PUBLIC CARE
The Children's Safeguards Review
2.1 The key recommendations on public care were:
- a protective strategy must include management which pursues overall excellence and quality and is vigilant in protecting children and exposing abuse. The protection offered by high quality services and procedures is an essential theme
- choice of placement for children looked after by local authorities is a fundamental safeguard, and is often inadequate. As a result, too many placements prove unsuitable and children have unstable and unsuccessful "care careers"
- local authorities must carry out their statutory duties and follow existing regulations and guidance
- protection from abuse and harm should be consistent in all settings in which children are away from home
- there needs to be an inspection of the recruitment and support of foster carers, followed by a Government code of practice
- local authorities must pay attention to all aspects of a child's development and in particular to the educational and health needs of the children they look after, and ensure a better transition to independent living
- local authorities should make direct use of the experience of the young people they look after in developing policy, practice and training for services for children who live away from home
- consideration needed to be given to issues specific to black and ethnic minority children when planning services
- a national organisation to promote the voice of the child was needed
- children should be provided with the information they need to protect themselves
- services for runaways should be planned for and arrangements for tracing children established. The reason for a child going missing must be identified to ensure they are not returned to an abusive placement
- Wales needed a strategic plan for children in need
- child protection investigations needed to use specialist staff but these should not be employed by the LOCAL AUTHORITY under investigation
- a sharp increase in the number of social services authorities in England and Wales meant services for children were dispersed among a larger number of providing agencies. The centre therefore had a greater responsibility to secure consistent standards nationally in protecting and promoting the welfare of children. The Department of Health and the Welsh Office should identify a dedicated group to drive through the changes needed to raise the standards of residential child care and the Departments should review and reissue in the medium term their guidance on the Children Act 1989.
The Government Response
2.2 These recommendations are accepted. The Government is convinced that the quality of the public care system in which children are looked after by local authorities is unacceptably low. Reports by the Social Services Inspectorates in England (SSI) and Wales (SSIW) have confirmed the diagnosis made in the Children's Safeguards Review.
2.3 The Government considers that when an authority accepts parental responsibility for a child it can have no greater priority than carrying out that role effectively. This requires management, training, and process improvements, plus greater resources, and these will be delivered. But the most important development is one that should be in the minds of local authority members when they scrutinise the care arrangements in their area and account for them; the local authority must act towards the children in their care as any good natural parent would act towards their own children.
2.4 Local authorities
must provide support for
looked after children in
the same way as good
parents would
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2.4 Parents bring love to their children. Public agencies cannot equal that but they can and must work to provide placements which offer the opportunity of developing appropriate attachments as a foundation of healthy growth and development and provide the other aspects of parental support. The Government expects local authorities to:
- provide care, a home, and access to health and education and other public services to which all children are entitled according to their needs
- provide a mixture of care and firmness to support the child's development, and be the tolerant, dependable and available partner in the adult/child relationship even in the face of disagreements
- protect and educate the child against the perils and risks of life by encouraging constructive and appropriate friendships, and discouraging destructive and harmful relationships
- celebrate and share their children's achievements, supporting them when they are down
- recognise and respect their growth to independence, being tolerant and supportive if they make mistakes
- provide consistent support and be available to provide advice and practical help when needed
- advocate their cause and trouble-shoot on their behalf when necessary
- be ambitious for them and encourage and support their efforts to reach their potential, whether through education, training or employment
- provide occasional financial support, remember birthdays and Christmas or annual celebrations within the individual child's religion and culture
- encourage and enable appropriate contact with family members - parents grandparents, aunts and uncles, and siblings
- help them to feel part of the local community through contact with neighbours and local groups
- be proactive, not passive, when there are known or suspected serious difficulties.
The Government will ensure that this list of expectations on local authorities as corporate parents is disseminated to all local authorities. All initiatives in the public care system will be based on these expectations.
Quality of Services - "Quality Protects" programme
2.5 The Government has
launched "Quality
Protects" - a programme
to overhaul services for
children
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2.5 A major programme of work, lasting three years, was launched by the Department of Health on 21 September. "Quality Protects" will lead to a radical overhaul of services for children, concentrating especially on the public care system. It will tackle problems of attitudes, standards, management, service delivery and training and ensure the tax-payer gets value for money.
2.6 By March 2002, the Government will expect all local authorities to have strengthened their management and quality assurance systems to enable them to carry out their statutory duties properly and deliver high standards for children's services. The Department of Health will provide support to help local authorities improve their performance. A similar programme, based on the same principles, will be taken forward in Wales by the Welsh Office.
