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What does the future hold for children’s services?
Nearly nine months on from the publishing of Josh MacAlister’s DfE commissioned report, “The independent review of children’s social care” the sector awaits a substantive response to the report from central government. The commitment to publish a response by the end of the year has now been pushed into the New Year - criticism of the delay exacerbated by the low turnout at last month’s parliamentary debate on the subject. In this context, the new Children’s Minister, Claire Coutinho’s pledge to make “ambitious” changes in children’s social care in her first speech on 9 November is most welcome. As such reforms make their way through the parliamentary system, how can local authorities best position themselves to manage the significant pressure on the purse strings without the system failing the most vulnerable?
The crisis facing children’s social care is on an unprecedented scale. The pandemic has highlighted the vulnerabilities, and has sparked debate over the link between poverty and health inequalities. Local authorities have been managing ever-increasing demand for a prolonged period. The figures over the past 10 years are almost unbelievable – the LGA in response to the Spending Review 2021 noted that the number of looked after children has risen from 57 in every 100,000 in 2009-10 to 67 in every 100,000 in 2019-20. These substantive increases also reflected by the most recent report published on 17 November. The statistics are stark: the number of looked after children is up 2% on 2021 and the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children is above pre pandemic levels – up by 34% on 2021.
We have worked with authorities nationally implementing many options to drive transformation - ranging from strategic partnerships to the establishment of local authority owned vehicles to run children’s social care departments. Reform through early help and prevention programmes should be a key component to building organisational resilience. Authorities need the resources to safeguard those on the cusp of social care intervention falling deep into the system.
Strategic support and funding for the prevention agenda are imperative to enable local authorities to start to chip away at the funding gap as part of which national reform building on local flexibilities is much needed.
Kirtpal Kaur Aujla
Partner at Bevan Brittan
03701945028
07467940477
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