Social care system ‘is failing children’

SOCIETY: The state can be so negligent to children in the care system that it would risk its children being taken away if it were an actual parent, the Children’ s Commissioner is set to warn.

Anne Longfield will say the system is failing thousands of young people and will fail more without reform and funding.

THE STATE can be so negligent to children in the care system that it would risk its children being taken away if it were an actual parent, the Children’s Commissioner is set to warn.

Anne Longfield will say that the system of children’s social care is failing thousands of young people and will fail more without urgent reform and funding.

Unless emergency funding is granted in tomorrow’s spending review, family services will be in “deep trouble”, she will warn.

In a speech setting out her vision for the future of children’s social care, she will say that while many children are protected, others are falling through the gaps and into the clutches of criminals, or leaving school without qualifications.

She will say: “The truth is while the state can be a great parent – it can also be a really bad one. In fact, sometimes so negligent that it would risk having its children taken into care if it was an actual parent.”

Ms Longfield will say the care system is “unsustainable and insufficient”, and next year will be a crunch point, as councils’ finances suffer from the fall- out of coronavirus.

Children’s social care will need an additional £ 3bn to £ 4bn per year over the next four years “to stand still”, she believes. She will say: “It is a system that has not kept up with the changing cohort of children entering it, and which is rapidly running out of money. And without urgent reform, and better funding, it will fail more children.”

An independent review of children’s social care is expected to be announced soon by the Government.

Ms Longfield, who is from West Yorkshire, said this is a “golden opportunity” for the Government to improve the experiences and outcomes of vulnerable children in the care system.

It should recommend services adopt a proactive safeguarding approach and should also consider a national care system which would allow certain issues to be tackled nationally.

Ms Longfield said she is always struck by the resilience and positivity of children in care, despite them having to deal with “unbelievable bureaucracy” to enjoy activities such as sleepovers and school trips. She said some children are treated like “a risk to be managed, not a life to be lived”.

She will add: “No child should ever be seen as too complicated to help, or someone that nobody knows what to do with. People in the system have said this to me and I’m not prepared to accept it.

“Let’s build a system where those experiences are standard. A system which recognises each family’s unique situation and responds to the need of every child, wherever they are in the country, with the same standards of protection and support.”

The news follows the Children’s Commissioner last month saying she was “horrified” over debates over extending the free school meals scheme for children during the holidays.

“To have a debate about whether we should make sure that hungry and vulnerable children have enough to eat is something that is strikingly similar to something we’d expect to see in chapters of Oliver Twist,” Ms Longfield said in October.

Since the proposal–spear headed by Marcus Rash ford–was voted down, the Government has made aU-turn, announcing free school meals would be available for eligible children until April 2022.

No child should ever be seen as too complicated to help. Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield.