Inquiry to investigate conditions for children in care

Ahead of a forthcoming bill, eight charities have come together to explore how best to achieve stability and a positive sense of identity for children in care

Eight charities are pooling their expertise and knowledge to set up the care inquiry to examine how the care system meets the needs of England’s most vulnerable children and young people.

It is well known that children who are moved around the care system and do not feel involved in decisions made about them tend to do less well at school and are likely to find it harder to make friends, form and keep close relationships and become independent as adults. It is less well known that many children who grow up with their foster carer, or find a children’s home that meets their needs, do very well.

The eight charities involved in the inquiry, including my own, have come together to examine the evidence and listen to, and take account of, the views of children and their carers. We can therefore say what works and what doesn’t, and identify the most important things that must change to improve the life chances of all children in care today, tomorrow and in the future.

The charities, representing organisations involved in fostering, adoption and residential care, all agree that finding a stable home for a child can change their lives, and in turn change what they can achieve as adults. Our ambition for all children in care is that we help them reach their potential and achieve a sense of wellbeing.

Adoption, fostering, children’s homes, special guardianship and living with a member of their wider family are all ways in which children who can’t live with their birth parents can be offered permanent homes. Decisions about a child’s future must be taken after an assessment of their needs and take their views into account.

We must avoid simplistic views that for some children adoption or fostering are always the right option. Children have a right to expect that adults will make decisions based on their needs and not on the preferences of adults.

To date, any analysis of care has tended to be piecemeal rather than a whole system approach. The current government has been focusing heavily on adoption and more recently on residential care. Over the summer they consulted on changing the law to make it easier to limit contact and separate siblings. Any proposals need to be tested in terms of their impact on all children in care.

The care inquiry intends to use three sessions in November, December and January to explore how best to achieve stability and a positive sense of identity for children in care and for those raised by family members as an alternative to care. We will make recommendations on the big issues that need to be improved and also feed in to debates in parliament on the forthcoming children and families bill.

While some children do well in care, we are currently failing too many children. Not looking after the best interests of children and young people in care now will have an impact on our economy, our prison systems and our NHS. Most importantly, it will leave a generation of care leavers without the opportunities to flourish that they deserve.

This inquiry is the first time charities from across the spectrum of care have come together to work in this way, and it provides a real opportunity for change. The third sector has to make its voice heard so it can influence the policy and practice decisions that make a lifetime’s difference to children and young people who find themselves in or on the edge of the care system.