Teenage Runaways Lack Safe Places To Go

Research suggests that only a tiny fraction of the 100,000 UK under 16s who run away yearly are given emergency shelter by councils.

Nearly two-thirds of the 210 English, Welsh and Scottish councils who responded to the Railway Children charity survey offered no under-16s accommodation in the past year. The research found just 157 children were offered this sort of support.

Council leaders acknowledged a shortage of emergency accommodation. However, only about half the local authorities kept figures on how many times such emergency accommodation was used, the study said.

The research was prompted by growing concern about runaway children. It highlighted how all refuges but one for young children had closed by this year.

"Inconsistent use of local authority emergency accommodation was leaving young people without a safe place at the time they need it most," it said.

More on this story and the full report is available from the Railway Children Charity here.

On TV Tonight: Baby P, the Untold Story

Tonight (27th October 2014) on BBC 1 at 8.30 pm there will be a documentary entitled Baby P: the Untold Story.

The 90 minute film hears from those directly involved in the investigation into the death of Baby P in 2007.

Film-maker Henry Singer's documentary detailing the timeline of events leading to the death of 17-month-old Peter Connelly at the hands of his mother, her boyfriend and her boyfriend's brother in August 2007, and considering its aftermath. The programme examines how some powerful institutions evaded the spotlight, while public attention was focused on the involvement of social workers in the infant's home area of Haringey, north London. Among the interviewees featured in the film are social workers Gillie Christou and Maria Ward, then-Children's Secretary Ed Balls MP and the husband of the last medical practitioner to see Peter before he died.

Emotional Needs of Children Leaving Care are Unmet says new Study

A study by the charity Action for Children says that the emotional needs of children who have been in care are not being well looked after.

The small but in-depth study by Action for Children called Too Much Too Young is based on in-depth work with 31 care leavers and 12 professionals working with such children in England and Wales.

It says: "Most young people who have been in care continue to cope with the lasting impact of a traumatic childhood.They can suffer from depression and anxiety, on top of dealing with the challenges of living on their own for the the first time."

The report argues that leaving care is not the same as leaving home, as care leavers rarely have the stability or support networks that most teenagers take for granted. It says that government policy has focused on the quality and location of accommodation that youngsters move into when they leave care and the practical support they are offered.But it warns: "Emotional wellbeing should be our starting point. Without it, practical support is not enough for the most vulnerable young people. Poor emotional health permeated young peoples' stories. Essential support disappears rapidly after those with complex needs and disabilities leave care".

Young Offenders Failed By Care System Says New Report

Photograph by Richard Masoner/Cycledelicious

An new report by HM Inspectorate of Probation "Looked After Children: An inspection of the work of Youth Offending Teams with children and young people who are looked after and placed away from home" reveals that children in care in England and Wales who've been in trouble with the law are being failed by youth offending teams.

The Inspectorate of Probation raised concerns about children placed far from home, and some youth offending team staff who thought little about the emotional impact of being in care.

The report looked at 60 children, from about 3,000 supervised by the teams. It found about a third of children were placed more than 100 miles away from home, and nearly two-thirds were placed 50 miles away.


Basic checks were not made when placing these "vulnerable and potentially dangerous" children into homes, the report said, adding that examples had been found of sex attackers being placed with abuse victims.

Youth offending teams and and other agencies did not "always work effectively together in the best interests of the children", and poor planning and assessment meant insufficient protection for two-thirds of the children.


You can read more on this story on the BBC News website here.

100's Of Children With "No State" In The UK

The BBC has found that hundreds of children living rough in London and other cities may have no nationality. 

Inside Out London has uncovered stories of children who according to official records do not exist - some forced into sex work to eat.

Further research by the BBC suggests it is a UK-wide problem. Charities warn of stateless children in Birmingham, Leeds, Coventry, Nottingham, Newcastle, Liverpool, Oxford and Cardiff.

"The problems caused by statelessness are by no means limited to London," Chris Nash, of charity Asylum Aid, said. Though, he acknowledges it is in the capital that the problem is most acute.

Many of London's stateless youths came to the UK legally, but were never officially registered. They cannot access education or apply for social housing. According to two respected youth charities contacted by the BBC, there are "hundreds" of them in the city.

Both Coram Children's Legal Centre and Peckham Project Safe 'n' Sound are calling for increased awareness of the problem.

Safe 'n' Sound's Jennifer Blake said: "To date, we've been approached by over 600 young people. It is a big issue."

Inside Out London is on BBC 1 tonight, (Monday 5th October) at 7.30 pm and on BBC iPlayer for a week afterwards. 

You can read more on this story on the BBC News website here.

Number Of Children In Care In England Rises

The number of children in the care system in England is rising, official figures show. 

