Counties call for urgent implementation of reforms recommended by independent MacAlister review into children’s social care

October 28, 2022

Promised reforms to children’s social care are “long overdue and vital to improve the life chances of young people whilst protecting councils from spiralling costs”, the County Councils Network (CCN) has warned.

It said that failure to implement the recommendations of the MacAlister review (see below), which was published in May this year, could mean that the number of vulnerable children being placed in council care could reach almost 100,000 by 2025 – up from 69,000 in 2015. [The forecasted rise in children coming into care was calculated by applying the average growth rate between March 2017 to March 2020 to current number of children in care.]

In these circumstances councils would have to spend £3.6bn more a year on these young people compared to 2015.

“Left unchecked, the costs of children in council care could consume 60% of an average local authority’s budget by the middle of the decade,” the CCN claimed in its Five Point Plan for County and Unitary Councils, which can be downloaded here.

In its Five Point Plan the CCN also recommends that:

The government must support county authorities in meeting the costs and demands in home to school transport.
Proposed reforms to the SEND system must be completed – and that proposals put the system on a sustainable financial footing.
County authorities should continue to play an influential role in the education system.

The CCN said that in terms of children’s services reform, the previous government had committed to set out an implementation plan by the end of 2022.

It argued hat children and councils “cannot afford to wait”, and that it is imperative the government invests £2.6bn into children’s services as recommended by the MacAlister review.

The CCN argued that extra funding injected into the system could allow local authorities to invest in preventative services, which have been reduced due to funding pressures, and transform how they work.

It would also allow councils to implement a new ‘optimised model’ of delivering children’s services through reforming the way they currently work.

Cllr Keith Glazier, Children’s Services Spokesperson for the County Councils Network, said: “Both councils and successive governments recognise that the status quo is no longer an option for children’s care services. Left unchecked, the number of children in care could reach almost 100,000 in less than three years’ time. This is far too many – young people need to be better supported to stay with their families or carers, wherever safely possible.

“The independent review was a landmark report that clearly articulated the need to invest in the system and allow local authorities to take the lead in developing a reformed system which works better for young people and protects them from serious harm.

“With many councils overspending on budgets due to the expensive nature of children in care, we need to break the cycle and reform is long overdue. Whilst we appreciate there is a commitment to set out a plan by the end of the year, both councils and young people cannot afford to keep waiting. Now it is in place, the new government must urgently begin to set out proposals in the coming weeks to reshape the system, starting with a pledge to invest in preventive services.”

The recommendations in the final report of the MacAlister review, which called for "a radical reset" of children's social care, included that:

For families who need help, there must be a fundamental shift in the children’s social care response, so that they receive “more responsive, respectful and effective” support. One category of ‘Family Help’ should be introduced to replace ‘targeted early help’ and ‘child in need’ work. This new service would be delivered by multi-disciplinary teams based in community settings.
Where concerns about significant harm of a child emerge, an ‘Expert Child Protection Practitioner’, who is an experienced social worker, should co-work alongside the Family Help Team with responsibility for making key decisions. “This co-working will provide an expert second perspective and remove the need for break points and handovers.”
Information sharing should be strengthened through a five-year challenge to address cultural barriers, clarify legislation and guidance, and use technology to achieve frictionless sharing of information.
A more tailored and coherent response is needed to harms outside of the home, like county lines, criminal or sexual exploitation or abuse between peers. A bespoke child protection pathway – through a Child Community Safety Plan – should be set up so that the police, social care and others can provide a robust child protection response.
To boost parental engagement where there are serious concerns, parents should have representation and support to help navigate the child protection process. “To enable learning, there should be more transparency about decisions made and outcomes of children in the family courts.”
Before decisions are made which place children into the care system, more must be done to bring wider family members and friends into decision making. This should start with a high-quality family group decision making process that invites families to come up with a family-led plan to care for the child or children. In some cases, this should lead to a “Family Network Plan”, where a local authority can fund and support family members to care for the child.
Special guardians and kinship carers with a Child Arrangement Order should receive a new statutory financial allowance, legal aid and statutory kinship leave. A wider set of informal kinship carers should get a comprehensive support package.
Local authorities should be helped to take back control of the care system through establishing new Regional Care Cooperatives (RCCs). “They will take on responsibility for the creation and running of all new public sector fostering, residential and secure care in a region, as well as commissioning all not-for-profit and private sector provided care for children as necessary. The scale and specialist capabilities of RCCs will address the current weaknesses in the system and establish organisations able to transform the care system for the future.” Local authorities will have direct involvement in the running of RCCs “but to work they must be mandated rather than voluntary arrangements”. Children will continue to be in the care of local authorities.
There should be a ‘new deal’ with foster carers. “We must give foster carers the support networks and training needed to provide the best care for children, and then have greater trust in foster carers making the day to day decisions which affect children’s lives.” The Government should immediately launch a new national foster carer recruitment programme, to approve 9,000 new foster carers over three years.
Children in care “currently have a plethora of different professionals in their lives, but too few adults who are unequivocally on their side and able to amplify their voice”. This system should be simplified by replacing a number of existing roles with truly independent advocacy for children that is opt-out, rather than opt-in.
Five ambitious missions are needed so that care experienced people secure: loving relationships; quality education; a decent home; fulfilling work; and good health as the foundations for a good life.
The professional development offered to social workers should be vastly improved with training and development which provides progression through a five-year Early Career Framework linked to national pay scales. The barriers which needlessly divert social workers from spending time with children and families should be identified and removed. The use of agency social work, “which is costly and works against providing stable professional relationships for children and families”, should be reduced by developing new rules and regional staff banks. Action is also needed to improve the knowledge and skill of the wider workforce that supports children and families.
A National Children’s Social Care Framework is needed to set the direction and purpose for the system, supported by meaningful indicators that bring transparency and learning. The government should appoint a National Practice Group, to build practice guides that would set out the best-known ways of achieving the objectives set by the National Framework. Multi-agency safeguarding arrangements should be clarified “to put beyond doubt their strategic role, supported by improved accountability, learning and transparency”.
The Government should update the funding formula for children’s social care to better direct resources to where they are most needed. Inspection should be aligned to take a more rounded understanding of “being child focused” and to better reflect what matters most to children and families, alongside greater transparency about how judgements are made.
The Government should intervene more decisively in inadequate and drifting authorities, with permanent Regional Improvement Commissioners to oversee progress across regions.