CONSULTATION PACK

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CONSULTATION PACK

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Background

• Children in care are diverse and have complex
  needs
• 60,000 in care at any one point in time
• Two thirds in foster care one in eight in
  residential care one in ten with parents
• Two thirds in care due to abuse or neglect
• Half 5-17s with a mental disorder (4 times higher
  than all children)
• Inequalities between children in care and all
  children are still too great, and are widening
• Only one in ten children in care attained 5 good
  GCSEs in 2005 compared with more than half of all
  children
• Only 6 of 19 year olds go into higher education
  compared with nearly a third of all young people

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Governments proposals focus on seven themes

• Intervening earlier and more effectively with
  children on the edge of care and their families
• Strengthening the role of the corporate parent
• Improving the quality and stability of placements
• Ensuring a first class education
• Improving life outside school
• Easing the transition to adult life
• Making the system work robust accountability

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1. Children on the edge of care

• Training resource for practitioners identifying
  and responding to neglect
• Testing out a model of intensive whole-family
  therapy to keep families together
• Developing whole family approaches by improving
  links between adults and childrens services
• Creating a National Centre for Excellence in
  Childrens Services

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2. The role of the corporate parent

• Piloting social care practices (small
  independent groups of social workers contracted
  by the local authority to provide services for
  children in care).
• Piloting the use of individual budgets for each
  child in care to be held by their lead
  professional the social worker
• Clarity over the role and use of care plans
• Expanding the independent visitor role into an
  Independent Advocate for more children in care

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3. Better more stable placements

• Tiered framework of foster and residential
  placements
• Piloting intensive foster care with multi-agency
  support for younger children
• Specially tailored recruitment campaigns for
  foster carers
• Extending the use of specialist foster care for
  children with complex needs
• Regional commissioning units to secure choice and
  better value

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4. A first class education

• Providing local authorities with the power to
  direct schools to admit children in care, even
  where the school is fully subscribed
• A virtual headteacher in every local area to
  drive up standards for children in care
• Free school transport so children dont have to
  move schools when they move placement
• Dedicated budget for each social worker to spend
  on improving the childs educational experience
• Better support in school to prevent exclusions of
  children in care
• Increasing the entitlement to a personal adviser
  until the age of 25.

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5. Life outside school

• Free access for children in care to local
  authority leisure facilities
• New model of comprehensive health provision
• Training for health professionals in working with
  children in care
• Improved access for foster carers to childrens
  centre provision
• Better access to volunteering and other positive
  activities for children in care

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6. Entering adult life

• New language no longer leaving care
• Giving young people veto over whether to leave
  care before 18
• Allowing young people to stay in foster care up
  to 21
• 100 top-up to the child trust fund
• 2000 university bursary
• Supported accommodation for older children in care

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7. Making the system work

• Regular Ofsted inspection of education of
  children in care
• Annual national stocktake by Ministers
• Children in Care Council in each local authority
• Independent Reviewing Officers more independent
• Education of children in care a key DfES national
  target

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How to respond

• Government is keen to hear views from everyone
  involved in the lives of children in care,
  including those who are, or have been in care
• We would like to hear any comments you have on
  the Green Paper. Specific questions on the
  proposals can be found at www.dfes.gov.uk/consulta
  tions
• Full documents, summaries and online response
  forms can be found at the same address.
• You can email responses to carematters.consultat
  ion_at_dfes.gsi.gov.uk
• Young peoples guides to the Green Paper are
  also available online at www.dfes.gov.uk/consultat
  ions
• The consultation will run until 15th January.

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What happens next?

• Consultation period until 15th January
• Government has set up 4 working groups which will
  report in Spring
• Future of the Care Population. Chair Martin
  Narey
• Social Care Practices. Chair Professor Julian le
  Grand
• Placement Reform. Chair Lord Laming
• Best Practice in Schools. Chair Professor Dame
  Pat Collarbone
• Initial consultation response document in Spring
• Full Next Steps document in Autumn