Senior managers credited with drop in London care numbers
Neil Puffett
Monday, June 6, 2016
The number of looked-after children in London is falling because senior social work managers in the capital are actively pursuing other options such as kinship care, a report has found.
The number of children in care has been on the rise in all regions of England since 2007, apart from London.[asset_library_tag 1515, A study] by London Councils found that reductions in London were due to “proactive strategies” to stop children being taken into care.
These strategies include involving senior management in decision-making about when children should enter or leave care, and providing clear alternatives to care.
The study found that local authorities with the largest falls in the number of local children in care displayed an “active pursuit” of placing young people with extended family.
“The boroughs which had experienced the greatest decrease in numbers of looked-after children had one overriding feature in common, which was that the senior managers had a very detailed knowledge and understanding of their looked-after children population,” the report said.
“The assistant directors we spoke to in these boroughs gave accurate information about, for example, age patterns, proportions accommodated or in care, and the impact of actions that had been taken to reduce numbers of children who they felt were either not benefitting, or not likely to benefit, from being looked-after.
“These senior managers were highly focused on the subject and readily provided an analysis of their own data which they regularly reviewed through various mechanisms.”
The study highlights examples of best practice, including one authority where the head of service for looked-after children holds a quarterly “surgery” to examine the care plans of every looked-after child in the borough - around 500 children.
All local social workers attend and discuss their plans for children with the head of service and a small group of key managers.
“The process is lengthy and detailed but is well received by social workers,” the report said.
In another borough, the assistant director has set an annual target for the number of children to leave the care system by going into other forms of permanent placement, in an attempt to create a “cultural change”.
Ian Dean, manager of the London Safeguarding Children Board, who oversaw the research, said: “It is important for local leadership to take time to get behind their statistics and find out what is happening in their area. A detailed knowledge of the local children in care population can make a difference.”
He added that there is a degree of correlation between larger budgets and the ability to provide a fuller range of alternatives to care.
“It is important that the local children’s services department is sufficiently well resourced to allow good social work to happen,” he said.
