
Education Committee: Children’s social care report published
The Education Committee (Commons Select Committee) has just published its report as part of its inquiry into children’s social care. The report sets out a number of key recommendations for the Government to improve the children’s social care system and the experiences of children and their families.
CoramBAAF welcomes this important report. We have been engaging with the Education Committee and the inquiry since it began under the previous administration in December 2023. The inquiry ‘aimed to take a broad look at the system as a whole, assessing the current state of children’s social care and making recommendations for reform’. We are pleased that following the formation of the current Committee, prompted by the 2024 General Election, it was agreed to take forward this work and finish the inquiry.
We provided written evidence as well as oral evidence to the Committee. We also supported the development and launch of the “Increasing access to evidence-informed mental health service provision for children in care in England” report in partnership with University College London (UCL) and UK Trauma Council, and several key recommendations from this are included in the Education Committee's report.
The report makes for challenging reading. It highlights the lack of sufficiency of foster carers, the need for mental health support for children in care, and evidence of poor outcomes for care leavers across a range of measures. Depressingly, the Committee found that:
“...many of the problems highlighted by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in 2022 persist, and in a significant number of cases have worsened since the Review”.
The case for urgent action is strong.
To make improvements and address these challenges, the report makes a number of recommendations. Many of these, if taken forward by the Government, would make a real difference to the lives of our most vulnerable children.
Because the report is not by the Government, and is instead by a cross-party group of MPs, these are only recommendations for the Government to consider. However, this is an important report from an influential group of cross-party politicians at the heart of our political system. The Department for Education will have to respond to the report and the recommendations.
Key recommendations for the Government include:
- Publish a national sufficiency strategy for children’s social care and publish data on the extent to which sufficiency requirements are being met on an annual basis.
- Put in place a national fostering strategy to complement the existing strategies for adoption and kinship care. As part of this, it should consult on introducing a national register of foster carers and review the financial support available to ensure that it is adequate to meet their needs.
- The Department for Education should work with the Department of Health and Social Care to pilot setting up co-located mental health services between children’s social care and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and must strengthen the role of mental health in health assessments of children in care.
- The Department for Education should extend Pupil Premium Plus funding and priority school admissions to all children who meet the new statutory definition of living in kinship care.
- The Department for Education must end the annual cliff-edge of uncertainty faced by adoptive families and make funding for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund permanent.
- The Department for Education should review the educational support available to adopted children.
Overall, there is a lot more that can be done to address the systemic challenges. CoramBAAF welcomes the focus that this important Committee has given to social care. This report highlights the urgent action needed to address many of the challenges in our system that impact the lives of children and their families. We will update our members when the Government responds.
James Bury, Head of Policy, Research and Development and Interim Managing Director, CoramBAAF.