Objectives
2.7 Objectives set for
children's personal social
services
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2.7 The Government has set new objectives for children's services. These were set out in full in the material launched by the Secretary of State for Health at the "Quality Protects" conference, and comments have been invited on the detail of the sub-objectives and targets. They will also be set out in the forthcoming Social Services White Paper1. They include:
- to achieve secure attachments to carers capable of providing safe and effective care for the duration of childhood
- to ensure that children are protected from emotional, physical, sexual abuse and neglect
- to ensure that children in need generally, and children looked after in particular, gain maximum life chance benefits from educational opportunities, health care and social care
- to ensure that referral and assessment processes discriminate effectively between types and levels of need and produce a timely service response
- to ensure that children with specific social needs arising out of disability or a health condition are living in families or other appropriate settings in the community where their assessed needs are adequately met and reviewed
- to ensure that resources are planned and provided at levels which represent best value for money, allow for choice and different responses for different needs and circumstances
Targets
2.8 Targets set for
improving outcomes
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2.8 Targets for achieving these objectives were published in the National Priorities Guidance for Health and Social Care (NPG) on 30 September. All are designed to reduce the gap between outcomes for looked after children and those of other children. Local authorities will be required to corporately endorse these objectives and show that their children's services plans have them at their heart. The Government requires local authorities to make and demonstrate significant progress in all the areas covered by the objectives and is consulting on the means of measuring some of these in the consideration of a range of sub-objectives also issued on 21 September. Initially there are two key targets for children looked after. The Government will set further, more ambitious, targets in the light of experience.
Placements
2.9 A count of the number of different placements a child has had over a period of time provides a rough measure of the stability of care that that child has experienced. Stability of care is essential for a child to have a successful outcome from care, for example, placement moves often mean school moves, which disrupt a child's education. However, some children have a large number of placements in a year for very good reasons. To achieve the target below, local authorities will need to ensure that they improve their supply of placements, assessment procedures and the matching of individual needs to the places available.
The target is:
- the reduction in all authorities of the proportion of looked after children who have three or more placements in one year to no more than 16% in any individual authority by 2001
As at 31 March 1997, 20% of children looked after had experienced three or more placements during the year; this figure had risen from 17% in 1993. Within this total, the figures for individual local authorities varied between 5% and 36%.
The 16% figure in the target is based on the top quartile point averaged over three years. If all authorities meet this, the national average will be at most 15% which compares favourably with the lowest figure on record of 17% in 1993.
Performance at School
2.10 An estimated 30% of looked after children have statements of special educational need compared with 2 to 3% of children generally and one in four looked after children between 14 and 16 do not attend school regularly. In some authorities as few as 25% of children leave care with one GCSE or GNVQ. A number of initiatives aimed at improving attendance and attainment, including setting targets locally, are outlined in Chapter 5. At a national level, the target is:
- local authorities to improve the educational record of the children they look after so that the proportion of children leaving care aged 16 or above who have gained at least one GCSE or GNVQ qualification increases to 50% by 2001, and to 75% by 2003
Service Developments
2.11 Key areas for service
developments
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2.11 Key service developments which local councillors and officers are expected to work to deliver are:
- improvements in assessment, care planning and record-keeping
- an increase in the choice of foster and residential care placements, and improvements in commissioning placements
- improvements in the management of children's services, including more and better use of management IT systems
- improvements in the quality assurance systems in place to enable them to check that their services are meeting local and national objectives and that children are benefiting directly.
In delivering these service developments, local authorities will be expected to show:
- that they are working within the context of an overall vision for their children's services, which is aimed at achieving the objectives set out above
- the local authority is working closely with other interested organisations particularly the NHS, and that, within the local authority, all the relevant departments are working together.
Central Support
2.12 Department of
Health will provide help
for local authorities
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2.12 To help local authorities to achieve this the Government will fund eight regional development workers who will assist authorities to examine their need for reform, disseminate materials and methods, and exchange expertise and experience. Central action to assist authorities will also include:
- establishing a focused team in the Department of Health to lead the programme of action
- publishing a new assessment model for children and families in need in the community in 1999
- introducing a national collection of expenditure returns across all children and families services, in a way that generates financial management information local authorities need for their own purposes
- disseminating research relevant to the management of children's services promoting, in particular, the forthcoming research overview report Caring For Children Away from Home - Messages from Research
- promoting a "learning set" to enhance senior and middle management capability
- providing councillors with information on the performance of their own and other authorities in a number of key indicators so that they can compare levels of services
- investing to improve the skills in the child care workforce. The proposed developments are covered in Chapter 8.
