Better Children’s Services: the Education Select Committee

This is going back a few days (it’s been a busy week); on Tuesday I gave evidence to the House of Commons Education Select Committee on aspects of the government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. I was there in my role as Children’s Services spokesperson for the County Councils Network (CCN), although I also made reference to experiences in Kent, and was alongside representatives from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the National Network for the Education of Care Leavers and the charity Kinship.

This was to some degree a repeat of the evidence that I gave to the same Committee (albeit with entirely different membership) in March last year. As before, this covered the problems of cost and service availability in children’s services. This was the subject of the well-regarded Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, chaired by Josh MacAlister (now a Labour MP), followed by a White Paper and a number of initiatives under the previous government. The difference this time is that there is now legislation under consideration, and that the evidence session focused on the Bill’s provisions in relation to management of the market, the development of Regional Care Cooperatives, kinship care, the expanding role of Virtual Schools and care leavers.

While I am critical of some of the education provisions of the Bill (some of which the government has had to row back on), the approach to children’s services is sensible and a welcome example of continuity between governments and across parties. In particular, the problems in the provision of children’s social care (highlighted in a report by the CMA some years ago) are best addressed through strengthening local authority commissioning and increasing the supply of places, as argued in a report (The Way We Care) commissioned by CCN last year. The bill gives the Secretary of State powers to introduce a profit cap, but it is very much a reserve power if other measures fail. That is a right and pragmatic approach; a cap now, without the introduction of other measures, could simply reduce the available provision.

At the end of the session, I highlighted “the elephant in the room”: the £2.5 billion in funding that Josh MacAlister highlighted as necessary to deliver the reforms that the Independent Review advocated. The previous government’s White Paper, Stable Homes, Built on Love was well-received but did not commit to this funding. In the autumn budget and subsequent local government financial settlement, the government established a £270 million Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant. I urged that this should be viewed as a down payment on the funding needed to deliver a comprehensive programme of reform.

You can find the evidence session on the parliamentary TV channel here.

The Way We Care

Across the country, we are seeing more children in care (and spending more time in care) and much greater reliance on residential care as foster care numbers plateau. The end result is that many care placements are costly, not tailored to children’s needs and all too often a long distance from home.

These were some of the findings of ‘The Way We Care’, a report by specialist consultants IMPOWER and commissioned by the County Councils Network (CCN). It was launched yesterday morning at the CCN Annual Conference. I chaired the launch as CCN spokesperson on children’s services; in that role, I was involved in the development of the report, including chairing an advisory group that helped shape it. 

The report identifies the need to reduce the number of children, interim care, lead to increase those safely, leaving it. This builds on the work of Josh McAlister’s Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, which has been official government policy for sometime, but which needs to be funded adequately to be delivered. 

However, the report also highlights the need to address the severe challenges of commissioning and provisioning of placements, including the impact of registration and regulation, the pricing regime, and the need for a more long-term, strategic approach to commissioning. 

This is an important piece of work; the government has indicated its openness to reform in its statements attached to the recent budget, and this now needs to be given substance. I found it particularly valuable to cheer the advisory group, whose members had enormous experience and expertise, and two of its members – Nick Barnett of the Caldicot foundation, and Brenda Farrell of Barnardos - took part in the launch yesterday morning. 

Children’s placements are one of the areas that threaten the financial stability of local government; the issue needs to be addressed for that reason, but above all to ensure much better service and better outcomes for the children who come into our care. 

You can find CCN’s media release, and a link to the report here.

 

Children’s Services under pressure

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to give evidence to the House of Commons Education Select Committee on the pressures facing local authorities’ children’s services. I did so in my role as Children’s Services spokesperson for the County Councils Network (CCN), though there was quite a bit of reference in the discussion to our experience in Kent. I gave evidence along with John Pearce, President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (and Director of Children’s Services at Durham County Council) and Stuart Ashley, Director of Children’s Services at Hampshire County Council, who gave evidence remotely. 

In the hearing, I set out the pressures experienced by councils which have seen expenditure at CCN members almost double over the last decade. There has been an increase in the number of children in care (though in Kent our numbers, excluding asylum seeking children, have been fairly steady) but the bigger effect has been from rising costs. There has been a shift from councils’ own fostering arrangements to independent fostering agencies, from fostering to residential provision, and a big rise in very expensive placements of young people with very severe needs that are not being met elsewhere.

The well-received Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, chaired by Josh MacAlister, reported in May 2022 proposing major reforms to address these challenges. The White Paper issued by government in response, ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ sets a good overall policy direction, but does not commit the funding  needed to deliver these changes as a rapid pace. Addressing these challenges will remain a matter of vital importance for Kent County Council and other local authorities, and I was glad to be able to have the chance to make the case. 

You can find the meeting on the parliamentary channel here.

Outstanding: Ofsted’s verdict on Kent’s Children’s Services

In a report issued this morning, Ofsted has rated Kent County Council’s children’s services as Outstanding - the highest ranking and one held by few councils across the country. This follows an inspection in May under the Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) framework.

It has been a long journey of improvement. A little over a decade ago, KCC’s children’s services were found to be Inadequate. The hard work of improvement has taken place during an era of funding constraints, rising demand pressures on children’s services across the country, the pandemic and, for Kent, the arrival, especially in 2015-16 and 2020-22, of large numbers of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children. 

