Policy developments in the children’s sector

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Over the past few months the government has set out its policy agenda in a number of key areas. To help you, our members, keep up to date with changes, we have written a brief overview of some recent activity.   

  1. Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive policy statement was published in November 2024.  
  2. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill was published in December 2024 setting out key legislative changes affecting children’s social care and education. 
  3. The House of Commons Education Select Committee continued its inquiry into children’s social care. 
  4. A national audit of Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse along with a number of local audits were announced by the Home Secretary, Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP.  

Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive 

In November 2024, the Department for Education released ‘Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive: Breaking Down Barriers to Opportunity’. The document is a policy statement and a precursor to the publication of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill. 

The content sets out the government’s vision and principles for the children’s social care system. This includes supporting children, wherever possible, to remain with their families and be safely prevented from entering the care system.  Additional areas of focus are: fixing the ‘broken market’, ensuring that the residential care system is working for children, improving the recruitment and retention of foster carers, and improved data and information sharing across local authorities. 

Lastly, the statement promotes an enhancement of multi-agency partnerships (linking national and local authorities), as well as plans to regulate the for-profit children’s care sector. 

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill 

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill was published in December 2024 setting out key legislative changes affecting children’s social care and education. For a more detailed update about this Bill, read our news update ‘Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: New duties in family group decision making and kinship care’. 

Children’s Social Care Select Committee 

The Education Select Committee was initiated by the previous government to consider how vulnerable children can be protected, how the system is functioning in support of this and how the social care market operates in the context of the public and private sector.  

The committee reopened in December 2024, taking evidence on ways to improve early intervention, tackle rising local authority spending, and consider how to support the most vulnerable children. 

CoramBAAF provided written evidence in early 2024 and oral evidence earlier in December 2024. The committee will set out a formal report in due course, providing a number of recommendations to which the Government will respond. 

National audit of Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse 

Following calls for a national inquiry into “grooming gangs”, the Home Secretary, Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP has announced the launch of a number of local audits. A ‘national audit’ has also begun which aims to understand the scale and nature of the issue, and propose measures to protect vulnerable children in future. The three-month national audit will be led by Baroness Louise Casey, and will seek to: 

  1. Identify local and national trends 
  2. Review data linked to group-based CSE in other relevant partner agencies 
  3. Provide an assessment of what is known about the demographics of grooming gangs and their victims, including ethnicity. 
  4. Review cultural and societal drivers for this type of offending and the motivations and characteristics of grooming gang offending, to provide an evidence-base for prevention, early intervention and disruption. 

The government is beginning to set out their legislative and policy agenda more clearly. We will keep members updated about changes and continue to work with partner organisations, officials and parliamentarians to improve the lives of children. Additionally, we will be considering the impact of these measures on practice and how we can support practitioners with any changes that follow.