Department for Education data shows the number of children in local authority care rose by 2% from 65,520 last year to 67,050 this year.The figures reveal 28,220 children were taken into care during the year ending 31 March 2012, an increase of 3% from the previous year's figure of 27,500. The data also shows more youngsters were adopted, with 3,450 given a home.

Most affected are 10 to 15-year-olds, with 24,150 currently in care. The main reason for children living apart from their parents is to protect them from abuse or neglect, with 41,790 of those currently in care falling in this category.

Family dysfunction was the next most common reason given for being taken into care, with 9,530 children falling into this category. After this, "family in acute stress" affected 6,000 youngsters. And a total of 3,490 children had absent parents.

The number of babies less than a year old taken into care has also risen, from 3,680 last year to 4,190 this year. The official figures show there has been a steady rise in children being taken into care since 2008, from 59,380 to 67,050 in 2012 - 7,670 more children in total.

The death after months of abuse of Peter Connelly, in north London in 2007, is thought to have contributed to the increase. Social workers in the "Baby P" case were criticised for not removing the 17-month-old from his home sooner, prompting a mood of caution in the profession.

The figures also show that 3,450 looked after children were adopted during the year ending 31 March 2012.  You can read more on the BBC News website here.

Vulnerable Children 'At Risk' In New Protection System

Some of England's most vulnerable children may lose out under planned changes to the child protection system, a new campaign group has argued.

The government wants to cut bureaucracy and replace more than 700 pages of guidance with three short documents. But the group Every Child In Need say the new rules are too vague and risk letting local authorities "do what they want when they want".

The group is particularly concerned that the relaxing of the rules may lead to delays. For example, the government proposes removing the requirement for local authorities to prepare an initial assessment of a child's needs within seven working days of a referral and a more detailed assessment within seven weeks.

The group fears that "many local authorities - cash-strapped following cuts to their budgets - are happy to take this lifeline which will mean less pressure to act quickly when a child in need comes to their attention". It argues that, far from cutting bureaucracy, the changes will remove "an essential safety net for children when they are failed by their local authority".

The group also says the new rules are overly-focused on child protection and will ignore a much larger number of children who have significant needs but are not at immediate risk of abuse. They give the examples of disabled children, homeless children or children who have been trafficked.

You can read more on this story on the BBC News website here.

'Weaknesses' in how children's homes help runaways revealed

"Serious weaknesses" in England's care system have been revealed by a report which found children's homes failed to protect runaways, the children's minister says.

An investigation by MPs found placing youngsters far from home could encourage them to abscond - leaving them then at risk of sexual abuse.

Their report calls for an independent investigation into the homes system. Children's Minister Tim Loughton said "urgent steps" would be taken.Much of the criticism by the all-party parliamentary groups on children in care and on runaways and missing people focuses on homes where about 5,000 of the 65,000 of those in care are looked after.

The report, which was first highlighted by BBC Two's Newsnight programme earlier this month, says the system of residential care is "not fit for purpose" for children who go missing. It says many older children who have complex needs are placed in residential care that is poor quality and unsuitable, often a long way from home, family and friends.

You can read more on this story on the BBC News website here.

Sexually Exploited Children Are At Further Risk In Care Says Barnardo's

Children who have been sexually exploited and trafficked are being put in further danger because of a dire lack of trained foster carers, children's charity Barnardo's has warned.

The most vulnerable children are left in residential care or secure units where they are at greater risk from groomers and traffickers, according to the charity.

Taking action after nine men were jailed for grooming young girls for sex in Rochdale, the Department of Education has announced new funding for a specialist foster care scheme in an attempt to tackle the problem, but Barnardo's argues that more must be done.

"Without a doubt the system is completely failing children in residential care. This idea that you can gather large numbers of vulnerable children together in one place acts as a magnet to abusers – you might as well put up a neon sign saying get your most vulnerable children here," said Anne-Marie Carrie, chief executive of Barnardo's.

You can read more on this story on The Guardian's website here.

Social Workers Warn Over Cuts Threat

Social workers are warning that cuts to services and growing case loads are leaving vulnerable children without the protection they need.

Nearly five years after the death of Baby Peter Connelly, a survey of social workers suggests many are worried about unmanageable amounts of work.

You can watch a short video about this issue on the BBC New website here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18099498

Knowledge gap puts social workers at risk of breaking law - 5/23/2012 - Community Care

Children's social workers lack knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, meaning they could be breaching the legislation in child protection cases involving parents with learning disabilities, warn experts. You can read more on this story here:
Knowledge gap puts social workers at risk of breaking law - 5/23/2012 - Community Care

Fostering Services Need To Reach Out To A Wider Range Of Carers

The care system is facing major challenges as the number of looked after children rises and retiring foster carers are not replaced fast enough, warns Children's Minister, Tim Loughton.

Mr Loughton has urged fostering services not to be blinkered when considering who has the capacity to foster and to reach out to a wider pool of potential carers – able to help the increasingly challenging needs of children coming in care.

