March 2011 Archives

A new Family Justice Service in England and Wales, led by a national Family Justice Board, should be established to tackle "shocking" delays and inefficiency, an independent review has recommended.

The family justice review - commissioned by the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Education and the Welsh Assembly Government - today published its interim report into the state of family justice in England and Wales. It has recommended "significant reform".

Chair David Norgrove said the system was too complicated, with overlapping structures and a lack of shared goals and objectives. "Family justice is under huge strain. Cases take far too long and delays are likely to rise. Children can wait well over a year for their futures to be settled. This is shocking.

"Our recommendations aim to tackle these issues, to bring greater coherence through organisational change and better management, making the system more able to cope with current and future pressures and to divert more issues away from court where appropriate," Norgrove said.

Consistency and confidence

The panel recommended that local family justice boards should be established as part of the family justice service and that specialist judges should hear cases from start to finish, "to ensure consistency and confidence in the system". Judges should also receive more support to help manage care cases, the report stated.

For all public law cases, a bespoke timetable for resolving a child's situation should be established within a maximum time limit, "to minimise the damage caused by uncertainty". There should also be less reliance on "unnecessary" expert reports.

Tomorrow morning, the family justice review panel will publish an interim report into the state of family justice in England and Wales - the half-way point in its efforts to reform the system.

It follows years of complaints from journalists, ministers, judges, lawyers, guardians, social workers and parents that the system has gone hopelessly awry. All will be looking to the review for signs that big change is on the horizon, and it's clear many will accept nothing less.

One source said: "There is an awful lot riding on the conclusions of this interim report. If it doesn't recommend some pretty major changes, morale will plummet and faith in family justice will be eroded. The system's in meltdown, but we've all been saying, 'well let's wait for the family justice review, surely that will sort everything out'. If it doesn't we'll be right back where we started."

Another said: "We need evidence that the review panel really understands not only the problems, but also the solutions. It's a really hard task and getting it wrong carries risk."

Among the changes they want to see: greater independence for guardians; judicial continuity throughout cases; better, faster social work assessments; better case management and, last but by no means least, reform to England's family courts body Cafcass.

As everyone awaits publication, some seized a late opportunity to make their grievances heard. Last week, the Interdisciplinary Alliance for Children told a committee of MPs that Cafcass should be abolished and just yesterday research revealed judges believe they are not sufficiently prepared to make decisions in care proceedings cases.

Although problems are endemic throughout the system, Cafcass's fate is undoubtedly one of the most hotly anticipated topics, appearing again and again in submissions to the review.

Just to let you all know that we are closing this survey on Monday 4 April so if you have concerns or fears about what's happening on child protection thresholds as a result of cuts in your area do take the survey and let us know. All responses are completely anonymous but the more people who let us know what's happening the more evidence we have to take to ministers and policy makers. (pic credit Don Vix on flickr)

So, who watched the first installment of Care Home Kid last night? It was pretty powerful stuff, mostly because it was a side of actor Neil Morrissey I'd never seen before. We're so used to thinking of him is as the irrepressible Tony from Men Behaving Badly that seeing him as an older man, confronting some painful experiences and memories from his past was all the more effective.

The show managed to keep a nice balance between presenting the painful experiences of former children's home residents, who suffered horrific abuse, with a modern day therapeutic home where staff genuinely cared about those in their care and made a difference.

But for me the real insight came from Morrissey's interview with his former social worker who he had spent most of his life thinking of as the evil b****** who had torn him apart from his loving parents and his brothers. When they sat down together at last he discovered the social worker had been doing everything he could to keep the family together. Ultimately, his parents just couldn't manage to give him the care he needed.

Morrissey admits at the end that he had always subconsciously felt rejected as a result and it must be a feeling that every child in care suffers. No child wants to think badly of their parents, all children will want to defend their memories and plant the blame on someone else unless they have no option but to face up to it. This is the real reason social worker's need to take time to talk things through with the children they are trying to protect. As Morrissey points out, for the children involved, cases are never closed. The pain, the emotions and the trauma linger for a lifetime, even if you have become a successful actor.

Installment number two in the series on Thursday.

Sharon Shoesmith, former director of children's services at Haringey, begins her appeal against the dismissal of her application for a judicial review today.

A press release from her lawyers states they intend to argue their original claim that both Ofsted and the Secretary of State at the time (Ed Balls) acted unlawfully. They will also claim that while Justice Foskett indicated that Haringey Council had acted unlawfully in dismissing Shoesmith, proceedings for unfair dismissal do not provide her with adequate alternative remedy. The appeal hearing is expected to last for three days. If you want a reminder of what happened in the original judicial review, you can read our coverage at the time.

In other news around today Neil Morrissey, of Men Behaving Badly and Bob the Builder fame, presents the first episode of the documentary Care Home Kid at 9pm on BBC2 tonight. What struck me most about some of the pre-viewing information was that he had no clear idea about why he was taken into care until he started doing this documentary. Sadly a lot of the reports from people like the Children's  Rights Director and the Children's Commissioner seem to indicate this is still a relevant problem today. Like Morrissey many automatically assume that it is their fault, that it must be something they have done and now they are being punished.

Of interest is also a national summit on preventing infant death hosted by the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths and the Metropolitan Police on Wednesday 15 June 2011. The Met will be presenting the findings from the last five years of its Project Indigo work on sudden infant death and looking at the role of all professionals in this area. Children's social workers traditionally assume it has nothing to do with them but we did a special report last year showing that actually they are often the best placed to do preventative work but many have a poor understanding of the risk factors. This could be your chance to improve that knowledge.

(pic credit: Rex Features)

Just over a week now and we've already had over 100 replies to our child protection thresholds survey. I have to say some of it has been pretty grim reading. Social workers are struggling to cope and many have said they are leaving the profession. Is this happening in your area? Have you filled in the survey? The more responses we have the more powerful the results and the more likely they are to influence ministers and policy makers. Remember all answers are completely anonymous.

Click here to take survey

(Pic by DonVix on flickr)

Later this morning, children's Minister Tim Loughton will unveil the government's new Foster Carers' Charter - which aims to end the "persistent myths" around fostering and cut red tape.

According to the Deparment for Education, the Charter sets out clear principles on how foster carers should be treated and aims to encourage more people to sign up to be foster carers.

The Charter has been designed to:

• make it clear that a foster child should be treated as part of the family and their views should be listened to and taken on board
• help tackle myths that foster carers cannot let their foster children do everyday activities like sleepovers and holidays without facing excessive restrictions and barriers
• set out how foster carers should be supported in their role, so they know what to expect from their fostering service and local authority - this includes being provided with full information about the child they're fostering
• help local authorities recruit and retain foster carers and can be used as a tool and guide for what foster carers can expect. 

The Charter is backed up by streamlined fostering regulations and guidance, which for the first time make it clear that foster carers should be treated by local authorities as key professionals working with a child.

Here at Community Care we've had some worrying accounts of what's happening on the ground to children at risk and children in care as a result of the cuts. We'd like to know if this is happening elsewhere and on what kind of scale so we've compiled a survey for social workers. Please be assured that your answers are all completely anonymous.

Click here to take survey

(Pic credit: donvix on flickr)

Scotland's National Adoption Register will begin taking referrals at the end of March. It has been set up to increase rates of adoption and speed up the process for children and families. 

The British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) will set up the register, funded by the Scottish Government which will put £87,934 a year towards its running, initially as a three year pilot.

Scottish children's minister Adam Ingram said: "The Scottish Government has been looking at how best to increase adoption rates, given the long-term benefits this has for children who can no longer remain with their birth parents.

"The creation of the National Adoption Register is a key part of those efforts, helping us increase the number of opportunities to find a permanent home for children and reduce the number of temporary placements which many looked after children can face."

Picture credit: chanelcoco872

Morning all. On our radar today: Scotland's children's commissioner has criticised police for failing to convict any child traffickers, despite a huge rise in the number of children trafficked into Scotland over the last 18 months.

The BBC reports that a couple with learning disabilities feel let down by social services and courts after being forced to put their children up for adoption.

Anyone read this article over the weekend? A behind-the-scenes look at a US school that actually sanctions the use of electric shocks as a treatment for children and young adults with severe autism or emotional problems...

Picture credit: Victory of the people on flickr

Interesting piece from former children's commissioner Sir Al Aynsley-Green here on the mixed messages sent out by Barnardo's decision to run welfare services at the government's proposed detention centre near Gatwick airport.

Little extract: "This worrying development raises key questions, namely, are the big children's organisations effective advocates for children, or are they friends of Government? Can they be both, and if so, how and with what evidence of impact?

Hello lovely readers-- You may have noticed that the government's long-delayed green paper on children with SEN and disabilities was published this week (here's our initial coverage, in case you missed it).

The government's being extremely vague about a lot of the proposals, saying they want to wait for the local authority pilots (to be tendered in June, launched in September) to determine what works best, as well as look at responses to the green paper consultation.

So here's your chance to pipe up-- I just got off the phone with Sarah Teather (yeah, check me out), who said specifically that the views of ComCare readers would be extremely valuable to the consultation (I bet she says that to all the girls, but that doesn't mean it isn't true).

So here's a link to the consultation - have a look, have a think, have your say! And meanwhile-- see what ideas your colleagues are bouncing around on CareSpace.

Not a good day for social work. First, we unearth Communities secretary Eric Pickles' sneaky plans to consult on the removal of statutory social care duties and now, the government has followed through on its threats to cap independent social workers' (ISWs) fees.

The fees will be capped on May 2nd at £30 an hour. Occupational therapists can expect to receive £68 and nurses £81. Nushra Mansuri, professional officer for BASW, said the move shows the Ministry of Justice has "no comprehension of the role of ISWs in family courts and has been deeply disrespectful of our work".

"This is cost cutting that will produce a swathe of unintended consequences as social workers are forced to abandon this area of work altogether. Long term we can expect costs to rise as the loss of ISWs will force courts to look elsewhere for their independent witnesses."

As I said, not a good day for social work.

Very interesting post from my colleague Vern Pitt, who has unearthed a worrying Department of Communities consultation that was silently uploaded this week. It reveals that all statutory duties - including the duty of care towards vulnerable children - could be under threat.

As Vern points out, local authorities are under so much pressure that it's unlikely they would continue with any of their current duties if they were told it is no longer a legal requirement.

The document includes a list of all children's services duties and threatens to remove duties which are enshrined in Children Act legislation. Do have a look through it and see how this could affect your work and the level of service provided to vulnerable groups. It is imperative that everyone speaks out about the duties we cannot afford to lose.

Terrible story in the papers today about a baby boy who starved to death in North West London, just days before his mentally unstable mother died of HIV-related complications. A coroner found the child had not eaten or drunk anything for several days before he died.

According to reports, the family had been visited around 15 times by social services in the six months leading up to the baby's death. Coroner Dr Paul Knapman - who reluctantly had to delay the inquest because it was revealed the baby's father had not seen key documents - condemned the vast amounts of public money "wasted" in the tragic case. 

I have just spent the last two hours ploughing through "Support and Aspiration" the government's green paper on special educational needs and disability. I am now a wee bit cross-eyed and needing large quantities of sugar/chocolate to recover.

However here are a few initial thoughts.

Biggest changes proposed

a)       The introduction of a single assessment- pilots starting in September with legislation taking changes forward in May 2012. Increased use of the voluntary sector in this area (although unclear if this is around assessment or co-ordinating provision of services)

b)       The legal right to a personal budget from 2014.

c)       A single health and social care plan lasting from birth to 25- this will also include the support to be provided from education as well.

d)       Mediation pushed as first option when appealing- working out how parents can make disability discrimination claims as they will no longer get legal aid to appeal to the first tier tribunal.

e)       Reducing the assessment process from 26 to 20 weeks (actual assessment to take no more than 9 weeks)

f)         A modernised and improved SEN code of practice, with other guidance will be withdrawn

g)       Targeted government funding for the voluntary sector- the DfE will shortly publish a prospectus setting out the key areas in which they will make funding available.

h)       Investigating feasibility of getting GPs to give disabled children over the age of 16 annual health checks and health visitors to give all 2 year olds health and development reviews.

(I have my doubts given my knowledge of GP resistance to taking on extra work and the difficulties govt face in recruting enough health visitors!)

i)         Investigating the feasibility of a national banded framework for funding provision

j)         Investigating the use of community budgets and other pooled budget mechanisms in this area

The glaringly obvious issues and gaps for me are: 

a)      What is the role of social workers in all of this? The issue has always been that parents have felt there was a conflict of interest between councils providing services and also making assessments. How that tension will be resolved is by no means clearer to me after reading the green paper. Will social workers still be doing the assessments? If so will they still be employed by councils or by the voluntary sector?

The green paper talks of councils becoming commissioning and monitoring bodies and freeing up frontline professionals but what does this actually mean on the ground? Are they expecting social workers to form their own social work practice pilots and become independent assessment agencies in their own right?

It highlights the importance of the key worker role (previously undertaken by social workers or health visitors in those councils which use it) and states that this is something the voluntary sector could provide. But, it seems to suggest, there is no reason why this role needs to be a social worker and it could in fact be undertaken by a cheaper and less skilled worker.

b)       The plans for a single assessment and care plan appear to be no more than vague ambitions at the moment. There is nothing concrete about how this might actually work on the ground.

The government seems to be relying heavily on the pilots starting in September to provide all of the answers within quite a limited time frame (end of 2011). I have my doubts as to how feasible this is. In my limited knowledge the most successful pilots are usually those that have a very specific intervention which allows outcomes to be clearly evaluated. In these pilots they will be trying to resolve issues that haven't been resolved in decades of trying- ie how do you co-ordinate several different agencies and their budgets and make sure they all live up to their promises?

d)      Local government cuts vs personal budgets; local government cuts vs greater support for SEN and disabled children in schools.

Cuts, we know, are already biting deep. In adults there is some doubt about how personalisation can actually continue to work given the scale of the funding cuts some councils are inflicting on adult social care. My concern is that this will mean widespread personalisation for disabled children will struggle to get off the ground.

Councils are also cutting heavily the amount of support they provide within schools on the grounds that schools can fund these services themselves with their protected budgets. Will they? 

e)       What difference will a national banded framework make? I'm very hazy on why the government wants to do this. Is it just to work as a guide for parents? There seems to be no plans to enforce it on councils and an acknowledgement that to do so would interfere with the localism agenda and the freedom to spend on local priorities.

More questions than answers at the moment.

(pic credit: net_efect on flickr)

Social care professionals will have a greater role in assessing children with disabilities and special educational needs, under plans unveiled by ministers today.

The disability and SEN green paper, Support and Aspiration: A New Approach to Special Educational Needs and Disability, sets out the government's plans to reform health, social care and education for children disabilities and SEN in England. It has been billed as the biggest reform to the system in 30 years. 

Under the proposals, health and social care plans will replace statements, which detail the support available to children with the most severe level of need. The plans will now be drawn up after a single assessment, rather than the multiple assessments many are currently subjected to. The new plans are expected to be piloted in 25 councils.

Children's Minister Sarah Teather said: "Parents and voluntary organisations have given us overwhelming examples where they have felt let down by local services.

"At the moment there is an appalling situation where public money is being wasted as children are growing out of equipment, like wheelchairs, before they even arrive. The new single assessment process and plan will tackle this issue and mean that parents don't feel they have to push to get the services they are entitled to."

Much rejoicing. The green paper on children with disability and special education needs (SEN) is due to be launched tomorrow. The Green Paper aims to overhaul the services, funding, support and diagnosis of children with special educational needs and disabilities, the DfE tells us.

There's a lot riding on this as many people look to the green paper to solve so many issues that we've reported around statementing and support, assessment and the funding issues that keep so many families with disabled children in poverty and debt. But the real issue is how will it grapple with these issues and the fact that disabled children are increasingly being targeted by councils for cuts. (Not a surprise in some respects since their needs straddle across schools and children's services and schools have had their budgets protected).

Watch this space and Community Care for detailed coverage tomorrow. 

Pleased to see The Telegraph's picked up one of our exclusives: that children's minister Tim Loughton is considering appointing an ombudsman to investigate contentious adoptions. (Our story from a couple of weeks ago here; Telegraph story from yesterday here.)

Meanwhile, some of the paper's other social affairs coverage is getting family lawyers all worked up - namely articles accusing social workers and family courts of child snatching. One blogger sets out a well-considered argument here against 'headlines caricaturing social workers as child snatchers' and 'opinion pieces masquerading as reportage'.

(News that Loughton is considering an ombudsman is no doubt being interpreted variously on either side of the child snatching debate. Where do you stand? Have your say on CareSpace)

Following news of a police investigation into child sexual exploitation in Torbay, the council has earmarked almost £0.25m for its response, according to reports.

According to the Herald Express, Torbay Council's director of children's services, Dr Carol Tozer, told a press conference last month that there was "no upper limit to what the council are doing" regarding the investigation. This includes drafting in extra social workers to help support identified victims and their families.

Tozer reportedly said there was "huge support within the council", for the multi-agency investigation and added: "Resources do not matter with regards to providing the support that is required to ensure that this investigation is a success."

Torbay council initially set aside £120,000 for its response to the investigation, but has now agreed to earmark a further £120,000.

Cafcass Cymru is meeting its service targets in Wales despite a huge rise in the number of children coming into care, according to its fifth annual report.

It shows 94% of public law cases were allocated to Cafcass guardians within just two days of referral. In private law, only 20 of 4000 cases were not allocated within statutory timescales.

The report follows news of significant progress made by some Cafcass services in England.

Children's homes run by highly effective leaders who value their staff and are ambitious about children's futures are most likely to achieve excellent outcomes for children in care.

That was the message from Ofsted today as the watchdog published its latest report, Outstanding children's homes in a bid to improve practice across the residential sector. 

The report highlights 12 of the country's highest performing children's homes, all of which have demonstrated "consistently outstanding performance". They represent 12 of just 35 homes rated outstanding by Ofsted for the last three consecutive years, out of a possible 1,439.

The report raised concerns that quality is inconsistent across the sector, and that there are relatively few opportunities to share best practice. Ofsted urged the Department for Education to create more opportunities. 

Ministers should also drive improvements across the sector by using the skills and experience of those who run homes consistently rated outstanding, Ofsted recommended.
 
The report revealed highly effective leaders and well-trained, passionate residential staff - all of whom listen to children and share a vision for their future - are key to success. Managers are "visible, inclusive and interact frequently with staff and young people alike", inspectors found, while leaders "have a vision and purpose which is shared and supported by staff".
 
Christine Gilbert, Her Majesty's chief inspector, said: "Young people living in children's homes are some of the most vulnerable in the country and it is important that the care they receive is of a consistently high standard. However, inspection shows that too many establishments fluctuate in quality from one year to the next.
 
"This report shows that it is possible to provide the very best for children year after year and it is essential that others learn from the outstanding practice it highlights."

It is also crucial to appoint and develop the right people, Gilbert said. "Good staff have such an impact. They establish good relationships with the children and young people in their care, have the highest expectations of them and do all they can to support their development and their confidence. It is important we give recognition to the managers and staff in these outstanding children's homes for all their hard work and commitment."