England’s Children’s Commissioner outlines vision for care

The Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, has published (20 October) a new report, ‘The Children’s Plan: Vision for Care’, highlighting the work that the Children’s Commissioner has done so far for children’s social care and a vision for further reform.

The report explores the needs of children, what children and young people have shared with the Commissioner’s office about their experiences, and matters of concern in relation to standards, youth custody and leaving care.

This concludes that children’s social care system in England is from where it needs to be, despite much well-intentioned work, finding breaches of children’s rights, to education, to alternative care, and to liberty.

In setting out a vision for transforming children’s social care, with children’s rights at its heart, the report details eight sets of recommended actions, including:

• The full incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into law in England;
• The creation of a refreshed Children Act to replace the 1989 Children Act, in order to better represent the needs of today’s children and the changed world in which they live;
• The creation of a fully funded plan for foster care recruitment, with central government funding;
• Establishing an improved model of inspection and accountability;
• Raising Council Tax Exemption for care leavers to the age of 25, and raising the rate of Universal Credit for all care leavers aged over 18 to the over-25 age rate; and
• The use of a single unique identifier for children across services, to be introduced under the Children, Wellbeing and Schools Bill currently before the UK Parliament, to give children, parents and practitioners access to a single portal of all the information that they may need to support children.

Writing in her foreword to the report, Dame Rachel de Souza, says: “In recent years, there have been myriad reforms across the children’s social care system in England, starting with the 2022 independent review of children’s social care. But rather than a wholesale re-imagining of what great care can and should be, implementation has been a piecemeal, piloted roll out – bringing some positive change to some children. That’s far from the bold ambition and deep commitment needed to make changes for every child to excel.

“Every child deserves adults in their life who are ambitious for them and a coherent plan set out by the services supporting them to help them achieve their potential. We cannot leave it to chance. It requires hard work and bold thinking. It will require a shared vision across the country of what ‘good’ looks like within all services – and a refusal to allow anything less for these children.

“Above all, it will require children’s voices and experiences to be listened to and placed at the centre of urgent reform. Children in care, or with a social worker, must no longer be an afterthought to any serious public sector reform.”

Read the Children's Commissioner's Report