Children should be able to sue councils
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Children in care should be able to sue councils for failing to provide them with a decent upbringing and education, according to a report for the Conservative Party.
The Couldn't Care Less report, published this week by the think-tank Centre for Social Justice, is part of a wider review ordered by Conservative leader David Cameron to help develop his party's social justice policies.
The report brands the care system as a "source of national shame" and warns that cash-strapped councils are failing to fulfil their legal duties properly to look after young people from disturbed backgrounds.
It added that, unless reforms are implemented, it will be necessary to give looked-after young people the right to sue local authorities.
The report also calls for preventive measures to help "failing families". These measures include family fostering schemes, in which a whole family is taken into care in a residential unit in order to keep parents and children together and tackle their multiple problems in a safe environment.
- www.cypnow.co.uk/doc.
