This week the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care published its final report, setting out its recommendations to ‘reset children’s social care’.

There is little doubt that the system needs something of a reset; too often there is insufficient support to help families resolve their problems before they reach the family court. Despite the best efforts of dedicated and hardworking professionals, it can be easier to initiate proceedings than secure the intensive support that parents need to resolve their long-standing difficulties, whether for their mental health, addiction, poverty, trauma or family violence. We have ended up with a children’s social care system with a strong gravitational pull into the family courts. Something has to change.

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The Institute of Public Care (IPC) at Oxford Brookes University has been commissioned by Nuffield Family Justice Observatory to undertake a study to explore the prevalence and experience of parents with learning disabilities or difficulties involved in care proceedings concerning their babies in England. It will work in partnership with an award-winning expert by experience organisation, My Life My Choice, and with five local authority sites to co-produce a mixed-method study involving case file sampling, interviews with parents, and interviews with professionals frequently involved in care proceedings, from social workers and support workers to lawyers and judges.

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New research suggests that the most vulnerable children in England and Wales are being sent tosecure children’s homes in Scotland, an average of 353 miles away from their homes, family and friends, when places can’t be found for them locally.

At any one time around 25 children or more from England and Wales are living in secure care in Scotland. The new study, published by Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, suggests that they are the most vulnerable of an already vulnerable group of children, having experienced more serious difficulties – such as neglect, abuse, mental health problems, criminal and sexual exploitation – in childhood than children placed in secure homes in England.

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The Department for Education (DfE) has published an updated version of the statutory safeguarding and child protection guidance for schools in England, Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE) (DfE, 2022)¹. 

This guidance will replace KCSIE 2021 when it comes into force on 1 September 2022.   

The guidance sets out what schools and colleges in England must do to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people under the age of 18.

Our briefing sets out changes made to the guidance, including: 

• incorporating the DfE’s advice on Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges  
• setting out the safeguarding implications for schools of human rights and equality legislation 
• providing more information on managing low level concerns 
• reinforcing the importance of talking to parents about children’s access to online sites when away from school. 

KCSiE Briefing

Nurseries could be forced to close if funding does not keep up with costs, a childcare association has warned.

The National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) said providers in nearly half of Scottish councils are still waiting to find out their funding, just days before the new school year.

At least 15 councils are yet to decide on the hourly rates they’ll pay childcare providers from next week.

Only two councils have plans to keep up with the current rate of inflation.

Jonathan Broadbery, NDNA director of policy, told BBC Scotland that funding was not keeping pace with the rising cost of living

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Some foster carers are experiencing “horrific” money issues as they continue to wait for extra financial support that was expected in April.

More than 3,000 households are thought to be affected by the hold-up.

The Department of Health, which is responsible for allowances, said the delay was due to ongoing uncertainty this financial year.

An annual review and increase in line with inflation is required by UK national standards.

One foster carer told BBC News NI that the costs, which included items such as school uniforms as well as activities and therapies to meet the wellbeing needs of the children, were “horrific”.

There are more than 3,000 foster care families in Northern Ireland, with an increase of about 1,000 children requiring care here in the last 10 years.

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