Community Care

MARCH 8, 2023

Councils are referring more children from residential to foster care, independent fostering agencies (IFAs) have reported. The report said the trend was driven by: Cases of children who preferred, and were better suited to, foster care but had been placed temporarily in a children’s home due to a shortage of appropriate placements.

Foster Care 311

Foster Care Self-harm Social Worker Mental Health 311

Community Care

APRIL 21, 2023

The ‘outdated’ legal framework on social care for disabled children in England will be reviewed with a view to making it fairer and more effective. The Department for Education has asked the Law Commission for England and Wales to review the “patchwork of legislation” for the group , dating back to 1970.

Disability 274

Disability Government Welfare Disorder 274

Community Care

DECEMBER 7, 2021

Children should be removed from their families if there is “any inkling” of harm to them, the education secretary has said. We are cognisant of that, and I know that the minister for children and families [Will Quince] is looking at how we can continue to support the frontline.”

Social Worker 362

Social Worker Government 362

Community Care

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

There was a 110% rise in the number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children placed in unregulated settings from 2021-23, annual statistics on the care system have shown. This outstripped, proportionately, the 76% increase in the number of unaccompanied children, from 4,150 to 7,290, over the same period.

Foster Care 237

Foster Care Government Social Services Social Services 237

Community Care

OCTOBER 18, 2023

Councils must be under a statutory duty to support birth parents of children taken into care to tackle, and eventually end, repeat removals, a charity has said. Women should, ideally, have no children in their care at the time and are asked to take long-acting reversible contraception for the duration of the programme.

Adoption 250

Adoption Crisis Intervention Interventional University 250

Community Care

APRIL 25, 2023

More and more looked-after children are being placed far from home, with increased risk of lower wellbeing, according to research issued today. Children in care and care leavers charity Become published the findings today as it launched a campaign, #GoneTooFar, to end inappropriate placements far from home in England.

Government 284

Government Schools 284

Community Care

NOVEMBER 9, 2022

Councils in England are failing to protect children subject to immigration control, including by rarely recognising their poverty as a safeguarding issue, a study has found. The children in the SCRs studied were often malnourished, lacking access to healthcare, and living in inappropriate or insecure accommodation such as overcrowded housing.

Child Welfare 274

Child Welfare Welfare Communication Confidentiality 274

Community Care

NOVEMBER 17, 2022

The government will review the local authority designated officer (LADO) role after an inquiry into the abuse of disabled children identified “major failings” in relation to the function. What is the LADO role? The services were suspended and have since been closed by the Hesley Group.

Disability 278

Disability Schools Government Welfare 278

Community Care

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

The government will create a register of children who are not in school following longstanding safeguarding concerns around home education. The decision, following a consultation carried out in 2019, comes amid evidence of increasing numbers of children being educated at home.

Schools 285

Schools Government Consultation 285

Community Care

JANUARY 27, 2023

Care placements “just do not exist” to take in asylum-seeking children currently placed in hotels, children’s services directors have warned. This prompted widespread concerns from parliamentarians and campaigners about the risks to these children, particularly in relation to trafficking.

Government 234

Government Interviewing Social Worker 234

Community Care

NOVEMBER 22, 2021

The number of children adopted from care fell to its lowest level in 21 years in 2020-21, Department for Education (DfE) figures show. The DfE figures also showed the number of children entering and leaving care both fell sharply, by 8% to 28,440 and by 6% to 28,010, respectively, their lowest levels in nine years.

Adoption 359

Adoption Government 359

Community Care

AUGUST 22, 2022

The Welsh Government has opened a consultation on plans to eliminate profit-making residential and fostering provision for children in care. Some firms ‘profiteering’ from children’s homes, says minister. As of March 2021, the rate of Welsh children in care was 115.3 Related reading. ” Reliance on private sector.

Consultation 293

Consultation Government Administration Foster Care 293

Community Care

MARCH 10, 2023

Social work and children’s organisations have united against government proposals that would increase the detention and deportation of children and seemingly leave many unaccompanied young people outside the scope of the children’s social care system.

