National level enablers 1. Commitment to prioritising outcomes for families where children are most at risk across all government reform and policy development. This report has demonstrated how outcomes for children in care are influenced by agencies and associated policies and reforms across the entire children’s services system. It has also demonstrated how these reforms need to be coherent on outcomes for children at risk of entering care or already in the care system for those outcomes to be best promoted. Government departments aim to join up policy developments but this is not always evident in implementation. 2. Protecting funding for preventative services through support to manage overspends on children in care budgets and dedicated funding. Government should consider how funding across adults’ services, schools, and local authorities can be developed to promote outcomes for children at risk of entering care or within the care system, and how to incentivise partnership working towards these outcomes. In particular, a solution should be developed to address the short-term financial pressure on local authority finances from spend on children in care placements (so as to avoid disinvestment in preventative services). Financial ‘rewards’ for authorities that prioritise prevention and early intervention could potentially be considered (though would need careful design, application and management). 3. Extending the Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant (now part of the Children, Families, and Youth Grant) beyond its current end date of 2028/29 to at least 2032/33. Modelling for this programme suggests this is the earliest point from which the benefits of a more preventative system could realistically be reinvested to sustain it. 4. Investment in a national data infrastructure to enable joined up intelligence about families’ needs. Existing plans should go further to implement a single child identifier across systems and invest in the development of a national data infrastructure across all parts of the children’s services system. As described above, data is a key enabler in the targeted deployment of constrained system resource in pursuit of outcomes for children. This would mirror similar ambitions in the NHS.
5. Development of a national framework for the ethical use of data and AI for prevention to accelerate the benefits of this technology at local levels, in a responsible way. The data infrastructure described above will only be as valuable as the insight, at family or system levels, that can be drawn from it. However, the use and sharing of personal data has complex ethical considerations – including privacy, fairness, and protecting people from harm. A national framework which draws on existing good practice and guidance, and sets parameters for local areas to operate within, would both be more efficient (rather than individual local areas each developing their own) and more consistent. 6. Adding working with families to gain consent for support to statutory safeguarding training requirements for all roles within the children’s services system. This will play a role in helping to engage families in positively receiving support, and should reflect best practice in relation to engaging with and gaining consent from families from diverse backgrounds. 7. Aligning statutory thresholds for adult support services across adult social care and NHS services to ensure parents of vulnerable children receive the support they need. This would require legislative change and updates to statutory guidance, and would help to address stakeholders’ concerns that eligibility criteria across adult social care, public health, and NHS services can often leave ‘gaps’ for adults with needs not getting support. Critically, safeguarding of children should be a core element of any adults’ services threshold. 8. Supporting exit of the care system through the way in which Regional Care Co- operatives are developed. The government should ensure that the development of Regional Care Co-operatives incentivises and enables providers of homes for children in care – particularly foster carers – to actively support children in care to return to their family where appropriate (as part of the team around a child in care).
9. Planning for continuity of local partnership improvement and transformation through Local Government Reorganisation. For authorities undergoing LGR, a deliberate transition plan should be developed to preserve momentum on preventative system reform; to maintain partnership relationships across the children’s services ecosystem; and to carry forward the data infrastructure and governance arrangements that underpin the shifts described in this report. 10. Meaningfully engaging children, young people and families in service design and strategic decision-making. The voices of those with lived experience of the children’s social care system are an essential input to improving it. Local authorities and their partners should ensure that children, young people, and families are engaged not only in the design and shape of services, but also in the strategic decisions that govern them. This includes sharing findings from historic and current data analysis (presented in accessible and age-appropriate ways) so that those with lived experience can interrogate the evidence alongside professionals, and contribute their own insight to its interpretation.
6. Joined up local commissioning and prioritisation of services to support adults, to ensure parents of children at risk of entering care or in the care system can receive support for their needs. Ensuring that there are no ‘gaps’ in support offers for adults with mental health, substance misuse, or domestic violence needs is important in ensuring adults’ needs are met in the most timely and effective way. This should be considered across the commissioning and delivery of services supporting adults with these needs including adult social care, public health, and NHS services. 7. Promoting positive exit from the care system as a priority partnership outcome. Rates of children with permanence plans to exit the care system should be monitored and reported in partnership forums. This should lead to discussions (using the data described in enabler three) about how this outcome can be promoted and resource allocated to achieving it (at either family or service levels). 8. Integrating foster carers into teams around the families of children in care. Alongside schools and adult support services, foster carers should be integrated into the teams around the families of children in care, recognising their role in supporting the child. This applies equally to local authority foster carers and those employed by Independent Fostering Agencies.
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