers at risk from gangs, trafficking and child criminal exploitation and a lack of support, including mental health support, for children in care and care leavers.

“The state is not a pushy enough parent when it comes to getting access to the support children in care need,” it states.

MacAlister said: “Our children’s social care system is a 30-year-old tower of Jenga held together with Sellotape: simultaneously rigid and yet shaky. There are many professionals and services doing excellent work but this report sets out the scale of the problems we face and the urgent need for a new approach.”

Following the publication of the Case for Change, which is based on advice and evidence submitted by 700 people with lived experience of children’s social care and around 300 people working with children and families, interested parties are able to submit feedback on the initial report through the review’s website until 13 August.

“As the review moves into its next phase we will explore in more depth the issues highlighted in this document, including focused work in a small number of local areas to understand the perspectives of children, families and those working on the front line,” the report states.