Children’s commissioner calls for social care reform in stark warning to ‘negligent’ government
Fiona Simpson
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
The children’s commissioner for England will warn politicians that local authority children’s services “are on the edge of a precipice” due to a lack of funding to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic and delays to long-awaited reforms.
In a speech later today (24 November), ahead of the launch of the Care Review which is expected to be announced shortly by the government, Anne Longfield will lay out her vision for the “future of children’s social care”.
Set against a backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, cuts to local authority funding and concern over an increase in referrals to council’s early help services and a rise in domestic abuse, Longfield will issue a stark warning that “while the state can be a great parent – it can also be a really bad one. In fact, sometimes so negligent that it would risk having its children taken into care if it was an actual parent.”
She will remind politicians and the sector that there are 80,000 children in care in England – equivalent to the population of the City of Bath, and 400,000 children have a social worker – nearly the population of Newcastle.
She will say that the state is providing this help in an “inconsistent way”, and that children are not achieving the outcomes they should.
“For example, we know that 1.6m children have reached the threshold for statutory intervention in the past six years, yet just 17 per cent of these children go on to pass English and Maths GCSEs,” Longfield will add.
Ahead of the announcement of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) tomorrow (25 November) which has been reduced to just one year with a sole focus on Covid-19 recovery, Longfield will call for the government to commit more funding to children’s services.
A combination of delays in reforming the care system along with Covid pressures across local authorities have “left children’s social care on the edge of a precipice”, she will warn, highlighting a 16 per cent fall in funding over the last decade despite an increase in referrals of over 100 per cent.
Last year, local authorities overspent on children’s services by around £800m and children’s social care will need an additional £3bn to £4bn a year “just to stand still”, Longfield will add, describing 2021 as a “real crunch point” for councils.
The children’s commissioner is also expected to call for the promised Care Review to explore a national care system for children.
She will argue that the review should also look at how to empower children in the care system and give them a voice, before telling politicians: “You know the system is failing thousands of children, you know it needs urgent reform and you know it can’t survive for much longer without serious investment. Will you apply a sticking plaster? Or will you stand up for the thousands of children who are in your care and do what needs to be done, so that every child is not just protected, but also given the support they need to live their best life?
“The decision you make will shape the lives of hundreds of thousands of children for decades to come.”
The speech will be available to watch live via YouTube: https://youtu.be/ULCGDObhy38