Linked Initiatives
2.13 Department of
Health and Welsh Office
will be taking forward a
range of other work to
improve the quality of
children's services
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2.13 In addition to the main strands of the "Quality Protects" programme, the Department of Health and Welsh Office will:
- ensure proper complaints procedures are in place in all residential care settings involving looked after children and that all children looked after are encouraged to use the local authority's own complaints procedures when necessary
- undertake further work on the potential for using independent specialist staff in complex child protection cases
- ensure social services help children access the care and services they need from other agencies
- ensure that when planning services local authorities and others give consideration to issues specific to black and ethnic minority children
- require Social Services Departments to work to prevent racial harassment maintain links with cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and deal with areas of particular vulnerability
- provide information to protect and educate young people on unsafe practices and situations
- develop a children's strategy for Wales. The Welsh Office will work with the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) and others to take this forward.
2.14 Fuller details of the English "Quality Protects" programme were made available at the launch on 21 September, and more information will be sent to local authorities and other interested parties shortly. Details about the parallel arrangements for Wales will be available later this year.
Promoting the Voice of the Child
2.15 Promoting the voice
of the child is a key theme
of "Quality Protects"
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2.15 The "Quality Protects" programme will promote:
- the involvement of children in decisions on their care
- the involvement, as appropriate, of young people in developing policy practice and staff training on a national basis
- the provision, by local authorities, of children's rights services and a mechanism for children's voices to be heard
- the provision of an independent visitor to all looked after children statutorily entitled to one, and the extension of befriending and mentoring schemes
- the involvement of young people in local planning and in local developments.
2.16 The Government has also commissioned the voluntary organisation First Key to establish a group to provide a national voice for children in care and those formerly in care and to promote their interests and has agreed funding of £450,000 over the next three years. The Welsh Office will continue to support Voices from Care, a national organisation of young people who are or have been looked after. The Welsh Office has also commissioned research into advocacy services for children in Wales in 1998/99.
Improving Choice and Quality of Placements
2.17 In order to achieve
good quality care, there
must be an adequate
choice of placement
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2.17 Preceding paragraphs make it clear that the Government is committed to ensuring that children should have as stable an experience as possible while looked after by local authorities. In order to achieve this, there need to be sufficient placements available for children to be given one that is right for them. Improving choice of placements is a key aspect of the "Quality Protects" programme, but the Government will also be taking other action to improve the choice and quality of placements, in particular:
- the Department of Health and Welsh Office will work with the Local Government Association (LGA), the WLGA and the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS) to design strategic arrangements for residential and foster care services and review arrangements for specialist services
- encourage local authorities to form regional groupings to review the placements available and commission better specialist facilities
- encouraging targeted local campaigns for foster carers
- working with the ADSS and foster care interests to launch a national foster care recruitment campaign
- funding more training for foster carers to ensure that they have the skills necessary to care for children placed with them (on 18 September 1998 a letter was sent to Directors of Social Services in England, inviting bids for a £500,000 Training Support Programme (TSP) sub-programme for 1998/9, and indicating a larger sub-programme for training for foster carers for 1999/2000 onwards of approximately £2 million a year over a 3-year period.
- drawing up and publishing a code of practice for the recruitment and training of foster carers by April 1999
- funding the National Foster Care Association to draw up National Standards for Foster Care for publication in April 1999.
Services for Children who go Missing
2.18 All local authorities
must have appropriate
procedures for dealing with
children who go missing
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2.18 A child who goes missing from care should cause the utmost concern for a local authority. Research commissioned by the Department of Health demonstrates that there is considerable risk attached to every incident whether or not the child is missing for the first time or as part of a pattern of running away and returning. Like any concerned parent, the local authority should notify the police immediately and work urgently with them to trace the child.
2.19 The Government welcomes the joint guidance on the action to be taken when a child goes missing which has been drawn up by the LGA and the Association of Chief Officers of Police (ACPO). This will be developed further by Government on the basis of recently published research by York University, and will then be issued as statutory guidance, by April 1999.
2.20 It is particularly important that whenever a child returns, or is returned by others, a full assessment should be made of the reasons why the incident occurred and whether the child's placement remains suitable. Accurate records must be maintained of every incident and senior managers should examine both the reasons why children have gone missing and any variation in the rate at which they run away from different children's homes and foster carers.
2.21 Further work being
done on refuges
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2.21 The Government also recognises the importance of refuges which cater for young people. It will work constructively with local government and voluntary bodies to strengthen their role and financial basis.
