This briefing was prepared ahead of the House of Lords debate on 'A response to the Children's Social Care Implementation Strategy'.
The children’s social care system is under significant pressure – numbers of children in care increased by a quarter between 2010-11 and 2020-211 while the number of children formally identified as ‘in need’ grew by 12,500 over the same period.
Recent analysis on the level of children’s services funding conducted by Pro-Bono Economics on behalf of Barnardo’s and the other leading children’s charities shows that while spending by councils on children’s social care is increasing, 80% of the £800m increase in spending in the last year went on late intervention – much on high cost residential for-profit care placements for children with complex needs.
The same analysis also showed that there has been limited new investment in early family help services which seek to prevent children entering care. Overall, despite a slight year-on-year increase money spent on these services has decreased by 46% in 12 years.
The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care published in May 2022 and contained several important reforms including a recommended investment of £2.6bn to refocus the system on providing early support for families.
The Government’s issued a response to the review in May 2022. While this welcomed many of the recommendations, overall the plans lacked funding and pledged just £200 million over a two-year period, which would be used to fund 12 Family First Pathfinders and Regional Care Co-operatives. National roll-out of new family help services will not happen until 2026 at the earliest and there is no legislative timetable for introducing further reform.
This delay will come at a cost to children and families but also to the state – recent analysis by Alma Economics on behalf of the major children’s charities showed that the cost of delaying a national roll out for two years will mean that ten years from now, allowing for inflation, the Government will have spent an additional £1bn more than if they had implemented the reforms on the timeline suggested by the Care Review.