Government 246

Government Social Worker Child Welfare Recovery 246

Community Care

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

The multiple and complex needs of children made the subject of deprivation of liberty (DoL) orders have been laid bare in an analysis published last week. The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory (Nuffield FJO) found that children had, on average, 4.2 Children had up to eight areas of need, with two-thirds having four or more.

Self-harm 246

Self-harm Disability Mental Health Welfare 246

Community Care

JUNE 13, 2023

Over 2,000 children per year in England could avoid care through the rollout of family group conferences (FGC), research has found. The study evaluated the impact of FGCs at the pre-proceedings stage, when local authorities inform families that proceedings to take their children into care will follow unless they take specific steps.

Interventional 243

Interventional 243

Community Care

APRIL 20, 2023

Councils should have a bigger role monitoring local residential settings in their areas to better protect disabled children, an inquiry into the abuse of children in three services has concluded. “These recommendations set out a roadmap to more humane treatment of these children. .

Disability 230

Disability Advocacy Government Communication 230

Community Care

AUGUST 3, 2023

The Home Office has been housing unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in hotels unlawfully since December 2021, the High Court has ruled. As of 17 July 2023, 218 children were in hotels, and the Home Office told the court it was anticipating that more needed to be accommodated in the coming days and weeks.

Justice and Corrections 188

Justice and Corrections Government Welfare Child Welfare 188

Community Care

JUNE 23, 2022

Council leaders have issued safeguarding and resource concerns, after the government opened its Homes for Ukraine scheme to unaccompanied children. It added that authorities would be able to use existing statutory powers to protect children where there were concerns. Directors disappointment over lack of guidance.

Government 281

Government Social Worker 281

Community Care

FEBRUARY 25, 2022

‘Serious reform’ is needed to cut the number of children in care placed out of area, MPs and peers have said. The all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on children in care and care leavers said new legislation and binding targets may be needed to tackle the adverse effect of being placed far from home.

Government 341

Government Social Worker 341

Community Care

SEPTEMBER 1, 2022

A government bid to speed up moving unaccompanied asylum-seeking children out of hotels into council care fails to address the dearth of placements available, directors have said. Charities and social work bodies have raised concerns about the inadequacy of support for affected unaccompanied children. ” . ” .”

Government 279

Government 279

Community Care

MARCH 1, 2023

The Home Office has ended a scheme to give councils additional payments to incentivise them to take in unaccompanied asylum-seeking children from hotels, at its scheduled date. We are evaluating the pilot now and continue to provide local authorities with standard payments for these children.”

Welfare 227

Welfare Government Social Worker Social Services 227

Community Care

NOVEMBER 23, 2021

Councils across the UK will be required to take unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to end the use of hotels for those arriving in Kent. The Home Office said today that it would make its national transfer scheme “temporarily mandatory” to ensure children arriving in the UK received the care they needed.

Government 238

Government Social Services Social Services 238

Community Care

SEPTEMBER 9, 2022

Children who met thresholds were left waiting up to six weeks to see a social worker due to “significant, widespread and systemic” weaknesses in a council’s front door service, Ofsted has found. Children left waiting for up to six weeks.

Social Worker 286

Social Worker Adoption Interventional Foster Care 286

Community Care

MARCH 6, 2022

The decline in the number of adoptions since 2015 is continuing while children are waiting longer on average to be placed despite an expanding pool of approved adopters, official figures show. 710 children matched with an adoptive family, a 12% drop from quarter one and a 9% decline on the second quarter of 2020-21. Related articles.

Adoption 318

Adoption Government Diversity Disability 318

Community Care

AUGUST 24, 2023

The government has urged councils to take in unaccompanied children after the High Court ruled its practice of housing them in hotels, and Kent council’s failure to accommodate all those arriving in the county, were unlawful. Half this number (51) had been waiting for a permanent placement for two weeks, she added.

