End Child Policy Logjam Burstow tells Commons

Speaking in today's Commons debate on vulnerable children, Liberal Democrat Spokesman on Children & Social Services Paul Burstow MP will call for the large number of delayed Government policy initiatives in this area to be published.

Mr Burstow will highlight that there have been five delays to the publication of the Children's Green Paper, most recently because it did not fit in with the Prime Minister's diary. He will also highlight delays in other reports that should have been published by Ministers on children's issues including:

• The Social Exclusion Unit Report on the Education of Looked After Children which was due to be published in October 2002
• The National Service Framework for Children, which has only had two parts published so far, despite Ministers promising to have unveiled the whole document months ago
• The response to the Laming Inquiry has not yet been published
• A failure to respond so far to the calls by the Joint House of Commons Committee on Human Rights for a Children's Commissioner for England

Paul Burstow MP said:

"Ministers have allowed a logjam of children's policy initiatives to build up. Thousands of the most vulnerable children in society are still waiting for implementation of better practice that will ensure they are given the best protection and the best education.

"By the time looked after children leave the care of social services, four out of five can expect to be unemployed, or unemployable. Three in five will have no educational qualifications.

"No wonder that one in three of the prison population was a looked after child, and one in four looked after children will be a parent when they leave care. One in five will be homeless two years after leaving care.

"This is not a record that bodes well for the future of these children. It is time Ministers stopped sending out contradictory messages, and take the first steps to tackle the poverty of opportunity that faces our society's vulnerable children.

"The debate should not be about an individual Minister, but about the systematic failure of successive Governments to protect the most vulnerable children in society."

ENDS

Link to the debate: http://pubs1.tso.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmhansrd/cm030716/debtext/30716-28.htm#30716-28_spnew4

Notes to Editors.

• In January 2003, Mr Burstow published the report 'Set Up to Fail? - Overlooking looked after children' which undertook a comprehensive assessment of the needs of the 60,000 most vulnerable children in society. It found:-

WHO ARE LOOKED AFTER CHILDREN?

THERE ARE 58,900 LOOKED AFTER CHILDREN AT ANY ONE TIME

• 56% children leaving care are boys, 44% are girls

• Around 27% have a physical or mental impairment

• 6.6% are black

• 6% are of mixed race

• 1.8% are Asian

HOW DID CHILDREN END UP IN CARE?

• 41% have been abused or neglected

• 10% have been taken into care because of family dysfunction

• 8% were put in care because of fears for their welfare

• 3.9% are abandoned or lost

• 3.3% have been placed in care because of their behaviour

• 2.1% are accused or guilty of an offence

• 1.9% are orphans

• 1.3% are in the preliminary stage of adoption

• 1.2% have parents in prison

• 0.7% have been homeless or their families made homeless

• 0.6% are children whose parents needed some respite

• 0.2% have suffered a breakdown of their adoptive family

WHAT IS THEIR HEALTH LIKE?

• 96% have behavioural or emotional difficulties

• 31% have not had basic health checks, inoculations or have gone to the dentist

• Between 17.5% and 25% have a child by the age of 16

• 13% are mentally or physically disabled

• 5% have not had a social worker allocated to them

HOW DO THEY DO AT SCHOOL?

• 55% will leave school with 0 GCSE's,

• 26% have a statement of Special Educational Need

• 25% have missed 25 days or more of school a year

• 10% will have 1 A-G GCSE

• 10% will have 1 GCSE A-C

• 9% will have 5 A-G GCSE's

• 6% have been excluded from school all together

• 5% will have at least 5 GCSE's A-C

• 4% will have at least 1 GNVQ

WHAT DOES LIFE HOLD FOR THEM?

• Between 50% and 80% will be unemployed or unemployable

• Between 6% and 10% girls in care will have a child of their own.

• 31% of the prison population is a formerly looked after child

• 20% have experienced homelessness within 2 years of leaving care

• 12% -19% go on to further training or education.

Liberal Democrat Proposals

3.1 The recommendations have been divided up into those that are directed to central Government, those that require action by local authorities and other local agencies, and those that require the action of other organisations.

Central Government

3.2 The Prime Minister should appoint a Cabinet Champion for Children. The Champion should have responsibility for co-ordinating the Government's response to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and ensuring that Government departments and agencies have complementary objectives and targets for children.

3.3 The Government should bring forward proposals for establishing on a statutory basis the Office of the Commissioner for Children to co-ordinate, monitor, and promote issues affecting children, acting as an advocate for the rights of children.

3.4 Undertake an urgent audit of all data currently collected by Government departments and agencies concerning looked after children to identify gaps and determine priorities for new data collection.

3.5 The Department of Health must undertake an urgent review of its current social work recruitment drive and implications of the number of people entering social work training in the UK. In conjunction with the Local Government Association a further recruitment campaign should be launched promoting the profession and challenging the myths about the profession. However, the chronic retention problems in children's social services must also be urgently addressed to provide the essential continuity to vulnerable children's lives that would allow them to become productive and beneficial members of society.

3.6 The special needs of looked after children must inform all of the standards in the Children's Services National Service Framework.

3.7 The Department of Health must ensure that its Alcohol Strategy specifically identifies and meets the needs of looked after children.

3.8 Urgent research work must be undertaken by the Department of Health to establish how many looked-after children are referred to child and adolescent mental health services, how many go on to enter adult mental health services and how many suffer major mental disorders in later life.

3.9 The Home Office should commission research to discover how many unaccompanied asylum seeking children go into looked after children services, what their needs are, what the cost implications for each local authority are and what additional services need to be provided for these children.

3.10 The Department of Health should enter into discussions with the LGA and ADSS to set up pilot projects to measure the impact on educational attainment and personal development of looked after children sent to boarding school.

3.11 A national care line and website should be set up specifically for looked after children, their families and professionals to provide a signposting service, the dissemination of best practice and an source of information.

3.12 The Department of Health should undertake an urgent assessment of the financial implications that face children's homes in the light of the increased liability risks associated with the profession following the collapse of the main insurer for children's homes.

3.13 Urgent identification of what measures can be put in place to prevent looked after children becoming persistent offenders and an independent review should be set up to look at whether juvenile detention centres are beneficial to the long term rehabilitation of youth offenders back into society. The review should also look at whether this type of institution is long-term cost effective, and whether, despite opting out of article 37(c) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child being locked up in adult prisons is advantageous for the child or society.

3.14 The completion of the target for all staff to achieve NVQ Caring for Children and Young People level 3 is essential to provide staff with the skills and understanding that is required.

Local Government and other local agencies

3.15 Social Service Department experiencing serious recruitment and retention difficulties must examine the scope for reallocating tasks to free up social workers to concentrate on complex cases. Developing effective administrative and IT support for social workers. Identifying and encouraging suitable candidates amongst the existing workforce for training in social work.

3.16 A social worker must be assigned, and first contact must be made with, a looked after child within 1 week of entering into the care system. This means that social services, health and education departments in local authorities must fast-track the neediest children through assessment and diagnostic services.

3.17 Primary Care Trusts must review their arrangements with local Social Services Departments to ensure that looked after children have access to a GP and NHS dentist and that they receive regular check-ups and urgently adhere to the belated guidance 'Promoting the Health of Looked After Children' published in November 2002.

3.18 Primary Care Trusts must ensure that adequate resources are provided to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services to enable emotionally damaged and distressed looked after children to receive timely and appropriate care at the right time and in the right place.

3.19 Local authorities should consider establishing a post funded jointly by social services and the local education authority to provide an advocacy and truancy service.

3.20 Local authorities should work with other local agencies to develop strategies to increase the pool of foster carers by investing in dedicated staff to recruit and provide 24 hour backup and support to carers, including specialist education and health support and through payment of competitive package of remuneration

3.21 Local authorities need to work with other agencies to post adoption support, including specialist education and health support.

3.22 Training courses for teachers, health professionals and social workers must emphasise the importance of concise, comprehensible, non-jargoned report writing that can be disseminated to all branches of the childcare system.

3.23 Preventative programmes and support must be introduced by local authorities to stop formerly looked after children ending up homeless so soon after finishing their period of care.

The Conservative opposition day motion will be supported by the Liberal Democrats and will be debated as follows:

Protecting Vulnerable Children

That this House notes that it is now almost six months since the publication of Lord Laming's report on the Victoria Climbie Inquiry and well over three years since the death of this little girl; further notes that of the 108 recommendations by Lord Laming, 82 were recommended to be acted upon within 6 months; condemns the Government for its continued failure to produce the long-awaited Green Paper on Children at Risk, which was originally promised in the spring as the Government's response to many of the systemic failures in child protection highlighted by Lord Laming; is concerned at the continued failure of the Government to address the crisis in recruitment of social worker professionals skilled in child protection who are essential to addressing these failures; regrets that local authorities are unable to implement changes recommended in the Report which would improve the delivery of children's services, because of the delay in the publication of the Government's response; welcomes the creation of the post of a Minister for Children, after six years in government; and calls on the Government to publish the Green Paper immediately as planned in order to secure the confidence and support of all those involved in the protection of vulnerable children.