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Guidance for Schools and Colleges: Gender Questioning Children -...

​ADCS response to DfE consultation: Guidance for Schools and Colleges: Gender Questioning Children

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Comment: OCC report on children in need

ADCS President John Pearce said:

“This new report is welcome and makes a number of important points about the need to put early help on a statutory footing with dedicated, ring fenced funding, and calls for better national data. The government is developing a new family help offer in response to the independent review of children’s social care and the report raises important questions that could usefully play into this work. It is also clear the ambition set out can only be met if sustainable funding is allocated to local authorities for early help services.

“Each local authority has developed its local service offer over time to meet the needs of the local population, geography and context within the available financial envelope. As we enter the fourteenth year of austerity, this will look markedly different from place to place. This flexibility is particularly important here given the broad range of needs of the children we work with in this space, including homeless young people, families with no recourse to public funds and children with disabilities. It is important that social workers can use their professional judgement when assessing the level of support required and the frequency of visits. Therefore, any calls for consistency and blanket guidance must be carefully considered as services must be tailored to individual needs.

“ADCS will continue to engage with government on making sure children’s best interests are at the heart of these decisions.”

ENDS


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This is not a slow burning threat

In 2017 ADCS published A country that works for all children, a policy position paper which aimed to articulate the many challenges facing children and their families at the time and the wider contextual impact on them. That paper set out a range of asks for government to address challenges and the Association is updating this paper which will be published soon. Much has changed in seven years but not necessarily for the better, and the pandemic continues to impact on children and young people. Progress has not been made on urgent issues, such as child and family poverty and indeed things have continued to decline.

All children should be able to say, ‘my family and I don’t live in poverty and we’re not hungry’, they can’t. Over 4 million children in the UK live in poverty, the majority from working families and a rising number of families are experiencing destitution. Recent research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found over 1 million children were destitute in 2022, almost 3 times the number in 2017. Also, more and more families are relying on food parcels to get by.

Poverty is impacting our communities to such an extent that it underpins so many of the challenges that lead families to our door. The evidence is clear on the impact of poverty across all ages, it is linked to low birth weight in babies, poor physical and mental health and it is much harder to learn if you’re going to school hungry. Poverty affects life expectancy too, a recent review by Sir Michael Marmot found over 1 million people died earlier than they would have done between 2011 and 2019 if they lived in the wealthiest 10% of areas.

Successive governments have known about widening social and economic inequalities that are impacting children’s health, wellbeing and life chances for some time. There is also a differential impact on particular groups which enhances entrenched inequalities, for example analysis by the Runnymede Trust shows Black and minority ethnic people in the UK are over twice as likely to live in poverty as their white counterparts. This is not a slow burning threat; poverty is damaging childhoods, life chances and the future economy of this country now.

We urgently need the government to develop a national strategy to tackle the root causes of poverty, not just the symptoms. We can create the conditions in which all children in this country can thrive if the political will exists.


This column first appeared on the MJ website on 5 Feb 2024.


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PR: Childhood Matters

Seven years ago, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) published A country that works for all children. The 2017 policy position paper aimed to articulate the challenges facing children and their families and put forward some solutions for change and asks of government which, sadly, remain unaddressed. Today, ADCS publishes Childhood Matters, an update to capture the changes that have happened in the intervening years and describe the current situation for children, their families and the public services they rely on.

The updated paper acts as an urgent call to arms to put children and families at the heart of all policy decisions and to invest in them and their futures. It reiterates the Association’s previous calls for a comprehensive long-term vision and plan for childhood and to address the funding gap in children’s services. It also identifies the most pressing priority for all the different government departments and agencies with a stake in child and family policy.

Since 2010, funding for local government has fallen by almost half in real terms and several councils are now effectively bankrupt, with more expected to follow suit. There is an estimated £4 billion blackhole in council finances over the next two years, and while local politicians have worked hard to protect children’s services budgets, over time more is being spent on child protection and care meaning there is less for early help and support. Emergency one off injections of funding, while helpful, do not negate the need for sufficient, long term funding for children’s services and local government.

John Pearce, ADCS President, said: “It is clear that children’s needs, rights and outcomes have not been prioritised in recent years. The cumulative impact of government policies and decisions on them, their families and the public services that support them is growing. The impact is evident from underinvestment in school buildings, the allocation of new funding via competitions to insufficient action on rising levels of child poverty, mental distress, and blatant profiteering by some private providers of children’s homes. During the pandemic pubs reopened before most pupils returned to school and even where there is significant planned investment in childcare, for example, the driver is getting adults back into work rather than children’s outcomes. What message does this send about our priorities as a country and how we value children in society?

He went on to say: “Clearly this country is not currently working for all children, we need the government to recognise this and act in a long term way. The need for action on child and family poverty, a new approach to funding and addressing the workforce crisis is arguably stronger than ever before. We need government to recognise its role in addressing these challenges and to work with councils and other public services to take action on deep rooted injustices and inequalities, which are widening rather than closing.

John Pearce concluded: “Childhood matters but because children do not vote they have not been a political priority. This is a pivotal moment in the nation’s relationship with children and families. A general election is on the horizon, a step change is needed in how government prioritises and invests in children, young people, their families and in public services. Not only is this the right thing to do, but it is the only way to secure this country’s future economic prosperity. Every childhood is a critical opportunity for us to make a difference, however, if the status quo continues I worry about the lives and life chances that are being left behind.”

