Government launches strategy to overhaul children’s social care

The government has launched a new wide-ranging plan that it says will transform the current care system for families and children.

With funding of £200m for the next two years, the new strategy focuses on early support and reducing the need for crisis response further down the line.

It is promised that families will now receive early local help and intervention when they are faced with difficult issues such as addiction, domestic abuse or mental health.

The new strategy will begin in 12 local authorities, which will enable a best practice model to be developed that will then be shared more widely.

The new measures include:

• The new approach to family help that will offer a evidence-based support in a welcoming and non-judgemental way for families to overcome issues and to prevent them from escalating.
• A new Child Protection Lead Practitioner role to be introduced, which will have advanced, specialist training, and will work with other services, such as the police, to better identify and respond to significant harm.
• Tapping into the value of family networks by supporting the kinship care system, including a £9 million investment in a kinship care training and support offer for all kinship carers
• Transforming the experiences of children in care and care leavers, by prioritising children in care living in homes close to their family, friends, communities and schools
• Support for local authorities to recruit up to 500 new child and family social worker apprentices

The government also announced that it will establish a children’s social care national framework and dashboard, and it has opened a consultation on the framework.

The children’s minister Claire Coutinho said:

“Children in care deserve the same love and stability as everyone else. Yet we’ve seen from the two tragic murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson that more needs to be done to protect our most vulnerable children.

“Our wide-ranging reforms will put strong relationships at the heart of the care system. From supporting our brilliant foster carers, kinship carers and social workers to getting early help to families and improving children’s homes, we want every child to get the support and protection they need.”

Find out more about the government’s new care strategy for children and young people “Stable Homes, Built on Love”.