Ofsted rated Kent’s children’s services against four criteria:

- The impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families - Outstanding 

-  The experiences and progress of children who need help and protection - Good

- The experiences and progress of children in care and care leavers - Outstanding

- Overall effectiveness - Outstanding

Ofsted found that children are at the centre of KCC’s practice; that social work and early help teams work effectively and understand well the children and families they support and engage with; that there is ‘outstanding practice’ in support of children in care and care leavers; and that the political and senior officer leadership is committed, well-informed and prepared to invest in the service. One of the most heartening findings was that staff are ‘rightly proud of the work they do’ and ‘love working for Kent’. 

There are a,ways challenges, and always areas in which we can improve further, and the report sets these out. But this is, taken in the round, a fantastic tribute to the staff who, day in and day out, dedicate themselves to the children and young people of the county.

You can find our media release, with a link to the Ofsted report, here

Asylum seeking children: some real progress

This post is a bit behind events, but it has been a frenetic week.

I have posted before about the challenges Kent faces regarding the arrival of large numbers of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC). Adult asylum seekers (and children accompanying their families) who arrive in Kent are dispersed across the country (with relatively few remaining in the South East) but UASC remain the responsibility of KCC. So far this year some 215 UASC have come into the care of the County Council, more than in the whole of either 2017 or 2018, and more than twice the level of the same time last year. In the month of May alone, 65 UASC arrived, the highest level for any month since the crisis summer of 2015.

With our reception centres and other services under severe and growing pressure, I wrote to the Home Secretary urging action. At the start of this week, I warned that the new quarantine regulations would add to the pressures because the requirements for lengthy isolation would stretch our reception facilities further.

On Monday, I spoke to the Immigration Minister Chris Philp, and shortly after this government announced a package of improved financial support for councils for UASC. The following day saw a remote meeting, in which Sue Chandler (Cabinet Member for Integrated Children's Services), KCC officers and I spoke with Minister Philp, Children's Minister Vicky Ford, their officials and representatives from local government and children's services bodies.

The government measures have raised the rates paid in support of 16 and 17 year old UASC for authorities with more than 0.07% UASC in their young people's population (the measure set for the purposes of the National Transfer Scheme, set up after the 2015 crisis but in abeyance in the last couple of years). There is also a 20% increase in the rates paid for the support of UASC care leavers (former children in care aged 25), with the Home Office support now extended to the age of 25. Alongside this government committed to give strong support to efforts which KCC has begun to place UASC young people with local authorities across the country.

This is very good news in many ways. The enhanced financial support is worth some £5 million to KCC, and hence to Kent taxpayers. The personal commitment of the ministers has been impressive, and it is to be hoped (and some of the early signs are encouraging) that we can make progress in placing UASC in other local authorities. There will be continuing dialogue with ministers on longer-term issues.

There are perhaps two caveats. The first is that, while we may well see placements with other local authorities in the immediate future, it is not clear whether the measures announced can get the National Transfer Scheme back up and running on a sustained basis. Secondly, if arrivals continue at a rapid rate over the summer (in spite of ministers' commitment to work with the French authorities to reduce the boat journeys across the Channel), then our services could soon be under pressure again. Still, we are in a much better position than seemed possible a week ago, or when I pre-recorded an interview for BBC Radio 4's File on 4 (you can find the programme here; my comments are in the closing minutes of this very informative episode). KCC's media release can be found here.    

Kent's Children's Services Rated Good by Ofsted

Yesterday saw the publication of Ofsted's inspection report on Kent County Council's Children's Services. The outcome was very encouraging, rating the Council's services as 'Good'. This puts Kent in the top third or better of authorities in the country.

The result is all the better, given that Kent's services were rated 'Inadequate' in 2010, an outcome described by KCC Leader Paul Carter as the darkest day of his leadership of the County. An extensive improvement programme has been in place since then, yielding an 'Adequate' rating in 2013 and now the move up to 'Good'. And this for a big and complex county, in which the Council  not only has responsibility for around 1,400 local children in care, but has also had to deal with significant inflows of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC), especially during a big surge in numbers in 2015. There are also roughly as many looked after children placed in the County by other local authorities.

The report gave high praise to services supporting adoption, fostering, children in care and those leaving care, asylum seeking children, those on 'the edge of care' and others, including the Virtual School Kent; it also praised the commitment and high quality practice of Kent's social workers. Some areas still have room for improvement, notably those for 'children who need help and protection'; in some cases, referrals were closed down prematurely and practice was not consistently good. Overall, the report provides some ten recommendations for improvement.

This strong outcome is a tribute to the dedication of front-line staff; to a senior management team that has given clear and committed leadership; and to political leaders, above all my predecessors in this job, Jenny Whittle and Peter Oakford, who backed the process of improvement unswervingly and were willing to put the necessary resources behind it. As the new portfolio holder for Children's Services, I can (and do) claim no credit for this result; however, I now have a job to do in overseeing the Council's practice development plan, which will seek both to implement the report's recommendations and to drive still further overall improvement.

You can find the full report here.