ENDS


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​Childhood Matters

​Childhood Matters

Childhood Matters acts as an update to the Association’s 2017 policy paper, A country that works for all children. It seeks to capture the issues and challenges facing children, young people and families, such as poverty and poor mental health, as well as the public services they rely on. This paper has been developed in consultation with leaders of local authority children’s services across the country. They expressed a shared concern about the lack of prominence and prioritisation of children within government policy and spending priorities as well as the difficulties in navigating the diffuse accountability arrangements across the multiple different departments and agencies each with responsibility for aspects of child and family policy.

As the next general election approaches, the paper identifies the most pressing priorities for each of the key nine departments, and agencies, with a role in child and family policy.

View Childhood Matters - Final Report (pdf)

View Childhood Matters - Executive Summary (pdf)



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Policy must focus on better outcomes not just access to work

The greatest opportunities to make a real and tangible difference to a child’s life chances occur when they are very young, in the first five years of life. Evidence shows that babies born into poverty are more likely to have low birth weight and by the age of three are, on average, nine months behind in development terms than their wealthier peers. The attainment gap widens further in the school years. Access to early education and high quality childcare is linked to better academic results and improved cognitive and socio-emotional development in primary schools, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. It plays a crucial role in reducing the outcomes gap between the most and least disadvantaged children.

Improving children’s outcomes should be at the heart of any early years policy. While childcare has been a policy priority for successive governments, the aim has predominately been to get more parents into work. The 30 hours ‘free’ childcare offer for working parents of three and four year olds is poorly targeted, it effectively excludes the most in need households, yet individuals who earn up to £100,000 per annum can benefit from this offer. We are losing opportunities to make a difference to the most disadvantaged children and families. Reducing the income threshold would helpfully narrow the policy focus to the most in need households and any funding could be reinvested to help the early years sector recruit, and retain, the workforce they desperately need.

The funding attached to the existing 30 hour ‘free’ offer is insufficient to meet actual costs with providers having to pass costs on to families to make up the shortfall or face closure. This is affecting the viability of both individual providers and the sector as a whole. According to the Women’s Budget Group £1.8bn is required to make up the shortfall for existing funding entitlements, following years of chronic underfunding and pressures exacerbated by the cost of living crisis. There is significant underinvestment in the expansion of the offer to younger children the WBG said, estimating that an extra £5.2 billion would be needed in 2025-26 in addition to the extra £4.2 billion the government expects to be spending to cover the true cost of provision for all the funded hours.

By expanding the ‘free’ childcare entitlements more households will be able to benefit from the offer, however, these reforms have come at a time when the sector is facing significant challenges including high costs because of the cost of living crisis and severe workforce challenges, with a significant proportion of the workforce choosing to leave for higher paid roles in retail. A recent government consultation on how early years funding is distributed has concluded. However, no matter how carefully funding is distributed, if the funding envelope is not sufficient the market will not be able to successfully deliver on these new expectations, children and families will lose out.

The unique ability of the early years sector to close the attainment gap must be at the heart of designing and implementing any future reforms over getting parents into work. This should be backed by sufficient funding from central government to ensure the funding available reflects the costs of delivering the reforms.


This column first appeared in CYP Now website on 3 Jan 2024


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Comment: profiteering in children’s social care

John Pearce, ADCS President, said:

“The children in our care deserve to live in homes that meet their needs and as close to the people and places they know as possible. However, finding the right home is increasingly difficult due to the significant shortfall in suitable homes in the right locations and this is particularly true for those children needing the highest levels of support. Local authorities can pay thousands of pounds a week for individual placements for children in their care while providers can choose which children to accept and at what cost due to high demand. We urgently need government to develop a comprehensive national placements strategy so that the right homes are available when and where they’re needed.

“Children’s services have long operated in a mixed economy with private, voluntary and community providers involved in the delivery of services locally. However, profiteering by some large private providers and growing private equity involvement into the provision of fostering and residential care placements is a concern as is the considerable levels of borrowing and debts that some private companies are holding. Should any of these providers fail, no single local authority could step in, and it would be children who suffer the greatest consequences. There should be a set of national rules to ensure the system is reset in favour of children’s best interests, not maximising profits. ADCS continues to call for new legislation which prevents profiteering in children’s services and for the introduction of pricing bands and caps.”

ENDS


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Comment: EHE register

John Pearce, ADCS President, said:

“We have long raised with government the need for a register that gives us a full understanding of the number of children who are being educated at home, locally and nationally. We understand the government remains committed to introducing a register of children not in school, however, it is disappointing that this has not been implemented yet. A register in and of itself will not keep children safe but it will help to establish how many children are being educated other than in school and to identify children who are vulnerable to harm, we hope that a register is introduced at the soonest possibility.”

ENDS


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Next government needs to reset Send system

At some point over the next 12 months, we’ll find ourselves heading into a general election where each party will set out their manifestos. For those of us in children’s services, we will be scrutinising what is being said about important issues such as child poverty, children’s mental health and local government funding. There are multiple priority areas that need urgent attention and focus nationally, however, I have been reflecting on what the immediate priorities for an incoming government should be.

