A new programme aimed at levelling up outcomes for vulnerable
children and building back a fairer, more resilient system has
been announced, backed by £24 million.
The new fund will support projects tackling the issues facing the
most vulnerable children in society in 2021-22, including Female
Genital Mutilation (FGM) abuse, care for unaccompanied
asylum-seeking children, preventing adolescents from being caught
up in harms outside the home such as gangs and reducing the
pressure on the system by reducing court backlogs or improving
technology.
Working through England’s network of nine Regional Improvement
and Innovation Alliances (RIIAs), it will also provide funding to
accelerate the roll-out more family hubs to provide early help,
build on existing projects with a proven record of success and
offer investment in recruiting, developing and retaining social
work staff.
Speaking at the Association of Directors of Children’s Services
(ADCS) annual conference, Children and Families Minister
said:
The impact of Covid on our services, young people and workforce
has been multi-faceted, adding immediate pressures on top of
all the longer-term systemic issues and challenges that we
face. But it has also highlighted your resilience, driven
innovation and formed better, more powerful partnerships
locally, despite the challenging circumstances – something in
which we can all take pride.
I am keen that we work together to support you and your
colleagues in the months ahead as we recover and build back
better. Sometimes the role of central government is to lead,
and sometimes our role is to facilitate and empower others to
lead.
And that is why I am pleased to announce the department will
support a regional approach to Covid-19 recovery, for
children’s social care, with up to £24m, by bringing together
funding previously allocated to three proven programmes:
Partners in Practice, the Innovation Programme and Regional
Improvement and Innovation Alliances.
The Children’s Social Care Covid-19 Regional Recovery and
Building Back Better Fund, worth £24 million, aims to build firm
foundations for future reform through the Care and SEND Reviews.
It will be distributed among the nine regions according plans
drawn up by each RIIA and based on local priorities. Each region
will be allocated funds worth between £2 and £3 million,
including a flat rate of £50,000 for each region to help local
authorities play their part in accommodating unaccompanied
asylum-seeking children.
It follows the announcement last
month of changes to the National Transfer Scheme, with a
voluntary regional rota to ensure these children have the support
they need by being more fairly distributed around the country.
Minister Ford told the conference:
We have a duty, as a nation, to provide these children with the
care and support they need. Unaccompanied asylum-seeking
children can be some of the most vulnerable in our care, having
often faced dreadful exploitation from traffickers, and
appalling conditions both at home and on their journey to the
UK.
Sometimes local authorities say that these young people will
not want to live in rural areas, or outside the big cities as
reasons why some areas feel that they cannot step forward and
play their part. I know that meeting these young people’s needs
can be challenging, but it can also be very rewarding and there
are many examples of local authorities doing excellent work in
rising to this challenge.
The Minister thanked the children’s social care sector for their
determination and commitment over the pandemic and urged them to
complete a review of their safeguarding arrangements with
schools, part of the Government’s response
to Ofsted’s review of
sexual abuse and harassment published last month.
It follows publication of strengthened safeguarding guidance
for schools and colleges earlier this week, which strengthens
sections of the guidance relating to peer-on-peer abuse, making
clear that staff working in schools and post-16 settings should
assume that even if no reports have been received, it could still
be happening. Updated advice to support
safeguarding guidance has also been published.
New data published by the
NSPCC today (Thursday 8 July) shows that the Report Abuse in
Education helpline, launched on April 1 and extended until
October as part of the response to the Ofsted Review, received
513 calls up to June 30, of which 97 were referred to external
agencies such as the police and local authorities.
Minister Ford’s speech to the ADCS annual conference can be read
here.