Other recommendations
2.22 The complete overhaul of the public care system will help to deliver many of the recommendations made by the Children's Safeguards Review. More detailed responses to individual recommendations are given in annex B.
Implementation, Monitoring and Enforcement
2.23 The action outlined above will be taken forward to the following timetable:
- the "Quality Protects" programme was launched in England on 21 September, and will run for three years; a similar programme will be launched in Wales
- training improvements have already begun and will run for at least the next two years - see Chapter 8
- a group for young people looked after and formerly looked after is in the process of being set up and has agreed funding for the next three years
- the Code of Practice on the Recruitment, Assessment, Approval, Training Management and Support of Foster Carers and the National Standards for Foster Care will be issued in April 1999
- guidance on children who go missing will be issued by April 1999
- work on the financial basis of refuges has already begun.
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2.24 Improving children's
services - there will be
careful monitoring of local
authorities' performance
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2.24 The development of the "Quality Protects" agenda in each authority will be closely and continuously supported and monitored throughout the three year period. The support and monitoring will be expert and professional; regional development workers and Social Care Regional Offices (SCR) will work in partnership with local authorities. Particularly close checks will be kept on the number of placement moves being made by children, their educational achievements, and on the implementation of guidance on missing children. Once the "Quality Protects" programme has gone far enough to show significant outcomes the SSI in England and Wales will carry out inspections to check on progress.
2.25 These arrangements to support the development of " Quality Protects" will be backed up by redefined and strengthened arrangements for monitoring social services performance. The Department of Health is developing a new approach to performance issues which will support the proposals for securing "Best Value" set out in the White Papers Modern Local Government - in Touch with the People and Local Voices. The new arrangements will draw on the existing programme of SSI inspections and SSI/Audit Commission Joint Reviews and an enhanced performance assessment framework bringing together the key statistical information on social services performance will support these activities and inform local performance management.
2.26 The Government will act where authorities fail to deliver acceptable standards. The proposed new intervention powers to support "Best Value" will enable the Government to make appropriate and effective interventions. The forthcoming Social Services White Paper will give further details of our new approach to social services performance.
Funding
2.27 The Government accepts that additional resources will be required by local authorities to achieve the objectives set out in this chapter and in chapter 4 on improving services to care leavers. It also believes that local authorities' expenditure on children's services which now amounts to some £2.25 billion has considerable scope for improvements in effectiveness and efficiency. Those improvements will be pursued in the "Quality Protects" programme as they will through the wider programme that the Government has initiated for "Best Value" throughout local government.
2.28 Substantial
additional money to fund
improvements - but this
will be payable only if
progress is made
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2.28 In addition, the Government is introducing a substantial new Children's Services Special Grant, totalling £380 million over three and a half years, for social services authorities in England. The funding will be targeted at significantly improving outcomes for children in need in general, and looked after children, and care leavers in particular. It will be linked to the production by local authorities of satisfactory action plans under the "Quality Protects" programme. Local authorities progress will be monitored by the Social Care Regions during the course of the programme. If progress is inadequate, then part or all of the grant will be withheld until the necessary steps are undertaken or more specific conditions will be made on the grant to ensure weaknesses identified are rectified.
2.29 Payments under the grant will total £75m in 1999/2000, £120m in 2000/2001 and £180m in 2001/2002. In addition, £5m is being made available in the current financial year, to help local authorities prepare for the "Quality Protects" programme. Further details, including the basis for allocations, will be made available in the forthcoming management circular on "Quality Protects".
2.30 The Welsh Office has a looked after children development fund, with a budget of almost £1m in 1998/99, to enable local authorities in Wales to take forward projects to improve services for looked after children. The Welsh Office will ensure that adequate resources are available to improve the services for looked after children and will announce details later in the year in line with the Welsh Office annual review spending cycle.
Outcomes
2.31 The Government expects these policies to deliver, among other things:
- significant improvements in assessment, decision making and planning for children requiring social care assistance
- availability of a wider and more suitable range of placements
- fewer emergency changes of placement and of carer and a general trend towards more stable care relationships with no more than 16% of looked after children having 3 or more placements in one year in any authority by 2001
- fewer children to under-achieve as a result of marginalisation or exclusion from health, social care and education benefits
- increased numbers of looked after children to be attending school and achieving qualifications so that at least 50% of care leavers have one GCSE or GNVQ qualification by 2001
- improved data collection and information availability.
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1Separate White Papers will be issued for England and Wales
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