The pressures in children’s services have been well documented and there is a plethora of evidence showing how demand continues to rise. However, we lack a funding settlement that recognises these pressures. Like many other sectors, the impacts of the pandemic are still being felt and will remain for years to come. We are seeing this in terms of greater complexity of need as well as new children and families coming into contact with children’s services. The pressures are being felt by all local authorities up and down the country and whilst our whole workforce is doing an inspirational job in keeping children and young people safe, we are operating in an increasingly difficult environment. Providing a proper, long term and sustainable funding settlement for children’s services must be a priority for any new government. Over a decade of austerity has resulted in local authority budgets being cut in half, forcing us to cut many of the services that allow us to support children and families early. This is a false economy which only stores up problems for the future.

Another area of priority focus must be on addressing the growing pressures in the SEND system. The system needs a reset to make it work better for all children and young people and to reduce the insurmountable costs that we are seeing threaten the financial sustainability of local authorities. The intended outcomes of the 2014 reforms have not been delivered, in part due to underfunding, with the number of education, health and care plans growing year on year and capital investment in new special schools not keeping pace with demand. Part of the solution would be to change the accountability system in our mainstream schools so that they are incentivised and appropriately funded to be more inclusive of all children, including those with additional needs. With the system as it is, there is a growing reliance on more costly independent specialist provision. Despite record levels of spending, more and more people are dissatisfied with how the system is working, something that has been acknowledged by the government.

Any incoming government must prioritise making this a country that works for all children. It must invest long-term in children, their families and the public services that support them and take a holistic approach to improving their lives. Local government can be transformative when at its best, but there is much out of our control such as growing levels of child poverty. We need a national government that is just as committed as we are to making change.

Andy Smith, ADCS Vice President


This column was first published in LGC in November 2023


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Response to the coroner’s verdict following inquest into Ruth...

John Pearce, President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, said:

“Directors of children’s services, and their teams, understand all too well the heavy burden of inspection on the health and wellbeing of the individuals working in organisations being inspected, from senior leaders through to frontline staff. This has been brought into sharp focus by tragic events earlier this year, and by today’s verdict. Our deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of Ruth Perry.

“It is right that all of children’s services, including schools, are held to account for the important work that they do with children, and the outcomes they achieve. When there are issues, robust action should be taken to secure rapid improvement. Inspection should have a positive impact at a system level, providing assurance and supporting learning, and always be grounded in improving outcomes for children and young people and empowering staff.

“ADCS has long maintained that single worded judgements tell a partial and negative story, running the risk of weakening the very services the inspectorates seek to improve. Often, the consequences that follow a poor inspection outcome are disproportionate and have an unintended ripple effect across the workforce. A poor inspection outcome can lead to a high staff turnover making it difficult to address the very issues raised and ultimately improve services for children and families.

“There is a clear need for a wider debate about the role and impact of inspection with government, who are responsible for commissioning the framework for inspecting schools, local authorities and other public services, and critically, the interventions and consequences that follow. Meaningful change can only be delivered by government as the ultimate regulator, rather than individual inspectorates and this requires an open dialogue.”

ENDS

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) Ltd is the professional leadership association for Directors of Children’s Services and their senior management teams in England.


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ADCS President’s address at the National Children and Adult...

ADCS President’s address at the National Children and Adult Services Conference 2023

Addressing delegates at the National Children and Adult Services Conference in Bournemouth, John Pearce, President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), today said:

On child poverty:

“The Joseph Rowntree Foundation recently published its fourth study on destitution across the UK… the study found that around one million children in the UK experienced destitution in 2022, this is triple the number of children in 2017… How did we arrive at a place where one million children have not had their most basic needs met? It has become clear that many of the challenges we face have been created or exacerbated by national policy decisions…”

On education:

“You may remember that last year, the Schools White Paper landed… the following day, the SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper was also published and the link between the two was clear for all to see… For the first time in a long time, we had a welcome and clear articulation of what an inclusive education system would look like, it all felt too good to be true and unfortunately it was! The Schools White Paper was put back on the shelf and the Schools Bill withdrawn… This is why ADCS has today published a vision for the future of the education system.

“Too often the education debate is too narrowly focused on schools, at the expense of early years settings and further education colleges… the early years provide the best opportunity to close the attainment gap… the government has announced major investment and reform for childcare, but it’s based on getting parents back into work, rather than supporting professionals to give children the best possible start in life… The same is true of further education. For many young people, vocational routes offer the best opportunity for study and development… It is clear that the education system needs change. It needs a long-term vision and crucially, it needs to work for all children and young people.”

On funding:

“Councils up and down the country are… facing the real prospect of issuing Section 114 notices and the biggest financial risks now lie in the service areas we are responsible for, those we provide to children and adults… The significant cost pressures on children’s services are in the main driven by either national policy, or the retrenchment of our partners into what they regard as their ‘core’ business… In children’s services this will mean moving more funds away from essential early help… we are not and should not be a blue light service… Government has been promising a new funding formula for years, it’s time to bite the bullet before it’s too late.”

On the agency workforce:

“The government recently published its response to the child and family social worker workforce consultation and ADCS welcomed this as a positive step in the right direction… however, we would have liked the proposals to go further and continue to see no positive case for members of project teams to have a statutory case holding role… but for the time being, there is a plan which now needs to be implemented at pace.”

