Nugent’s initial response to the Care Review by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care
The Care Review report was published by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in which detailed planned reforms are outlined to come into effect across England for Children’s Social Care. At Nugent we welcome and agree with the blueprint for change within the report, and are ready and willing to be partners of change to ensure the best outcomes for children.
In discussion with our COO, Dr Kate Herod, we were delighted to see the paramount importance of relationships as a central theme for the report; and the healing and power of family and community. For those children, for whom this is not the safest option, the reports recognition of the need for a highly skilled workforce of in children’s social care that is valued and recognised is something we have been campaigning for, for the last decade.
The central agenda for reform in this review is that children should remain in family settings with support provided from children’s social care, or being returned to the family home sooner. Whilst the principals of the report are rooted in values and high aspirations for children’s outcomes, it must be matched with the stark reality of the state of a health and social care sectors. Evidence over the last fifty years has consistently demonstrated that children’s safety and well-being in the family home is severely adversely affected by three main adversities; domestic violence, substance misuse and parental mental health difficulties. Our view is that the report unfortunately pays disproportionately little attention to the need to ensure that provisions that support families with these three sources of harm within families is insufficient. The report has no jurisdiction to influence change in these provision gaps, and forging ahead with change without a system wide collaboration and investment in services to support parental difficulties has the potential to put children at greater risk of harm. We hope that the wider system will take note of the need for even wider system wide collaboration.
Nugent will explore the report in more detail and we will provide a full report of our findings within the report in the near future.
If you would like to read the full report by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care please visit: https://childrenssocialcare.independent-review.uk/final-report/
