Currently, more than 400,000 children in England are part of the social care system, with nearly 84,000 of them officially ‘looked after’.
On 15 July 2025, The Joint Committee on Human Rights announced an inquiry into how well children’s human rights are protected within England’s social care system.
This follows earlier announcements to reform children’s social care by the previous Conservative government in 2023 in its 'Stable homes, built on love strategy', and more recently Labour’s commitment to overhaul children’s social care, with a ‘wide range of new reform measures…to deliver better outcomes and a better secure life for children’.
The new inquiry will focus on children ‘in care’, but wider aspects of the system will also be relevant.
The Joint Committee has launched a call for written evidence asking questions on a wide range of topics:
- Legal framework
- Accommodation
- Kinship care
- Criminal justice
- Training
- Complaints and remedies
- Good practices
The questions cover:
- How robust and effective is the current legal framework for protecting children’s rights?
- Are there accessible complaints mechanisms for children and families?
- Does the system provide the right support for kinship carers and families with additional needs?
- How well do early intervention measures work in practice?
You can view the full list of ten questions and submit your written evidence up until Monday, 25 August.
The Committee has also launched an online survey to better understand the views of those who have experience of the children’s social care system in England. Click here to take part in the survey.
Comment
The children’s social care sector is quite the hot topic in England at present.
It's undergoing multiple reform measures reflecting a government committed to addressing longstanding challenges and improving outcomes for vulnerable children.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, introduced in December 2024 as part of Labour’s manifesto to “break down barriers to opportunity by reforming our childcare and education systems”, has now reached the Committee stage in the House of Lords. One of the stated aims of the Bill is to “improve the children’s social care placement market and tackle profiteering” and ensure that the right types of homes are in the right places to meet the needs of the children.
Meanwhile, we have already seen Wales introduce new legislation to end profit being made from children in care, with the Health and Social Care (Wales) Act 2025 receiving Royal Assent in March 2025. Wales is the first UK nation to legislate to end private profit in children’s residential and foster care. Going forwards, care there for looked after children will only be provided by the public sector, charitable or not-for-profit organisations.
You can read our earlier article on the changes in the sector here.
Most recently we have seen the Liberal Democrats in England call for a cap on SEND provider profits too.
This is a sector that never stands still.
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