On children’s homes placement pressures:

“It cannot be right that the largest 20 independent providers of children’s social care homes made more than £300 million of profit last year, every penny of which came directly from the public purse… we need government to act on this now… Earlier this year ADCS developed an alternative vision for regional care cooperatives… Ultimately, we need a national set of rules to drive a level of transparency through the system that enables local authorities to develop and operate commissioning models which are rooted in the needs of children, rather than shareholders.”

On partnerships and Working Together, the statutory guidance for safeguarding partners:

“…It becomes deeply problematic when partners do not interpret their fundamental safeguarding responsibilities as core to their functions, a good example being the Right Care Right Person programme being implemented by the Police. The updated Working Together guidance must be clear about the expectations of safeguarding partners and their responsibilities to children and young people. Very rarely is a single agency response enough but we don’t have the models available to us to respond in a way that I am sure both children’s social care and health colleagues would want to. A shared endeavour with the creation of an integrated response through a children’s better care fund could provide a delivery vehicle for some of this work.”

On the national transfer scheme (NTS) for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children:

“…The NTS was established as a voluntary scheme in the summer of 2016, which seems like a lifetime ago… It was not designed to deal with the huge increase in numbers of children arriving… While the recent high court judgment has significant implications for the functioning of the NTS… it helpfully clarified the primacy of the Children Act 1989 and the duties local authorities owe to all children in this country… It’s clear children’s needs must always be front and centre in everything we do, not just morally but also legally.”

ENDS

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) Ltd is the professional leadership association for Directors of Children’s Services and their senior management teams in England.

Notes:

• The full speech can be found on www.adcs.org.uk

The ADCS policy paper on the future of the education system mentioned in the speech can be found on www.adcs.org.uk


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ADCS President’s address NCASC 2023

John Pearce, President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services made his keynote speech at the National Children and Adult Services Conference in Bournemouth,

​View speech


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ADCS response: LGA research on placement costs

Responding to new LGA research on the cost of children’s social care placements John Pearce, ADCS President, said:

“This report highlights several important issues that ADCS has been consistently raising with government for years. The unmanageable costs of children’s social care placements, and the significant shortfall in suitable homes for children in our care has led to a crisis in the sector that needs immediate national action. Local authorities are the sole purchasers of placements, yet are often held to ransom by private providers due to lack of sufficiency meaning costs can be thousands of pounds a week for individual placements for children in their care. Providers can pick and choose which referrals to accept and set the price due to overwhelming demand particularly for placements for children with the complex needs. These and other issues, such as profiteering by some private providers which takes money out of the system when it should be spent on children, cannot be solved by councils alone and central government action is needed to help us meet the needs of children in care. A comprehensive national placement strategy is needed to ensure the right placements are available in the right locations and at the right time. This will need national rules to intervene and regulate all of those who wish to provide homes for our children in care. The government must now act to ensure children can access support and homes that meet their needs as well as ensuring value for money from public funds.”

ENDS


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Comment: HMI of Prisons report Children in Custody 2022/23

Helen Lincoln, Chair of the ADCS Families, Communities and Young People Policy Committee, said:

“It must not be forgotten that children in conflict with the law are first and foremost children. We should be doing all we can to divert children away from the youth justice system and to ensure it is safe for, and meets the needs of, the children already in contact with it. These children are often amongst the most vulnerable groups in our society and have complex and overlapping needs, many will have mental health issues or have been in care. The aim of any sentence must be to give children an opportunity to resettle into society and break the cycle of reoffending whilst keeping them safe and promoting their mental health and emotional well-being. It is difficult to see how conditions described in this report, such as high levels of self harm, violence and spending long periods of time alone in cells, help achieve these aims. While we understand the need to protect the safety of staff, the introduction of PAVA is seriously concerning and at odds with the government’s stated ‘Child First’ aims. We must do better for children in and on the edge of the youth justice system. “

ENDS


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Youth Services are a ‘must have’

As a society we don’t value young people enough. When young people ‘hang around’ in the streets most people will think they are up to no good, yet hundreds of youth centres have closed giving them nowhere safe to go. We need to invest in our young people, we need to recognise the significant contribution they make to society in the present as well as in the future.

Youth work can be transformative, it can help young people build trusting relationships, experience positive activities, improve their resilience, and give them safe places to be outside of school. It can happen in a variety of settings, such as youth clubs or faith groups, open access youth work can take place in a mobile unit like a bus or out in the community in a park. During the pandemic, we saw some innovative work to engage and support young people, such as online quizzes, sharing activity packs and walk and talk approaches to support those who were at risk or struggling. Youth workers make a difference in young people’s lives, yet they are an undervalued part of the wider children’s workforce.

Austerity policies have significantly impacted young people and youth work. An estimated 600 youth centres closed between 2012 and 2016, limiting the opportunities available to our young people. Local authorities and youth organisations have done all they can to continue delivering services, including by reshaping services, because we recognise their value and long-lasting impact on young people, but a lack of government funding to support us with this means services have had to be scaled back or closed altogether. It cannot be a surprise to anyone that we have subsequently seen significantly increased demand in specialist and high cost services for young people.