He argued that there will be a rising turnover of foster carers over coming years, caused in part by an aging workforce – the vast majority are already in their late forties to mid-50s. He said without younger and skilled foster carers coming forward, the current shortfall of carers will only grow.


The Fostering Network said last week that an extra 8750 foster carers are needed across the UK this year alone. The Network said that three out of five fostering services are “desperately seeking foster carers”; and that 98 per cent were looking for more foster families for teenagers than last year.

You can read more on this story and view related resources here: http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00209325/fostering-services-need-to-reach-out-to-wider-range-of-carers

Adoption Scorecards Show The Extent Of Delays Across England

Hundreds of children are forced to wait an average of 20 months from entering care to moving in with their adoptive parents according to official figures.


You can read the full press release plus links to related resources here on the Department for Education's website: http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00208881/adoption-scorecards-show-the-serious-extent-of-delays-across-england

New Campaign Hi-lights Need For More Foster Carers

22 Minutes, a new recruitment campaign launched by the Fostering Network, emphasises the fact that a child comes into care and needs a foster family every 22 minutes across the UK. As a result, at least 8,750 more foster families are needed in 2012 alone.


You can read more about the campaign launch here: http://www.fostering.net/news/2012/new-campaign-highlights-need-more-foster-carers and visit the 22 Minutes Campaign website to watch the 22 Minutes trailer film and other videos and read their foster carer blogs.

Therapeutic approaches to social work in residential child care settings

We can open up and talk, rather than closing everything down
Young person in residential child care, Social Care TV film

SCIE’s newly launched report and at a glance briefing, produced in partnership with the Institute of Child Care Research in Belfast, focus on how residential child care staff in Northern Ireland trained in a variety of therapeutic approaches to enhance their practice and relationships with the young people.

Children and young people in care are among the most vulnerable in society.  Compared to the looked-after population in general, children in residential child care have some of the highest levels of need, including increased emotional and behavioural difficulties. 

What are therapeutic approaches?

Therapeutic approaches describe ways of working in which residential child care workers use a therapeutic perspective in their day-to-day social work with children and young people. This includes having a better understanding of how children’s experiences affect them, considering their emotional needs and fostering resilience.

Key findings from the study included:

•    Therapeutic approaches can help residential child care staff to use a therapeutic perspective in their day-to-day work

•    The approach is concerned with empowering all staff, not just those with therapeutic qualifications 

•    Staff reported the approach enhanced the consistency of their practice and their relationships with the young people

•    Young people were often not aware that a new approach was being used, but noticed an improved ‘atmosphere’.

A newly launched a Social Care TV film accompanies the report.  The film illustrates the impact of the approaches, focusing on the Lakewood Secure Unit in Bangor. Young people in the film say that talking about trauma and sharing stories means that they can “open up and talk, rather than closing everything down”.  Training for all staff, including kitchen staff, has helped them to create a calmer, and more positive environment.

• View SCIE Report 58: Therapeutic approaches to social work in residential child care settings on the SCIE website

• View SCIE's Social Care TV film: Therapeutic Approaches to Residential Child Care in Northern Ireland on the SCIE website

The Impact Of Child Protection Services Upon Children

The Office of the Children's Commissioner has published a response to the DfE consultation: Children's Safeguarding Performance Information Consultation.

The consultation on performance measures poses questions that oblige local authorities and their partners in safeguarding to find effective ways of learning about the impact of services from children and young people themselves. This response is based on conversations with young people who have experience of care and/or child protection processes. The intention is to assist local authorities and partner agencies in developing performance measures which connect with children’s experiences and which enable improvements to be made to outcomes for them.

The response is freely available to download here: http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/publications/content_569

Rise In Care Applications In England

Just read an interesting article on the BBC's website about the rise in care applications in England over the last year. Data shows that for the first time the number of applications exceeded 10,000.

The rise in care applications follows the publicity given to the death of Baby Peter in London in 2007. Chief executive of Cafcass, Anthony Douglas says "These consistently high figures for the year have really tested the resilience of our staff and our systems, but we have continued to be a strong organisation that serves the best interests of children...this rise shows that all agencies are working more quickly to ensure that children are removed from deeply damaging households where many have been for some time and are showing a lower tolerance for poor parenting."

You can read more about this issue here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17675556

Delivering Children's Services In the UK & Other Parts Of The World: A Brief Policy Context

C4EO has published a new briefing paper giving a rapid review of the policy context for delivering children's services in the UK and other countries. It aims to articulate the variety of models for children's services delivery that exist internationally and places these in the context of current UK policy and practice.

The key sections present outlines of the different policy and service provision approaches to children's services in the UK and the top performing OECD countries, brief reference is made to other countries, where appropriate.

Click here to read more.