1

CONSULTATION PACK

2

BackgroundChildren 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

3

Government’s 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

4

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 children’s services

• Creating a National Centre for Excellence in Children’s Services

5

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

6

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

7

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 don’t have to move schools when they move placement

• Dedicated budget for each social worker to spend on improving the child’s 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.

8

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 children’s centre provision

• Better access to volunteering and other positive activities for children in care

9

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

10

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

11

How to respondGovernment 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/consultations

• Full documents, summaries and online response forms can be found at the same address.

• You can email responses to carematters.consultation@dfes.gsi.gov.uk

• Young people’s guides to the Green Paper are also available online at www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations

• The consultation will run until 15th January.

12

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