Across large rural areas, provision is spread thinly creating a post code lottery of access. Some local authorities have responded to government budget cuts by refocussing their youth services into a single hub, often in the town centre, while well meaning, these ‘youth zones’ can be exclusionary, most young people will need to travel to access it and there might not be the public transport links to do so, or they may not be able to afford it.

At a time when life is getting harder for children and young people because of rising poverty, increasing poor mental health and long waiting lists for help, now is the time to invest in our young people.

Though there has been some welcome government investment in young people, such as the National Youth Guarantee and the National Citizen Service (NCS), this falls short of what is needed, and the latter has had mixed evaluations in terms of impact and value for money. Youth services need long term sustainable national funding to ensure all young people can benefit.

We should be doing all we can to reach and engage young people and a big part of this is ensuring we have a strong youth work offer that is accessible and available to all young people. Youth services are not just ‘nice to have’ they are ‘must haves’ if we want young people to thrive.

John Pearce, ADCS President

This article first appeared in CYP Now on 24 October - Access to Youth Work: Key policy developments | CYP Now


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ADCS response: King’s Speech 2023

Responding to the King’s speech announced today, John Pearce, ADCS President, said:

“Unfortunately the speech missed an opportunity to focus on a significant long term challenge affecting children, their health, wellbeing and their ability to learn in school today – poverty. Poverty damages childhoods and children’s life chances, despite a mountain of evidence showing the impact of poverty on children’s lives we have not yet seen sufficient action from government on this. We urgently need national strategies that reduce and ultimately end child poverty. Children may not vote but they are our now as well as our future. Children need to be at the heart of all government policies with long term investment in them and the public services that support them.

“We do welcome the government’s ambition to create a ‘smoke free generation’ which, if achieved, will be positive for children. Local authorities are also committed to working with our partners to keep children safe from abuse in all its forms. England has one of the safest child protection systems in the world and this is made possible by a dedicated and committed social work, and wider children’s workforce. ADCS will be responding to the new government consultation on mandatory reporting in due course.”

ENDS


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Childcare Reforms - The MJ

Early years policy has been a focus for all recent governments, however, improving the life chances of children must be at the heart of any early years policy, over and above increasing the number of parents in work. The greatest opportunities to make a tangible difference to a child’s prospects occur when they are very young, in the first 1001 days of life. Access to early education and high-quality childcare during this time can have a real impact on children’s outcomes, particularly for the most disadvantaged children. It plays a crucial role in reducing the outcomes gap between the most and least disadvantaged children.

Local authorities have worked closely with providers to deliver the current 30 hours ‘free’ childcare for working families of three and four year olds, yet funding is insufficient to meet actual costs with settings having to pass additional charges and costs on to parents to make up the shortfall. Moreover, many of the most in need households are not eligible for support, yet children of parents who earn a combined income of up to £199,000 per year can benefit from this policy. ADCS believes help with childcare should be targeted at the most socially and economically disadvantaged families. Reducing the income threshold would helpfully narrow the policy to focus on these families, and any funding saved could be reinvested to help the early years sector recruit, and retain, the high-quality workforce they urgently need.

In the Spring Budget, the Chancellor announced an extension of the 30 hours offer and increased funding rates for children from nine months of age, which is good news for families who are struggling with the cost of childcare. However, despite the Department for Education’s expectation to invest £4.1bn by 2027/28 to deliver the offer, early years providers are reporting that this funding will still not cover their costs. The Education Select Committee’s recent report on childcare reforms was clear that simply extending the number of funded hours won’t have the desired impact unless funding accurately reflects the costs to providers.

A lack of sufficient funding is not the only thing the sector is struggling with. Early years providers are also still feeling the effects of the pandemic. Financial impacts have led to closures and staffing issues. Early years workers have had to adapt to the needs of children whose development has been impacted by pandemic restrictions, including effects on their confidence, gross motor skills, communication and language development. Providers are also dealing with rapidly growing costs due to the cost of living crisis and severe workforce challenges, with a significant proportion of the workforce choosing to leave for better paid roles in retail.

Nothing is more important than improving children’s life chances and the best chance we have to do this is in the early years of children’s lives. The government would be wise not to overlook the value of the early years sector, who work incredibly hard to support our youngest children.

Andy Smith, ADCS Vice President 2023/24

This article first appeared in the MJ on 26 August - Maximising early years’ potential (themj.co.uk)


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Comment: National Transfer Scheme

Andy Smith, ADCS Vice President, said:

“The High Court judgment on 27 July further highlights how the way in which we care for and support unaccompanied children who are fleeing desperate situations does not work. The National Transfer Scheme (NTS) no longer effectively functions; the scheme was not designed to support the dispersal of such high numbers of unaccompanied children and young people which is why we need a comprehensive system wide review of how it operates.

“There are inherent system pressures impacting on the ability of local authorities to support the efficient functioning of the NTS, such as a lack of adequate funding, a national shortage of placements and local authorities are supporting an increasing number of former UASC care leavers. Local authorities are proactively exploring all options available to them to find suitable places for children in their care to live and to reduce the insurmountable pressures placed on Kent as a result of the judgment. We do not believe the proposals in this letter will sufficiently expand placement capacity in the way that we need, and not in the time frame we need. ADCS has serious concerns about the reforms to semi-independent accommodation, recent research suggests the reforms could increase costs and significantly reduce capacity when we need it most. Furthermore, you can’t reopen a children’s home overnight not least because there is a shortage of registered managers and residential care workers to staff the homes. We need a coordinated plan over the short, medium and long term to meet the needs of unaccompanied children who need our support. ADCS is actively engaged in discussions with government to try to find a sustainable solution to the way in which the system responds to the needs of unaccompanied children and young people arriving in the UK.”

