Analysis: Looked-after children - Will the children in care Bill deliver?
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
With the reforms in the Children and Young Persons Bill the government hopes to give looked-after children and young people a better future. But do the measures go far enough to make a real difference to these children? Ruth Smith reports.
The story of children in care is a "woeful tale of failures". So said Frank Dobson when he became health secretary after Labour's landslide victory in 1997.
Fast-forward 10 years and the government says it has spent almost £1bn on children in care. Yet a significant gap still remains between how well those in care do compared with other children and young people.
Last week, junior children's minister Kevin Brennan unveiled the government's answer to the problem - the Children and Young Persons Bill. "The state has been a poor parent to children in care for too long," he says.
What the Bill covers
Measures in this latest attempt to improve the lives of children in care include several eye-catching initiatives: £500 for children struggling at school; £2,000 for young people going to university; and consulting 16- and 17-year-olds on decisions about their care. But details of many of the proposals have yet to be clarified. And questions remain as to whether the legislation will succeed where other policies have failed.
Take restrictions on moving looked-after children out of their local area. A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), admits the finer points of when it is in the best interests of a child to move out of area will be left for statutory guidance that will be published once the Bill becomes law. "Ultimately it's down to the care plan," she says. And she acknowledges that some children with complex disabilities will always have to be placed away from home.
Similarly, details on the structure of the controversial social work practices will be left for future regulations, although Brennan insists this is because it's a "genuine pilot" (news, p9).
When asked how far behind pupils have to be to qualify for the £500, Brennan says the cash is for all those who've fallen behind the expected level of their peers. Schools will receive the money via local authorities and will have to work with the young person, their carer and designated teacher to determine their educational needs. The £500 can be used for anything from private tuition to music lessons.
Before becoming an MP, Brennan was a teacher. While briefing journalists on the new Bill, he revealed that in his former life as a teacher he had little awareness of the issues facing children in care. "The Care Matters consultation revealed there was not sufficient focus on children in care because the post of designated teacher was not on a statutory basis. The Bill will give greater focus and authority to that role," he says.
These designated teachers will be expected to act as a single point of contact and liaise with other parts of the school and outside organisations on the pupil's behalf.
The Bill contains provisions to ensure young people up to the age of 18 don't have to leave their care placement until they are ready. Personal advisers will be made available to young people until they are 25, to guide care leavers through their education and career decisions.
But the decision to pilot the concept of allowing young people to stay in foster care until they are 21 remains controversial. With most young people not leaving home until well into their 20s, many social care experts are baffled.
"Being able to stay in foster care until 21 will give young people in care a better chance of success later on," says Robert Tapsfield, chief executive of the Fostering Network. "We know that many foster carers find it heart-breaking to watch young people being forced into independence before they are ready and able to cope."
But Brennan is adamant that such a major policy chance must be tested first. "We know that, legally, it's potentially complex as these children are no longer in care because they are adults. "There may also be complications with tax and benefits."
So the DCSF will forge ahead and ask foster care organisations to express an interest in running these pilots in January, with a view to starting the two-year pilots in April next year. But it continues to rule out involving the residential care sector.
"The purpose of the pilot is to look at where there are parental-style relationships with a view to looking at how to maintain that relationship," says the DCSF spokeswoman. "In examples of effective practice in residential care, although the young person may move into a different setting, they continue to have a relationship with people there - they might go for meals or be involved in activities at children's homes."
Boarding schools
Of course, the Bill is only one part of the government's drive to improve the lot of children in care. Many of the proposals in the Care Matters white paper do not require fresh legislation. Brennan says he will soon announce details to strengthen the role boarding schools play in caring for looked-after children. "It's not right for every child, but in the past it's been seen as a last resort. It shouldn't be," he reveals.
Whether the plight of children in care continues to be a "woeful tale of failures" remains to be seen. But ministers will hold themselves to account via a new annual stocktake involving representatives of local government and health services. Most importantly, young people in care will be there.
KEY POINTS
- Implementing the Bill will cost £2.8m plus annual costs of £22.06m over three years
- The DCSF is to spend £300m on children in care in the next four years
- £100 a year will be put in Child Trust Funds for every child or young person in care
- www.dcsf.gov.uk/publications/childrenand youngpersonsbill.