The Children’s Social Care Review: A call for a radical reset

On Monday 23 May 2022, the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care published their final report and recommendations. The APPG for Adoption and Permanence (APPGAP) welcomes the ambition set out in the 278-page report to reform a broken care system. The overarching vision of the Review is a “radical reset” of children’s social care, with a strong emphasis on the need to place loving relationships at the centre. We welcome the report’s recognition that adoption can be the best option for some children who are unable to remain living with their birth family. However, the Review missed an opportunity to consider all the work being done by Regional Adoption Agencies (RAAs) and the wider sector to improve the inconsistent support currently available to adopted children and their families.

We are delighted that the Review’s report refers to the APPG’s most recent inquiry, Strengthening Families, when calling for the need to support adopted children to maintain relationships with birth family members, where appropriate. The Review recommends the modernisation of birth family contact, including digitisation and better support for all those affected. With RAAs already taking this work forward through the development of a new digital platform ‘Letterswap’, we expect to see developments in this area over the coming months.

The APPG also welcomes the recommendations to significantly invest in support for kinship carers, recruit more foster carers, develop and upskill the social care workforce, and make care experience a protected characteristic. Most children for whom adoption is decided to be in their best interests will live with foster carers at some stage of their journey and we particularly welcome measures to strengthen this part of the system, to ensure there are carers ready, equipped and supported to meet the needs of children coming into care.

In response to the Review’s report, Rachael Maskell MP, Chair of the APPGAP, said:

“I welcome the independent Review of Children’s Social Care’s final report and its wide-ranging and ambitious scope. I am especially pleased to see that it recognises the need to modernise adoption in the area of contact, which the APPG has heard is a challenging area for many families to navigate. There is much work to be done to ensure that children and their families are supported to thrive and the APPGAP will continue to work closely with Government and the sector to ensure this happens.”

Through our Strengthening Families inquiry, we heard from adoptive families about the importance of early, proactive support when challenges arise, and that too often, support is only provided reactively in times of crisis. We are therefore pleased to see the Review recommend a range of services to form a new single offer of Family Help, which would extend to adoptive and kinship families. The APPG Chair commented, “I welcome the proposal for early ‘family help’ to ensure that the right interventions are made at the earliest opportunity. It is essential that this aspect, as well as the whole Review, is fully funded. I also welcome the recommendation that experienced social workers, functioning as Expert Child Protection Practitioners, should hold responsibility for making key decisions in cases where there is increased risk of harm.”

Largely missing from the Review, though, is any consideration or analysis of the needs of those adopted from care, and the section on improving outcomes for those who are care experienced focuses primarily on care leavers – a missed opportunity. In the Strengthening Families report, cited by the Review, the APPG highlighted that many children adopted from care have experienced the same early life trauma and neglect as those at different stages in the care journey, and therefore require the same level of support throughout their lives.  Measures to improve attainment, provide support with jobs and apprenticeships, and address health inequalities – all included within the Review’s recommendations – could and should extend to all who are care experienced.

We welcome the work undertaken by the Review to examine the racial and ethnic disparities at play across the children’s social care system. Our Strengthening Families report highlights the disadvantage faced by many of these children within adoption and made recommendations to the Review around upskilling social workers to feel more confident to engage and support families, children and prospective adopters from a range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. We are pleased to see the Review recommend that the cultural competency of all those working within the system be improved; this could have far-reaching impacts on children and families and is welcome.

Finally, the Review sets out a vision for the introduction of Regional Care Cooperatives, echoing the Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) structure introduced by Government in recent years with the aim of improved pooling of resources and sharing of best practice. However, the Review’s proposal that the functions of RAAs are merged into Regional Care Cooperatives gives too little detail or analysis for adequate reflection at this point. The last APPGAP session heard from RAA and sector leaders on the progress RAAs have made in delivering on the Government’s National Adoption Strategy, published last year, including improvements in matching, recruitment and support.

The APPGAP looks forward to supporting Government and the sector to implement some of the Review’s proposals in the months and years ahead, so that all children – including those in adoptive and special guardianship families – are given every opportunity to thrive.