The Government has announced the ‘biggest overhaul in a generation to children’s social care’ with the publication of a policy statement, ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’ – their framework for reforms they plan to make to children’s social care services in England.
The policy statement introduced to Parliament on 18 November 2024 sets out the Government’s vision for the children’s social care system and the legislative agenda for reform, which will be implemented when ‘parliamentary time allows’. It aims to “rebalance” the children’s social care system in favour of early intervention and keeping families together. It also includes empowering Ofsted to investigate companies running multiple children’s homes and take enforcement action against unregistered providers.
Use of language
There is some very powerful language in the press release and accompanying statement...
“Our care system has suffered from years of drift and neglect. It’s bankrupting councils, letting families down and, above all, leaving too many children feeling forgotten, powerless and invisible.”
“We will crack down on care providers making excessive profit, tackle unregistered and unsafe provision…”
“One of the most entrenched challenges is some private providers that are siphoning off money that should be going towards vulnerable children making excessive profits of running unregistered homes that don’t meet the right standards of care.”
These have been driven by many concerns, including the fact that there are now over 1,500 children in placements each costing the equivalent of over £0.5m every year and the fact that Local Government spending on children’s social care has risen by £4.4bn over the last decade.
There are lots of positives too such as the Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, saying “There must be no limits on our ambition for these children” and The Secretary of State, Bridget Phillipson, saying “Life should not come down to luck. Success belongs to each and every child”.
Key reform principles
The Government’s actions will be guided by four principles set out below:
- Keeping families together, preventing children from entering the care system
- Supporting kinship and foster care, rather than residential care
Fix the “broken” care market - Investing in key enablers
Legislation to make the care system child centred and to tackle profiteering
Chapter 2 is likely to be of interest to many of our readers. Again, there is powerful and emotive language used. Pages 19 to 37 are a must read for those involved in the provision of children’s care.
The Department want to make sure that those providing care are held to account for the quality of the homes they provide in order to make the Government’s vision a reality.
They want it to be easier to open more good quality homes where they are most needed so proposed to break down planning permission and location assessment barriers. They have noted that 25% of all children’s homes are in the North West.
However, the policy paper states that it is not about the volume of homes – there is also a need to make sure there is the right level of accountability for quality. While they do acknowledge that in children’s homes and supported accommodation, there are examples of skilled and passionate staff, who go above and beyond for the children and young people they work with, the Department want to ensure that everyone is ambitious and hold high standards for the children they care for and support.
New proposals for the children’s social care system
Annex A contains a summary of the actions (pages 38-41). These include:
Introduce a provider oversight scheme to increase Ofsted’s existing powers to ensure provider groups are held responsible for the quality of the children’s homes and other children’s social care provision that they own. This is in light of the fact that 83% of children’s homes are now privately owned. They have been working closely with CQC to learn from their oversight scheme. Read our article on the Competition and Market Authority’s 2022 market study into children’s social care provision.
Enhance Ofsted’s enforcement powers so that they can issue fines against providers illegally operating unregistered children’s homes. Ofsted opened over 1,100 cases in 2023/24 on potentially unregistered settings and found that 87% should have been registered.
Improve data on placements to give local authorities information to assess need in local areas and assess long-term demand for placements.
Enable local authorities to set up Regional Care Co-operatives (RCCs). RCCs will carry out regional data analysis, develop regional sufficiency strategies, and develop regional provision. RCCs are currently being developed in two areas, Greater Manchester and the South East, where they will go live next year. These pathfinders have been working closely with the Integrated Care Boards, youth justice partners, and others in their area.
Increase the supply and diversity of placements by encouraging non-profit providers back into the market to reduce costs and provide placements which better meet children’s needs closer to home. There is reference to initial set up costs being a barrier and the Government intending to work with providers, investors and the sector at large to support them with innovative funding mechanisms eg social financing models.
Create a fast-track procedure to make it easier for homes to be set up where they most need them.
A new scheme to increase financial and corporate transparency among the most "difficult to replace" providers, increase provider contingency planning for financial failure, and provide an early warning system to local authorities.
Explore introducing registration requirements for companies that provide placements to children to ensure they have responsible tax practices and are owned and domiciled in the UK, including corporate owners and majority shareholders.
Introducing powers to cap provider profits from the provision of children’s social care places in the future in the event that “excessive profiteering” is not brought under control.
Introduce a consistent child identifier, making sure information can be shared between professionals so they can intervene before issues escalate.
Introduce a requirement for every council to have these teams, involving children’s schools and teachers, stopping children falling through the cracks.
All local authorities will be required to offer this programme – a package of support which enables care leavers to find and keep accommodation, alongside access to practical and emotional help, up to the age of 21, ending the hard cut of support at 18.
Government to work with Ofsted to explore how improvements can ensure inspection is a constructive force in the sector that supports good practice, empowers leaders and practitioners.
Responding to the huge rise in children being deprived of their liberty. Read our article: Commissioner calls for stronger protections for children being deprived of their liberty.
Looking ahead
The reforms announced in the policy paper follows the agenda set out by the Conservative government in their Stable homes, built on love strategy published in 2023.
The legislation is likely to be brought forward through the Children’s Wellbeing Bill which was included in the King’s speech.
We are also told that further plans for funding for children’s social care are set to be laid out in the coming weeks in the upcoming Local Government Finance Settlement.
The Department have recently commissioned research on how the system relating to deprivation of liberty works and plan to publish research in 2025.
Across the border the Welsh Government has published the Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill which seeks to eliminate profit from the care of looked after children, by ensuring that residential, secure accommodation and foster care for looked-after children can only be provided by not-for-profit providers, such as those in the voluntary and charitable sector. The intention if that relevant provisions of the Bill will be brought into effect so that:
- By 1 April 2026 all new providers registering with Care Inspectorate Wales will be required to have not-for-profit status.
- By 1 April 2027 all current for profit providers will need to transition to a not-for-profit entity and register with the Care Inspector Wales.
It's clear from the Government’s policy paper it is seeking to deliver on its manifesto commitments and intends to fix the foundations of social care, investing in the “groundwork for a stronger sector”.
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