System shift 5: Supporting ongoing connection between families more often and more successfully, across foster carers and partners What does the evidence show?
engaged in this work felt these statistics speak to an opportunity to be more aspirational in the initial plan for children in care and their families, and increase the success rate of delivering this outcome, given how long (on average) children are remaining in the care system.
As shown in Figure 19, for children who stay in care for more than one year, their initial permanence plan was to return to their family 28% of the time. When reviewing the current permanence plan of children in care, this figure dropped to 16%. Directors of Children’s Services
They wouldn’t let me live with my aunt because my cousin had a criminal record – even though
Figure 19: Initial versus current looked-after-child plan Initial versus current looked-after-child plan
Analysis for this programme found that 80%+ of children who enter the care system stay in it for longer than one year. In approximately 50% of cases, children who enter the care system above the age of five stay in care until they turn 18 or transition to independent living.
10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
he’d turned his life around.” Care experienced young person
Figure 18: How long children stay in care when entering care above the age of 5 How long children stay in care when entering care above the age of 5
35%
0% 5%
30%
25%
20%
Initial planned long-term outcome according to the child’s first looked-aer-child plan Current planned long-term outcome according to the most recent looked-aer-child plan Planned long-term setting or outcome for the child
15%
10%
5%
family members and friends. The most common barrier they identified to achieve that aim was a lack of cohesive joined-up working and information sharing across the system (shown in Figure 20).
This view is corroborated by the results of the local practitioner reviews of the stories of 100+ children in care. They found that in 33% of instances, more could have been done to support the family towards reconnection, including reconnection with siblings, wider
0%
<1 year
1-2
2-3
3-4
4-5
5-6
6-7
7+
Number of years spent in care Exited care prior to independence Reached independence/aged out
Staying in care for the long term is not necessarily a poor outcome – for many children, stable long-term foster or kinship care provides the security and continuity they need. The focus of this shift is on those children for whom a return to their family network may be possible and beneficial, and where the system could do more to actively support and revisit that option over time. I aged out of care with
Families had to look perfect – savings, spare rooms, the right jobs – things that had nothing to do with the relationship with the child.” Care experienced young person Contact felt clinical and institutional… it didn’t feel like family time, it felt like we
Figure 20: Most common reasons why the system was unable to support families to work towards reconnection Most common reasons why the system was unable to support families to work
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
were the ones in trouble.” Care experienced young person
10%
no relationship with any of my siblings because of how the system handled reunification.” Care experienced young person
0%
50
51
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs