Children’s social care: Education Committee to investigate if Government’s reforms are going far and fast enough

Reforming the children’s social care sector across England will be the subject of a major new Education Committee inquiry launched today. 

The sector – which includes child protection services, foster care, adoption and residential care – has been under strain in recent years due to rising demand that has seen local authorities significantly increase their spend on children’s social care. 

There has been a 7.29% increase in children receiving support from children’s services since 2010, despite a 0.3% fall in 2022. The number of children on child protection plans is 50,780, an increase of 29.95% from 2010 but a decrease of 0.3% from 2022. And there are now 27.5% more looked after children, including adoptions, since 2010. 

The cross-party Committee’s inquiry (see full terms of reference below) will focus on support offered to children with complex needs; how the sector is funded via local authorities; and ways to improve early intervention to tackle rising demand, which government says is “more effective in promoting the welfare of children than reacting later”. 

The inquiry will assess the social care market, as many children’s services are contracted by local authorities to private providers. A 2022 Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) report found that three-quarters of places come from independent providers, with the largest now charging prices that are “materially higher” than would be expected “if the market were functioning effectively”. The growing issue of young people being placed in settings located many miles outside of their local areas because of scarce accommodation, even to different counties, will also be investigated. The Department for Education’s Consolidated annual report and accounts 2022/23 stated that one of the six key risks managed by the Department is “looked-after children market failure”. They state local authorities are increasingly unable to access appropriate placements to meet the needs of children in care, and prices continue to increase. 

MPs will examine protection for vulnerable children and support for care leavers. Most recent government data shows that 38% of care leavers aged 19-21 are not in education, employment or training, compared to 11% of all young people in that age group. The number of 18-20-year-old care leavers in England facing homelessness, including a minority who have young children, has risen from 2,790 in 2018-19 to 3,710 in 2022-23. 

The Committee will scrutinise the Government’s Stable Homes, Built on Love strategy published in February, looking at how effective it has been so far and is projected to be in future. The strategy emphasises the need for a joint approach between the Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care. Though some have criticised the reforms for being too limited in scope, the Government said it was built on recommendations from the CMA report, The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, and The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel's National Review which was prompted by the deaths of Star Hobson and Arthur Labinjo-Hughes. 

Education Committee Chair Robin Walker said: 

“The children’s social care sector is facing pressures on multiple fronts, underpinned by rising costs, growing demand and a lack of ability to identify and tend to issues before they reach a crisis point. I have seen examples of local authorities whose spending on children’s social care is now overtaking the vast sums they spend on care for adults. This increase in demand is also a reason why we should look to support alternatives to residential care, such as adoption, kinship and foster care. 

“We know that the high stakes, selfless work by professionals in this space is crucial to keep children safe from harm and on the right track. As we get underway with this inquiry in 2024, it will have been a year since the Government announced its ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ strategy. It will be the right time for my cross-party colleagues and I to look across the board at whether the many policies in that strategy are really turning things around, or whether the Government needs to go further and faster.” 

Terms of reference  

The Committee welcomes written submissions on the following terms of reference via its website. The deadline for submissions is 15 January 2024.

• Is the current provision of children’s social care sufficient to meet demand? 

o   What factors are causing the increase in demand for children’s social care?  

o   What are the recent trends and causes of out-of-area placements?  

• The current social care market, including private sector care homes and care homes run by local authorities; 
• The reasons behind the rising cost of children’s social care for local authorities, and ways to mitigate this; 
• What measures can be undertaken to improve early intervention; 
• How combinations of kinship care, residential education, foster care and adoption could provide alternatives to residential care;
• How children’s social care can impact a child’s educational or long-term outcomes and ways to improve outcomes for care leavers;
• The specific experiences of disabled children or children with additional needs within children’s social care, how they differ from their peers, and ways to improve their experiences; 
• The current system of safeguarding in children’s social care;

o   How effectively Ofsted works as a regulator and inspector for children’s social care.  

• The government ’s children’s social care implementation strategy, Stable Homes, Built on Love, released in February 2023, including: 

o   How effective the strategy has been so far,  

o   How effective it is projected to be in the long-term.