END


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ADCS Conference 2023

The Association recently held its annual conference in Manchester. This event provides the time and space for our members to debate and discuss our shared challenges but also solutions being developed locally in response to the increasing challenges children, families and local authorities currently face. There aren’t many opportunities in the annual children’s services calendar for us to come together in this way, but it is crucial as we strive to improve local services and outcomes of children and families.

We heard from the President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, in a thoughtful session about the family justice system. There was a specific focus on a wicked issue impacting the courts, local authorities and, most importantly, children and their families, a rise in applications to the National Deprivation of Liberty (DoLs) Court for children who are in crisis. This was an issue I highlighted in my speech to conference. There has been a near 500% increase in the number of applications to deprive children of their liberty in recent years, many of whom have multiple overlapping needs and experienced significant trauma, earlier childhood abuses and more. This is partly because we are working with a mental health system and a children’s placements system that are broken and we need major national strategies to address this. I think everyone can agree there is a need for the system to respond differently to better meet children’s needs, maintaining the status quo is untenable.

The government’s plan to reform children’s social care, Stable Homes Built on Love, was a frequent topic of discussion at conference. During this period of pilots, pathfinders and consultations it is important to remember the independent review recommended a crucial injection of £2.6 billion for implementation of the reforms. The totality of funding for children’s services is simply not enough and the scale of reform described in the government’s plan simply can’t be delivered if councils are financially compromised. There is a risk that the financial vulnerability of Councils will overtake the potential benefits of the reform programme.

Child and family poverty was a strong theme at conference this year as was children’s mental health, two of our many burning platforms. Directors of children’s services have a statutory duty to ensure the very best outcomes for children and families but there are factors that hinder our ability to improve outcomes. I have said a lot since becoming ADCS President about the crisis in children’s mental health and about how life is getting harder for children and families. Record levels of inflation and poverty have exacerbated existing inequalities and the children’s mental health system simply doesn’t work for children, children want change. These issues remain priorities for ADCS, they must be for government too. We need major policy change in these areas.

With a general election approaching, there is an opportunity to prioritise children. Children may not vote, but supporting them to have safe, happy child hoods and to thrive as adults will benefit the whole of society.

John Pearce, ADCS President, 2023/24

ADCS Annual conference, first appeared in LGC.


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Mental health in schools

Poor mental health and wellbeing can have a lasting impact on children and young people’s life chances, but they face multiple pressures in their lives that adversely affect their mental health. The numbers are stark: one in six children have a probable mental health disorder, up from one in nine prior to the pandemic. We must be ambitious if we are to meet the growing, and urgent, need for mental health support both inside and outside of the classroom. Accessing the right support early can make a huge difference, yet too many children are waiting months for an assessment and over a year for treatment. We need far better access to mental health services for children and young people with waiting times for accessing CAMHS being far too long, however, schools also play a key role.

We know that schools are often the best environment for early identification where teachers, school counsellors and learning support staff see children every day and can spot the signs of distress quickly. Most mental health illnesses begin during childhood but unless problems are diagnosed early, we cannot provide the help and support that many children urgently need, in school, the community or at home. A Target of 35% of schools having a mental health support team does not go far enough, nor does it recognise the crisis in children’s mental health that we face. It is positive to hear government outline its commitment to giving mental health a renewed focus in the curriculum, but we need a sustainable long-term funding strategy for children and young people’s mental health that leaves no child at the mercy of a post-code lottery, especially as schools are facing their own funding pressures. Teachers must also be given the time and resource to deliver these important messages effectively.

Children and young people face multiple pressures, both online and in the classroom and these have only been exacerbated by the pandemic. They sacrificed months of their learning during partial school closures and we are now seeing some of the impact of this, however, many teachers are reporting being unable to access CAMHS or other relevant support. We need to think differently about how we integrate services across place so that children’s outcomes are at the heart of every decision made by all partners. This goes beyond structures, but focuses on how we can meet all children’s needs, with local schools and community services better connected. The role of local authorities as leaders of place would be key here.

Local authorities, schools and education settings are doing all they can to respond to the situation, including by stepping in when children cannot access the support they need, but this is not sustainable. The current system is not working, yet children and young people tell us it is their biggest concern. We owe it to them to get it right and show them we are listening.

John Pearce, ADCS President 2023/24

This article: Connect schools and communities to better support children, first appeared in CYP Now.


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PR - President’s speech to the ADCS Annual Conference 2023

The President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, John Pearce, used his speech to the ADCS Annual Conference, today, to reflect on the government’s response to the independent review of children’s social care, Stable Homes Built on Love, “most of which ADCS has welcomed”. For example, the government’s commitment to publish a kinship care strategy feels likes an “opportunity to make a real difference to a group of carers and children” who haven’t previously had enough focus and attention, he said.” Any reforms would need to be met with adequate funding.

