Government does ‘far too little’ to support children in care, report

By The Press Association11th March 2015News EnglandChild Protection, Childrens Services, Local Authorities, News England

The Government has been accused of failing to take action to help the nation’s most vulnerable youngsters.

There has been an “alarming reluctance” by the Department for Education (DfE) to play an active role in securing better services and results for children in care, according to the Commons public accounts committee.

In a new report, the cross-party group of MPs suggested that the department does “far too little” to support councils before they are declared inadequate by Ofsted, instead leaving them to “fester”.

The findings come the day after Ofsted warned that many local authorities are struggling to offer a good standard of care and protection for their most at-risk children.

In its second annual social care report, the watchdog said that children’s social services are still under “intense pressure” amid increasing numbers of young people in need of help, stretched budgets and intense public scrutiny.

The PAC study says that the DfE is the government department with policy responsibility for children in care, and oversees local councils, who provide services for these youngsters.

But it warns: “Although the Department is clearly best placed to provide the leadership required in many cases, it shows an alarming reluctance to play an active role in securing better services and outcomes for children in care.

“It chooses to limit its role to passing legislation, publishing guidance and intervening after Ofsted has failed a local authority service. It does far too little to disseminate actively what works and to support authorities to improve before they are failed by Ofsted.

“It sits on a wealth of information and knowledge which it fails to use in an active way to support better outcomes for this most vulnerable group of children.”

Nationally, there has been little or no improvement in results for children in care and how well they are looked after, the committee says.

In 2012/13, around a third of children in care had more than one placement during the year, while a third of those in residential care and 14% of fostered youngsters were placed in care more than 20 miles from their homes. These figures have not changed since 2009, the report says.

It adds: “The Department collects lots of data about children in care, but it is too passive and leaves responsibility to local authorities, failing to understand that responsibility to act to achieve better for children in care should be shared.

“If the Department is serious about its objectives to improve the quality of care, which we support wholeheartedly, then a step change is required in the Department’s attitude and leadership.”

Councils currently look after more than 68,000 children, the report says. As of the end of March 2013, three quarters of children in care were in foster homes.

In 2012/13, local authorities spent £2.5 billion on foster and residential care, up 3% in real terms since 2010/11, amid overall falls in spending. The number of children in care rose by 4% over the same period.

PAC chair Margaret Hodge (pictured) said: “Leaving poor services to fester has meant that the department was intervening in 21 local authorities at the time of our hearing, seven of these because of inadequate services for children in care.

“Since our hearing, the department has actually tried to water down its responsibility for holding local authorities to account for their performance in a revised accountability statement. We expect the department to publish a further statement in the near future, which takes account of our concerns.

“Unless the department steps up and takes on this leadership role the system will not improve. Children in care get a raw deal, and there has been little or no improvement in outcomes for children in foster and residential care and how well they are looked after.”

The report sets out a series of recommendations, including calling on the DfE to set out how it will attract more high-quality individuals into social work and to publish information for the public showing how well councils are performing on areas such as foster and residential care.

It also suggests that the government should look at involving Ofsted in improving local council’s performance in between inspections, and argues for a national database of missing children to be set up.

Ms Hodge, Labour MP for Barking, said: “Finding children who go missing from care, including victims of child sex exploitation, and then keeping them safe is made more difficult by the lack of a national register, so we recommend the construction of a national database of missing children.

“It would also make sense for one organisation to commission and coordinate secure welfare places so that children can be placed quickly at an appropriate distance to protect them from child sex exploitation.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “This report purposefully ignores the very real progress government has made in transforming the life chances of children in care.

“It is a fact that vulnerable children are doing better than ever. Children in care are doing better at school and absences have decreased. We have introduced tough new rules to stop children going missing, are intervening in councils across the country to ensure children are receiving the services they deserve and we have undertaken a review of secure places for the victims of CSE.

“To tackle problems early on, we’re also enabling councils to look at innovative ways in caring for vulnerable children, backed by £100m of government funding. We will respond to the Committee in due course.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “This report purposefully ignores the very real progress Government has made in transforming the life chances of children in care.