Care Crisis Review: Options for Change

1. In 2016 Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division, stated “We are facing a crisis and, truth be told, we have no very clear strategy for meeting the crisis. What is to be done?”  The Care Crisis Review was a direct response to this challenge. It brought together a ‘coalition of the willing’ from across the child welfare and family justice sector in England and Wales. The task was to identify solutions at practice, organisational and system level to tackle the crisis and, before that, to identify and agree what is known about the factors contributing to the rise in proceedings and the rise in the number of children in care. The Review was not intended as an examination of the care system as a whole.
2. The Review’s intensive work programme, required to be conducted in seven months, was, in effect, an inclusive listening exercise with over 2,000 people across England and Wales. This was complemented by a rapid academic review of evidence about the factors contributing to the crisis, and a separate examination of evidence about options for change. The Review’s approach succeeded in generating a conversation with all who have a stake in the system. This included the judiciary and local government, Cafcass and Cafcass Cymru, third sector organisations and alliances, the Offices of the English and Welsh Children’s Commissioners, Ofsted, lawyers and social care practitioners, and young people and families with experience of children’s social care and the family justice system. The Review had support throughout from its Stakeholder Advisory Group, whose members have, in different ways, power and influence to enact change. As the Review’s work progressed, emerging findings and options for change were considered by the Group.
3. In England and Wales, the number of care order applications reached record level in 2017 and the number of looked after children was at its highest since the Children Act 1989. The number of children in care has been rising steadily since the early 1990s, except for a period in England in the mid-2000s. The Review confirmed the sense of crisis that is now felt by many young people, families and those working within the system. Many professionals described the frustration they feel at working in a sector that is overstretched and overwhelmed and in which, too often, children and families do not get the direct help they need early enough to prevent difficulties escalating. There was a palpable sense of unease about how lack of resources, poverty and deprivation are making it harder for families and the system to cope. Many contributors to the Review also expressed a strong sense of concern that a culture of blame, shame and fear has permeated the system, affecting those working in it as well as the children and families reliant upon it. It was suggested that this had led to an environment that is increasingly mistrusting and risk averse and prompts individuals to seek refuge in procedural responses.
4. The Review found that there are many overlapping factors contributing to the rise in care proceedings and number of children in care. This complex picture means that there is no single solution. The Review did, however, find plenty of common agreement about the way forward. There was consensus that relationship building has been and is at the heart of good practice. The challenge for all of us is how to create the conditions within children’s social care and family justice that allow good relationships to flourish everywhere, within and between agencies, within families, and between families and practitioners. In tandem, the Review concluded that there is currently a significant untapped resource that exists for some children in and on the edge of care, namely, their wider family and community. Greater focus on exploring and supporting this resource could safely avert more children needing to come into care or could help them thrive in the care system. The Review proposes options for change that are primarily focused on addressing these challenges.
5. The Review found plenty of grounds for optimism. The Children Act 1989 has stood the test of time, as has its underpinning principle of partnership with families to promote their children’s well-being. Some local authorities are bucking the national trend of rising numbers. There are exciting developments, such as the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory and the Ministry of Justice data set PLATO that will contribute to more informed decision making and practice at local and national level. Children and families talked and wrote about individual practitioners who had transformed their situation, and some professionals described innovations, approaches and leaders who enable them to practice in a way that is respectful, humane and rewarding. There is a significant desire amongst professionals across England and Wales to learn from what is working, and to ‘work with’ rather than ‘do to’ families. Many young people and families described their strong desire to want to work with professionals to improve the system; they saw it as a joint endeavour, with them putting their unique perspectives and experiences to good use, helping dispel fear and anxiety.
6. The Review sets out 20 options for change. These include immediate steps that could be taken to move away from an undue focus on processes and performance indicators, to one where practitioners are able to stay focused on securing the right outcomes for each child. Other options for change emphasise the importance of shared visions and ethos across agencies, with leaders giving a consistent message, including modelling the way they want others to act. They promote approaches, including family group conferences, in which families are supported to understand professionals’ concerns and to draw upon their own strengths and networks to make safe plans for their child, safely averting the need for some to enter the care system. The options for change highlight the ways in which statutory guidance, such as Working Together to Safeguard Children, can be changed in order to promote relationship-based practice. The Review sets out, too, opportunities for revitalising Family Justice Boards, and in Wales the Family Justice Network and other mechanisms, so that all can become places where challenges are discussed and solutions developed.
7. Other options for change include proposals for the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education, in consultation with the devolved administrations, to examine the impact of benefit rules and policies, and the projected effect of planned benefit reforms, on the numbers of children entering or remaining in care. Similarly, it calls on the Ministry of Justice to undertake an impact assessment of the present lack of accessible, early, free, independent advice and information for parents and wider family members on the number of children subject to care proceedings or entering or remaining in the care system, and the net cost to the public purse. The Review proposes that the National Family Justice Board revises the approach to measuring timescales, including the 26-week one for care proceedings. The Review makes proposals in relation to pre-proceedings activity and guidance in the use of children coming into care through voluntary arrangements. It encourages Ofsted and Social Care Wales in their inspections and research to take into account the duties on local authorities to support families and to promote children’s upbringing within their family. It calls on safeguarding partners and Health and Well-being Boards in England, and partner agencies in Wales, to work with the third sector, to ensure that dedicated support is provided to parents whose children have been removed as a result of care proceedings.
8. The Review supports the call from the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) and the Local Government Association (LGA) for Government to make up the £2 billion shortfall in children’s social care, and a similar plea for resources made to the Welsh Government from the Welsh LGA and the All Wales Heads of Children’s Services. Money and resources for families and services matter. The Review also highlights the need for an additional ring-fenced fund available to all English local authorities, to act as a catalyst for them and their partner agencies to achieve the local changes needed to address the crisis.
9. The Review has achieved its aim of developing a greater understanding across the sector about the factors contributing to the crisis and of involving a wide range of those involved in the system in identifying and developing options for change. The next stage is much more important. For all of us to own the problem, reflect on messages from the Review, and consider the commitments we can make to safely tackle the crisis and improve the experiences of children, families and practitioners.