Programme approach This qualitative and quantitative research programme took the following approach: 1. Analysis of three years of children’s social care data held by nine county and CCN unitary member authorities. This provided an initial understanding of children who have been in their care and was supplemented with analysis of publicly available national data sets. 2. Activities to gather ‘on the ground’ evidence from five county authority areas. This included: • Engagement with local children, young people and families. • Facilitation of local practitioners across agencies to review 100+ stories of local children who have been in the care system. • Engagement with local frontline staff to understand local practice. 3. Engagement with senior local authority officers; elected members; and care experienced consultants, through Coram Voice. This was critical to help interpret and contextualise the evidence gathered. The programme was overseen by a cross- sector Advisory Group, with representation from local authorities (Directors of Children’s Services, Section 151 Officers, Directors of Public Health and Chief Executives); Department for Education (DfE); Coram Voice; The Early Years Alliance; and the NHS, including providers of Child and Adolescent Health Services (CAMHS). Throughout the programme, the principles, outcomes, and enablers of the Children’s Social Care National Framework have been used to guide the analysis and recommendations vii . In particular, this statutory guidance clearly defines the core purpose of children’s social care: ‘Children’s social care exists to support children, young people and families by addressing problems early , intervening decisively when there is likelihood of harm, and to provide care for those who need it so that they grow up to achieve and thrive with safety, stability and love’.
Key findings Part of the evidence shaping this report was gathered from an analysis by local practitioners of over 100+ stories of children that have been in the care system. This provided a useful baseline for the key issues the report has sought to address. They waited until it really, really got bad before taking action. Things could have been prevented if they’d taken it seriously earlier.” Care experienced young person When analysing the stories of the children against a conceivable system uninhibited by factors such as current practice or resource constraints, they found that: • For 70% of children, their family could have been supported in an improved way, by at least one element of the multi-agency children’s support system, before they entered care. This does not mean that the decision to take these children into care was the wrong one when that happened, but does suggest opportunities where improved earlier support was conceivably possible. • For 47% of those children, there was a degree of confidence amongst practitioners that if their family had received that alternative support, the child would have likely not needed to be taken in to care at that point in time. • For 32% of children, their family could have been supported in an improved way by the complex multi-agency system, after the child entered care. • For 33% of those children, there was a degree of confidence amongst practitioners that if their family had received that alternative support (as described in Section 3), the child could have exited the care system positively before the age of 18. The findings were tested through wider data analysis, and engagement with children and young people; front line practitioners; and senior system leaders. These inputs all triangulate to a meaningful, material opportunity to shift the system to enable more children to be cared for by their family network.
You don’t come into care as a result of one crisis but after several.” Care experienced young person This programme does not start from the premise that entry to care is a system failure – local authorities have a statutory duty to assess, manage and mitigate risk, and this action can be a warranted result of that duty. Rather it asks: what would need to change fundamentally in the complex, multi-agency, children’s social care system to safely and positively prevent more children coming into care, and support more children to return to their family network? This work takes place within a policy shift towards more preventative services, as well as the wider, existing evidence base on the benefits of a child growing up in the care of their family network. The programme has been purposefully aspirational, seeking to identify large-scale, whole-system opportunities to make ‘shifts’ that: • More effectively support a greater number of families that could benefit from early support, as needs emerge, so that fewer children need to be taken into care (secondary prevention). • Support the families of children in care so that more children positively exit the care system back to their family or family network (tertiary prevention). These objectives have been met by building an evidence-based understanding of the patterns in the journeys of children who have been in care. These journeys and patterns have then been analysed to identify high priority ‘system shifts’ which have the greatest likelihood of promoting the preventative outcomes referenced. The potential quantified impact of making these shifts on children and public sector resources and finances has subsequently been modelled.
Although this work has focussed on those children who enter the care system, this is a small group relative to the large number of families supported to stay together by the existing multi-agency children’s services system. More than 99% of children live with their families. Even when narrowing the focus to consider the 90,000 children who begin a statutory social care plan in county and CCN unitary member authorities each year, 94% of these children remain with their family. As a result, this programme’s findings are distinct recommendations within a much wider system – one that is already anchored in prevention but with a clear policy aspiration to move even further in that direction. Prevention begins with connection: when communities and services work together, families thrive and fewer children
are taken by the system.” Care experienced young person
It should be noted that this work has started to identify what can be done to address the issues highlighted by the evidence gathered, and this will be explored in more detail in the next phase of the programme.
10
11
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs