Long road ahead to improve children's social care, MPs warn
Shortages of care placements led to 45% of looked-after children being placed outside of their local authority last year, and 22% moved more than 20 miles from home, MPs said, with 'distressing impacts' felt as a result.
The committee's report also noted almost four in 10 (39%) care leavers aged 19–21 are not in education, training or employment, compared to 13% of all young people in that age group, while a third of care leavers become homeless within two years of leaving care.
Committee chairwoman Helen Hayes branded the situation a 'moral failure'.
She said: 'It is unacceptable that thousands of young people leaving care are being left to face homelessness, unemployment or barriers to education – it is a moral failure.
'The system that should be supporting our most vulnerable children is far too often abandoning them at a critical moment in their lives. Urgent action is needed to fix this broken system and give all of our young people the futures they deserve.
'Throughout this inquiry we heard that a false economy of cuts over the past decade has led to postcode lotteries in provision across different areas of the country, and has instead caused some parts of the system to become more expensive.'
The report called for Government funding to be directed back into early intervention services, which Ms Hayes said 'reduce both children's suffering and costs in the long run', and to provide a so-called National Care Offer covering a guaranteed level of support for those leaving care as opposed to a 'cliff edge as they approach adulthood'.
She added: 'There is a long road ahead to improve the children's social care sector, but doing so will reduce children's suffering and produce a system that helps give young people the best chance to live happily and independently.'
The report's publication on Thursday coincided with changes coming into effect which the Government said will give care leavers greater access to social housing.
The requirement for vulnerable groups including care leavers to have a connection to the local area has been lifted, meaning they will 'no longer be unfairly penalised', the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said.
Also on Thursday, the Department for Education (DfE) announced more than £53 million would be invested in creating 200 new placements in high-quality council-run homes for the most vulnerable children including those who need to be prevented from running away or from harming themselves and others.
The Government said this was the first time it had specifically targeted funding at children with complex needs who are at risk of being deprived of their liberty.
The DfE said the investment is part of its reform plan for the sector, moving away from a crisis intervention approach to earlier prevention help, with more than £2 billion investment over the course of this parliament.
The committee cited a number of reasons for the rise in the number of looked-after children, including less support for early intervention, greater poverty and cost-of-living pressures and an increase in the number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
The MPs said: 'The Government must address the factors outside the care system which are contributing to the rise in need and take action in its forthcoming Child Poverty Strategy to significantly reduce the number of children growing up in financial hardship.'
The strategy is expected to be published in autumn, having been initially expected in spring.
Among the committee's other recommendations were development of a new strategy to recruit foster carers and offer more support to kinship carers, and improved availability and quality of residential placements.
The MPs also called for the DfE to issue a 'comprehensive response' to the 2022 Independent Review of Children's Social Care, which called for a 'radical reset' to improve the lives of children in care and their families by breaking the 'cycle of escalating need and crisis intervention'.
The committee said national eligibility criteria for disabled children's social care should be introduced, noting there is currently a 'confusing 'postcode lottery' of support between local authorities'.
Stephen Kingdom, campaign manager for the Disabled Children's Partnership, said the report shows disabled children, young people and their families 'are being failed by children's social care'.
He added: 'Too often, families find that a system that should be supporting them is instead treating parents with suspicion. As a result, their needs are de-prioritised; they find themselves blamed and stigmatised; and what little help they do get only comes when they hit crisis point.'
Care charity Become welcomed the committee's 'commitment to driving meaningful change' and putting young people's voices 'at the heart of these recommendations'.
Harriet Edwards, from national disability charity Sense, backed the report's recommendations 'so all disabled children are treated fairly, no matter where they live', stating that 'for too long disabled children have been failed by a confusing social care system that is not fit for purpose'.
Children and families minister Janet Daby said the children's social care system had 'faced years of drift and neglect, leading to a vicious cycle of late intervention and children falling through the cracks'.
The Government had previously announced a pledge from Government for a 'backstop' law, which would limit the profit children's social care providers can make, to be brought in if providers do not voluntarily put an end to profiteering.
Ms Daby: 'Through our Plan for Change and our Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, this Government is enabling every child to achieve and thrive by investing in the places children need, cracking down on profiteering with new laws, and rebuilding family support services so parents and carers get the help they need to keep their children happy and safe in loving homes.'
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