John Pearce highlighted several issues ADCS has urged government to take “swift and decisive action on”, such as the “unaffordable costs and…blatant profiteering, that’s associated with agency social work and in particular, the growth of project teams”. The sector as a whole has “rallied behind the proposals” in the consultation on the agency social work workforce, he said, “as have children and young people”. ADCS members are “committed to working with government on implementation of the full suite of proposals” at pace. “It is not an easy set of reforms to deliver…but we must hold our collective nerve”, he urged.

John Pearce went on to say, finding placements for children in our care is such a “critical plank” of the children’s social care reform programme “that we can’t afford to get it wrong”. The government has accepted the Competition and Markets Authority’s recommendations to address the current “dysfunctional” placements market, yet there is no strategy that delivers on them. The lack of placement sufficiency and the associated challenges this brings are “unprecedented”. “I fear that we will reach crisis point before we are able to reap any of the wider benefits envisaged by the reform programme”, he warned.

Regional Care Cooperatives (RCC)

“....We have offered up some constructive challenge to government and set out an alternative vision for the RCC concept. This includes a summary of the prerequisites for success which must be delivered nationally, which we believe will help us to deliver for children and young people. A set of national conditions for success need to be in place before we can even think about trying to implement reforms, these include a workforce plan, a multi-year funding settlement, a more ambitious capital programme and possibly most critically a move to bring regulations up to date – it’s been two decades since the last substantial review and the world has changed a lot in that time, not least the needs of children and young people and how we respond to them.”

Inclusive education

“For children and young people, the impacts of the pandemic were in many ways greater than for us adults. They were broadly at lower health risk but they willingly gave up their educational experience and social development to protect the adults in their lives and their local communities. Outside of health and social care settings, the disruption to places of education extended far beyond initial lockdown periods. Who amongst us…can forget the herculean efforts required to manage bubbles, navigate staggered drop off and pick ups, new handwashing regimes, segregated playtimes, and cancelled events and activities?

“In many ways this broke the social contract between parents, children and their schools. The impact is clear to see in the ongoing levels of persistent absence, in the reports from schools about disruptive behaviours, in difficult transitions from primary to secondary school, in levels of worry and stress about sitting exams for the first time. In many cases we don’t yet know what’s learning loss or developmental delay and what’s new need. An inclusive system of education needs to recognise these challenges; a long term national plan is needed to support children to recover from this experience.”

SEND

“Since the Children and Families Act 2014, we have seen a rapidly increasing drift away from inclusion in mainstream schools, and at the same time an over reliance on independent specialist provision. Education, health and care plans were only ever intended to better meet the needs of a small cohort of children with more complex health and learning needs who required support across the three domains, they were not designed to be akin to supercharged special educational needs statements but yet they are now seen by many as the only gateway to access any form of additional support…The level of demand in the system is not mirrored in the allocation of resources.

“The SEND Review: right support, right place, right time, produced a clear and shared narrative about the challenges in the system, however I’m not sure we have landed on a good enough narrative as to how we will address them. There isn’t a policy solution to the cost and demand that is set within the current system, and baked in for many years to come, without significant national intervention and legislative reform.”

On migrant children and the asylum system

“…We urgently need a new conversation with the Home Office and the Department for Education about migrant children, one that is conducted in the true spirit of co-production and focused on the system as a whole. Every year, as the weather improves and more small boats arrive, we have the same conversations and crisis response. More recently, the pressure hasn’t been as seasonal, it’s been constant as we try to manage the demand on children’s services created by Home Office asylum hotels, and soon to be created large adult asylum sites. Some aspects of the current system need urgent change, it’s simply not acceptable that age disputed young people from Home Office commissioned hotels are treated as spontaneous arrivals to host local authorities, this is clearly not the case. They have been placed there by the Home Office so there is nothing spontaneous about it and the disproportionate impact on host local authorities is becoming an increasing issue we need to revisit now.”

On mental health

“…I once again want to call for a national review of the children’s mental health and wellbeing system…we need to reset the system. It is clear it is not working for children and young people and mental health is always the top issue children raise with us. We have a duty to respond when they tell us it’s not good enough.”

The full speech can be found here.


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ADCS President Conference Speech 2023

John Pearce’s speech to the 2023 Annual conference - 6 July 2023

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Comment: LGA research on 30 hours free childcare extension

Chris Munday, Chair of the ADCS Resources and Strategy Policy Committee, said:

“The greatest opportunities to make difference to a child’s life occur when they are very young, between 0-5. Access to high quality education during this time is important because it plays a crucial role in reducing the outcomes gap between the most and least disadvantaged children.

“Local authorities have worked closely with providers to deliver the current 30-hours free childcare offer for working families, yet under the existing system funding is insufficient and many of the most disadvantaged households are not eligible for support. The shortfall in costs means some providers have had to close or pass costs onto families.

“Early years policy has been a focus of all recent governments, with the twin objectives of giving children the best start in life and increasing the number of working families, and this is welcome. However, we have two concerns about the proposed extension of the free childcare offer, the first is about the risk of losing the chance to make a difference to the most disadvantaged children and families and also the need for specific resource to enable the continuation of high quality childcare that meets the needs of children and families. Reducing the income threshold would helpfully narrow the policy to focus on the most disadvantaged children and families and any funding saved could be reinvested to help the early years sector recruit, and retain, the high-quality workforce they desperately need.”

