Children in care supplement: Policy and practice

Grounds for optimism despite a care system under pressure

The number of children entering the care system in England has reached record levels. Whatever the factors behind this stark fact - increased family breakdown, cuts to early help services, a "risk-averse" culture in children's social care - the system is under pressure as never before.

Despite this challenging (if somewhat bleak) backdrop, at least a couple of developments in the past year have shown the wellbeing of looked-after children, and the professionals and systems that provide their care and nurture, in a more positive, optimistic light.

First, a landmark study just under 12 months ago, The Educational Progress of Looked-After Children, blew apart the prevailing simplistic assumption that because the attainment of children in care is much poorer than that of children not in care, the system is letting them down. Indeed, the study showed those who have been in care for a considerable period of time do better than children in need who are not in care. It is the early circumstances and trauma that led them to enter care that has more likely let them down than the experience of being in care.

The second development was Sir Martin Narey's review of children's residential care. The Narey report discovered a sector that is often providing inspirational care and support to some of society's most damaged and vulnerable children, thus challenging the very perception of children's homes as an "anachronism" to be an anachronism in itself.

Nonetheless, there is considerable room for improvement in commissioning placements, and in the quality of care children receive, whatever the type of placement. Reforms across the sector are either under way or under discussion.

Our annual Children in Care supplement aims to lay bare the pressing challenges across the commissioning landscape, in foster care, residential care, and indeed the support young people receive when leaving care. It also aims to shine the spotlight on examples of innovative practice - of good ideas that are being executed to good effect.

I hope you find this supplement to be a useful resource in supporting you in the vital work you do.

Ravi Chandiramani
Editor-in-chief, Children & Young People Now

Read the full supplement online, download as a PDF or click on each title below to read individual articles:

• Commissioning
  Commissioners face challenges to provide children with stable, happy homes that cater to their needs as the number of care referrals reaches record levels.
  
  
• Residential care
  The Narey review argues that the view of children's residential care as an "anachronism" underestimates its contribution. How can this perception be overturned?
  
  
• Foster care
  As the government pledges to undertake a "national stocktake" of foster care, what measures would improve quality of care and outcomes for children?
  
  
• Education
  Innovative methods to raise the educational attainment of children in care and reverse the damaging impact of adverse early life experiences on their ability to learn
  
  
• Innovation
  Amid the multitude of challenges in working with children in care, a huge amount of innovation is taking place across the country
  
  
• Staying close
  How new initiatives to enable young people in residential care to "stay close" to their placement when they leave will work, helping to smooth their transition to adulthood
  
  
• Leaving care
  Why the government is reviewing the role of personal advisers in supporting care leavers after its Keep on Caring strategy gave councils new duties