'Passive' DfE fails to improve outcomes for looked-after children

A Commons public accounts committee report, Children in Care, says the DfE has shown “an alarming reluctance to play an active role in securing better services and outcomes for children in care”.

The cost of such ambivalence has been “little or no improvement” for children in foster and residential care, the committee says.

Too often children are still placed inappropriately and far from their home, leading to placement instability and problems at school, the report adds.

Instead of proactively tackling these problems the DfE has limited its role to passing legislation, publishing guidance and intervening in poor services only after Ofsted inspectors have delivered an "inadequate" rating, the report concludes.

The committee also accuses the DfE of sitting on “a wealth of information” and failing to use it in an “active way" to support better outcomes for this most vulnerable group of children.

It cites the localism agenda of the coalition government is a key factor, with the DfE being “too passive” by leaving responsibility to local authorities.

The report says a key example of this is the DfE’s creation of virtual school head roles, to improve the education of looked-after children. MPs were concerned that the DfE did not know whether the initiative was a success as well as noting that the attainment gap between children and their peers “remains shockingly wide”.

MPs are demanding that the DfE’s attitude and leadership change, if it is “serious about its objectives to improve the quality of care”.

Committee chair and former children's minister Margaret Hodge added: “Unless the department steps up and takes on this leadership role the system will not improve. Children in care get a raw deal, and there has been little or no improvement in outcomes for children in foster and residential care and how well they are looked after.”

Among recommendations are for the DfE to take more of an oversight function in the quality of local services instead of leaving them to “fester”.

Strategies and clear timetables are also needed to improve the commissioning of care places and attract “high-calibre people to social work”.

MPs also want to see a similar focus for foster and residential care as the government has put in place for adoption. In particular, it wants to see councils’ performance in commissioning foster and residential care made publicly available as it is for adoption.

There also needs to be more frequent and clearer sharing of examples of good practice and this should involve other government departments, Ofsted and the Local Government Association.

Another recommendation is for the DfE to work more closely with councils and the Department for Communities and Local Government to compare costs of in-house and independent sector care placements. This comes amid concerns around the wide variety of spending on placements England-wide.  

A central database of missing children is also needed to better identify and protect victims of child sexual exploitation (CSE), adds the report.

A DfE spokeswoman said the report “purposefully ignores" the government's "progress in transforming the life chances of children in care”.

Among examples she gives of effective DfE policy initiatives is the creation of the £100m Innovation Fund to look for innovative ways to improve children’s social care, and the raising of the leaving care age for those in foster care to 21.

She added: “Children in care are doing better at schools and absences have decreased, we have introduced tough new rules to stop children going missing, are intervening in councils across the country to ensure children are receiving the services they deserve and we have undertaken a review of secure places for the victims of CSE.”