CYP Now - Children’s commissioner calls for social care reform in stark warning to ‘negligent’ government

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.

Children's commissioner for England Anne Longfield has released three new reports. Picture: Alex Deverill

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.”

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