Reforms need a cabinet-level champion

It was responding to both the Independent Review of Children's Social Care and the National Safeguarding Panel Review, which showed that when we do not get child protection right, the impact on children and families is devastating. Big questions were asked – they demand big answers.

As all of us across the children and young people's sector now feed into the Department for Education's consultation on their new plan, we must remember Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, Star Hobson and many other children who have suffered as a consequence of a system under strain and be clear on what needs to change if we are to better protect vulnerable children. The reforms must harness what the government itself proclaimed as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to secure investment and reform that better protects children and delivers the right support for families at the right time.

Described as a “Jenga tower held together with Sellotape”, it is clear the current children's social care system is unfit for purpose. Reform will take time and attention. However, with more than 400,000 children in England assessed as needing children's social care services, and demand set to rise, we cannot afford to tinker at the edges of what's needed.

There is no hiding from the harsh fact that under these plans, most areas will not get the reform and investment that they need for at least two years, while testing is undertaken in a handful of local authority pathfinders. While a commitment to roll out more than 75 family hubs could become a frontline for safeguarding and support in some areas, even here the services within them need to be resourced so that families get the timely help they need.

Significant investment is needed to shore up the current children's social care system while we invest in building an improved one. Analysis shows that the current annual budget shortfall is £1.6bn just to stay still. Additional spending in small funding pots for disjointed initiatives and programmes doesn't feel like a once-in-a-generation response but dangerously like more of the same. The Care Review estimated that an additional £2.6bn is needed over the next five years to reset family help for an estimated half a million children who require extra support. I can tell you now that the cost of inaction is going to be higher.

I sense that those leading and advocating for change within government understand this. Our children deserve a joined-up approach that starts with the realities facing young lives in and around the care system today. Many of them made their views clear as part of the reviews themselves. The government must get behind delivering significant and meaningful change now. A cabinet-level minister for children could drive this forward, ensuring young voices are heard loud and clear at the heart of government. Meaningful reform requires political leadership and accountability at that highest level of government and, while plans for an inter-ministerial group will help, there's no track record associated with this approach to suggest such meetings will achieve the breakthrough required.

In the meantime, let's recognise the amazing job that frontline children's social care professionals do every day. So many are working tirelessly often on short-term contracts despite the challenges of rising demand and resourcing pressures. It is now time for us to build a system that alleviates those pressures and enables practitioners from the full range of agencies supporting families to work together in a joined-up way by giving them the tools, resources and confidence to deliver effective child protection.

Last year brought the importance of child protection to the fore through reviews and reports but 2023 must be the year of meaningful change. We owe Arthur, Star and all the other children who’ve experienced abuse nothing less.

• Sir Peter Wanless is chief executive of NSPCC