The UK government has announced a new Children’s Social Care Implementation Strategy, backed by £200 million over the next two years, aimed at improving support for vulnerable children and families. The overhaul comes in response to the findings of three independent reviews, which revealed the current care system was struggling to meet the needs of families across England who are often feeling fragmented and siloed.
The new strategy, Stable Homes, Built on Love, prioritizes relationships at the heart of the care system, with the goal of reducing the need for crisis response and providing more early support to families. This will include local early help and intervention with issues such as addiction, domestic abuse, and mental health to keep families together, with £45 million being invested in a best practice model to be tested in 12 local authorities.
Kinship care, where a child is placed with a relative or close family friend, will also be prioritized with a simplified process and increased support for extended families. Foster carers will receive an above-inflation increase in their allowance to help cover the costs of caring for a child and £25 million will be invested in a recruitment and retention programme, the largest investment in recent history.
The strategy also introduces a new, more effective, joined-up family help for those struggling, with up to 12 local areas receiving over £45 million to test a new approach. The focus will be on providing increased support for families, with a non-judgmental approach to issues such as domestic abuse or poor mental health. A Child Protection Lead Practitioner role will be introduced, with advanced, specialist training, to work with other services such as the police to better identify and respond to significant harm to children.
£9 million will be invested in a kinship care training and support offer for all kinship carers, with the government exploring the possibility of a new financial allowance, additional workplace entitlements, and the extension of legal aid for those who become Special Guardians or who hold Child Arrangement Orders. The government will also invest £30 million in family finding, befriending, and mentoring programmes to support children in care and care leavers to find and maintain relationships. The leaving care allowance will be increased from £2,000 to £3,000 and the bursary available to care leavers undertaking apprenticeships will increase from £1000 to £3,000.
The children’s social care workforce will be expanded and strengthened with the support of local authorities to recruit up to 500 new child and family social worker apprentices, and there will be consultation on proposals for a professional register of social workers.
Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing, Claire Coutinho, said, “Children in care deserve the same love and stability as everyone else. Our wide-ranging reforms will put strong relationships at the heart of the care system. From supporting our brilliant foster carers, kinship carers and social workers to getting early help to families and improving children’s homes, we want every child to get the support and protection they need.”
Today’s announcement aligns with the Prime Minister’s intention to better support all families and build stronger, more stable communities and happier individuals.