Government 181

Government Foster Care Engagement 181

Community Care

JANUARY 6, 2022

Rises in child poverty fuelled by benefit cuts was associated with more than 10,000 more children being taken into care between 2015 and 2020, a new study has estimated. It also estimates that almost 22,000 additional children were placed on child protection plans, and almost 52,000 began an episode of being in need, over the same timescale.

Criminal Justice 360

Criminal Justice Interventional Child Welfare Social Worker 360

Community Care

APRIL 22, 2022

A South West council has held on to its ‘good’ rating in its first inspection for five years after Ofsted praised its “impressive” efforts to help children stay with their families despite pre-proceedings processes having started.

Social Worker 281

Social Worker Interviewing Disability Interventional 281

Community Care

MAY 13, 2022

A council’s lack of social work capacity is leaving children inadequately protected, Ofsted has found, as it downgraded its children’s services to inadequate. It also found that “poor-quality supervision and ineffective management challenge contribute to drift and delay for children”. By Rob Preston and Mithran Samuel.

Interventional 252

Interventional Social Worker Welfare Mental Health 252

Community Care

FEBRUARY 18, 2022

The Home Office has told 29 councils that had asked to be exempt from taking unaccompanied asylum-seeking children into their care that they must do so. Following this, 12 councils argued that they already cared for many unaccompanied children, while 17 others also made exemption requests. No indication of mandatory scheme’s success.

Government 234

Government Welfare Mental Health Engagement 234

Community Care

JANUARY 31, 2023

Last week, the president of the family division of the High Court issued the latest in a string of judgments, dating back to 2017, in which judges have severely criticised the lack of places for children on secure accommodation orders.

Self-harm 274

Self-harm Government Criminal Justice Welfare 274

Community Care

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

Practitioners “will not get into trouble” by sharing information to protect children at risk, the data protection watchdog has said. The 10-point guidance cites the frequency with which case reviews have found inadequate information sharing to have contributed to failures to protect children.

Confidentiality 232

Confidentiality Consultation 232

Community Care

MARCH 17, 2023

The government’s Illegal Migration Bill has passed its first parliamentary hurdle as the Children’s Commissioner for England issued a stark warning about its impact on vulnerable children seeking refuge in the UK. A child is a child, no matter their country of origin.”

Government 188

Government Welfare Social Worker 188

Community Care

NOVEMBER 4, 2021

The number of children in need in England has fallen for the third successive year, to its lowest level since 2013, according to official government figures. But referrals had also declined in the previously two years, as had the number of child protection plans (CPPs) and overall number of children in need. Related articles.

Domestic Violence 305

Domestic Violence Interventional Social Worker Schools 305

The Guardian

APRIL 13, 2024

Observer investigation finds that private companies made £105m despite not being registered with Ofsted Hundreds of extremely vulnerable school-age children in England are being sent to illegal, unregulated homes every year because of a chronic shortage of places in secure local authority units.

Schools 111

Schools 111

Community Care

AUGUST 7, 2023

Children whose parents are referred to family drug and alcohol courts (FDACs) are more likely to be reunified with their families than those involved in standard care proceedings, research has found. A third of FDAC parents had stopped misusing drugs or alcohol by the end of the case (33.6%) compared with 8.1%

Interventional 195

Interventional Interviewing Mental Health Social Worker 195

Community Care

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

The experiences of most children in need are not given sufficient priority by North Somerset Council, while those of some are “secondary” to their parents’, Ofsted has warned. At a visit in December , Ofsted said children experienced repeated, and sometimes short-term, child protection plans.

Social Worker 252

Social Worker Case Management 252

Community Care

DECEMBER 1, 2022

The number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in care has grown by 34% over the past year, driving the latest increase in the care population. The number of asylum-seeking children in care, 5,570, was the highest ever recorded, 10% above the 2020 level, following a fall in 2020-21 that appears related to the pandemic.

Government 213

Government 213