The Department for Education (DfE) has published a policy paper on its proposals to reform children’s social care. This is a significant opportunity for the government, the sector and Ofsted to better serve the nation’s most vulnerable children.
We have been calling for changes for many years to better serve the needs of children and families. This policy paper is the clearest signal yet that this legislation is forthcoming.
This blog will set out my thoughts on the proposals that most directly relate to our work, and what this might mean for you.
Oversight of large provider groups
I’m delighted to see proposals to help better shape and oversee the children’s homes market. The ‘care market’ has changed considerably since the Care Standards Act 2000. We were clear in our response to the Care Review’s Case for Change that legislation has not kept pace. In particular, many children’s homes are now part of large groups.
In our report on groups of homes, we recommended that ‘regulations need to be updated to give regulatory oversight at group level as well as at children’s home level. This would allow inspection and regulation to have the greatest impact.’
The proposed powers will strengthen our ability to hold providers to account at group level. This will mean that we can secure widespread improvements for children if there are patterns of failure.
Financial oversight
The paper also sets out the government’s intention to take a stronger interest in the financial circumstances of providers. They want to ensure that no provider is too big to fail and that a provider exiting the market would not leave a glaring gap for children. This is very welcome and something we have long called for.
We would also like to see more scrutiny of homes that have become an investment vehicle for private equity, often based overseas. Many private firms do a good job but there is a big difference between making a profit and profiteering.
We are particularly concerned that some companies also own much of the fostering agency market, as well as hundreds of SEND providers and independent special schools. This could mean that one company owns many of the services supporting a vulnerable child with a specific need.
We will support the DfE as it firms up its plans, including looking at how we share information about finances and quality.
Changes to applications
The DfE is proposing changes to the application process for new settings. This includes strengthening local authority location assessments to promote provision where it is most needed. This should help to tackle the regional imbalance that currently exists. For example, 25% of homes are in the north west of England, compared with just 6% in London. It should also mean that children are able to live closer to their families and communities.
We will work with the DfE to think about how we can help the sector grow in the right way. We will do what we can to enable the right provision to open in the right places for children.
In our report on children with complex needs, we noted that a lack of suitable homes means local authorities are resorting to placements that they do not want to use and are often placing children with complex needs out of area. I am hopeful that the measures in the policy paper will help to address some of these issues.
We are glad to see there will be an opportunity for us to work with the DfE to make the process of registered managers moving between children’s homes less burdensome. They are critical to the quality of children’s experiences.
New unregistered powers
Too many children are living in unregistered children’s homes. Most local authorities have used unregistered provision at some point. In recent years, we have opened cases in all but 10 of the 153 local authorities and have identified unregistered homes across all regions.
We know that sometimes local authorities need a short-term, emergency solution or something bespoke for a child. But too many children are living in provision that has no regulatory oversight. This means we know nothing about the suitability and skills of the staff, or the day-to-day experiences of the children living there. These settings are operating illegally. They must register with Ofsted and meet the regulations.
It is only right that we are given additional powers and resources to better tackle persistent offenders and put a stop to unscrupulous and profiteering providers, once and for all.
Community-based approach to provision for children deprived of their liberty
When local authorities struggle to find appropriate care for some children, it can result in them living in unregistered provision and sometimes being deprived of their liberty. This is done through a deprivation of liberty order under the inherent jurisdiction of the high court. There is an urgent need to think creatively about the provision that these children need.
As we highlighted in January, there is a gap in provision for children:
- needing support after a secure placement
- with escalating needs where enhanced support might prevent the need for a fully secure placement.
As a result, children often wait months – or in the worst cases, years – for a stable home.
The DfE is proposing a type of accommodation that will allow flexible measures to be put in place and removed as needed to match children’s needs. This is and should be different from a secure children’s home. We welcome this in principle, but how it is implemented will be critical to its success. Any deprivation must be the least restrictive option possible and support children’s transitions to their next stage.
We will continue to work with our DfE colleagues as they develop their thinking on how this might look and how regulatory oversight will work.
We are also looking to make changes in our social care common inspection framework. We want to actively remove any barriers that Ofsted may create, perceived or otherwise, to providers working with children with multiple and complex needs.
Multi-agency working
We welcome the plans to strengthen the role of education in the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements (MASAs). These arrangements play a vital role in the care and protection of children and learners. Education practitioners spend the most time with children, so it is unsurprising that education settings made the second largest number of referrals of cases into children’s social care last year. The proposed changes have real potential to support better multi-agency working to protect children. It’s important that we learn from the pathfinders and those partnerships that already have successful ways of doing this, so that we build on what works.
Similarly, we look with interest to the work being led by the pathfinders around multi-agency child protection teams. I am sure there will be a great deal to learn from how this has worked. If these teams become mandatory, and as practice develops, we will consider how it impacts on our inspections of local authority children’s services and joint targeted area inspections. We will also work with our partner inspectorates to make sure we have proper oversight of these teams.
As ever, we want to minimise any disruption that inspections can cause. Any changes to inspection will be carefully managed with you and our partner inspectorates.
I am pleased to see plans to extend the current corporate parenting principles for local authorities. There are so many agencies and bodies that are needed to truly make a difference for children in care and care leavers.
When we were developing our plans for supported accommodation, children talked to us about:
- their worries around mental health support
- help to develop life skills – including support to manage money
- maintaining and developing lasting, supportive relationships.
These elements are all things that will take genuine partnership in order to make significant improvements. These plans are a great step in the right direction.
Regional care cooperatives
Two regional care cooperatives (RCCs) pathfinders are being set up under current legislation. The DfE is proposing to increase this number. The pathfinders have been:
- carrying out regional data analysis and forecasting
- developing new regional provision where needed
- creating new leadership and governance arrangements.
We know there are sufficiency challenges and we are keen to see how the RCCs can help and benefit children.
We’re also really pleased that the new powers in this space aren’t just for Ofsted. Joint commissioning is so important and will allow partnership working to secure the best outcomes for children. When the time is right, we will carefully develop inspection of RCCs with the other inspectorates and in consultation with the sector.
Next steps
All these new measures signal a big step forward in improving how children are helped, protected and cared for. There are, however, still challenges to address in the system. We still need a core set of quality standards that apply to all children, wherever they live or stay. This is something that we have been championing for over 10 years. We firmly believe it would be transformative for the lives of many children living away from their families.
We will continue to work with the government, providing advice and challenge as proposals develop further. And we will work with you to ensure that we manage the upcoming changes well. Our approach will continue to be proportionate, keeping children’s progress and experiences at the heart of everything that we do.