ENDS


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ADCS President’s Inaugural Speech 2023

John Pearce’s inaugural speech as ADCS President, delivered on 18 April at King’s Place, London

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ADCS response: funding for school buildings and places

Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said:

“The investment in schools and colleges announced today is welcome. Significant underinvestment in the school estate in recent years has left school buildings dilapidated, and in some cases very unsafe according to the Department for Education’s own annual report. The safety of pupils and the staff working with them should be a priority for the government. £1.8bn is a reasonable starting point but significantly more capital funding will be required in the medium to long term to ensure all children and young people have safe learning environments.

“Additional investment to support councils to provide additional school places is welcome. The school system of the day is increasingly fragmented, local authorities are responsible for sufficiency in place planning, but we increasingly lack influence in the planning and establishment of new schools. To support local authorities to ensure every child has a school place in the areas they are needed, where new free schools are opened there must be better coordination with local need and priorities. “

ENDS


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Comment: Illegal Migration Bill

Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said:

“In an ideal world children would not need to risk their lives taking dangerous journeys across continents in search of safety, but they do. They make desperate decisions to leave everything they know and love behind and travel alone because their lives are genuinely in danger, and they deserve our compassion, kindness and support. All new legislation should be child-focused and protect children’s rights. We await further information from government on the Illegal Migration Bill and the impact it may have on vulnerable children, young people and their families fleeing extremely desperate situations.”

ENDS


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ADCS response: Children’s social care implementation...

Responding to the children’s social care implementation strategy Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said:

“We welcome the publication of the children’s social care implementation strategy. Local authority children’s services, up and down the country, support thousands of children and families each day, keeping them safe from harm. We hope these reforms will allow us to improve the system by building upon the areas of strength that the strategy identifies. The care review, like many other reports, highlights chronic challenges that stand in the way of improving outcomes for children and families. The system needs urgent change and directors of children’s services want to work with government, and others, to achieve this.

“While there is much we welcome it is important that any forthcoming reforms to special educational needs and education dovetail with this strategy. Indeed, the strategy’s emphasis on multi-agency working will be essential to the success of these reforms. When the government consults on updating the Working Together guidance all safeguarding partners will need clarity on their responsibilities and how they will be held to account to ensure that they deliver for children and families.

“The emphasis in the strategy on tackling racial and mental health disparities is welcome, as is the focus on providing earlier support for children and families through revised Family Help arrangements, greater support for care leavers and addressing recruitment and retention issues amongst foster carers and social workers. We are pleased the government has listened to our advice and is taking a ‘test and learn’ approach to implementation. It is important for the sector to have the space to explore what works and, crucially, take the time to pause and re-evaluate where things don’t work as intended. Collaborative commissioning may offer part of the solution to the complex set of issues we currently face in relation to children’s placements, but it is unlikely to achieve the desired results without a shift away from profiteering in the children’s placements market. There is need for greater government action here.

“The current financial context for local authorities is tough and so any additional investment to fund local pathfinders before wider rollout is welcome, however, the level of funding beyond the next two years remains unclear. Getting change right for children requires proper, equitable resourcing. ADCS is keen to work closely with government and others during this implementation phase and will be responding to the consultations published today following discussions with our members. We encourage others in the sector to do the same to help shape these important reforms. We need the buy in of our partners in health, schools and others to achieve real change.”

ENDS


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ADCS response: Prime Minister’s New Year speech

Responding to the Prime Minister’s New Year speech Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said:

“ADCS shares the Prime Minister’s ambition to ‘build a better future for children’. Strengthening the economy and ensuring children receive a high-quality education are important parts of this. However, children cannot thrive if they are living in poverty – but the Prime Minister was silent on this issue today. The government must set out steps to reduce and ultimately end child poverty without delay. Without this we remain far from a country that works for all children and families.

“Change and the importance of family were key themes in the Prime Minister’s speech today and we must make the most of the opportunities to reform the education, children’s social care and special educational needs systems, to benefit children and families. ADCS members stand ready to work with the government and sector partners to achieve this, but children’s services will need proper, long-term, sustainable, and equitable funding.”

ENDS


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ADCS comment: Safeguarding Pressures Phase 8 full report

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) today, publishes the full report of its latest iteration of Safeguarding Pressures research. ADCS has collected qualitative and quantitative data from local authorities to evidence and better understand changes in demand for, and the provision of, children’s social care services since 2010. The eighth phase of the research brings the evidence base up to date and compares data over a fourteen-year period. The report draws on evidence from 125 local authorities, covering 84% of England’s child population. This, together with existing data, provides a unique insight into safeguarding related pressures facing children’s services in England in 2020/22.

Phase 8 covers the first two years of the pandemic period, a time of significant uncertainty and change in the context in which children and families are living and public services were operating. Most local authorities experienced a reduction in demand for their services during the first few months of the pandemic linked to national lockdowns. However, many local authorities are now seeing an overall increase in safeguarding activity in response to the multifaceted challenges children and families face. A ‘post pandemic’ state has not been reached but we need to be in a position to sufficiently respond when latent need emerges.

As at 31 March 2022:

• There were 2.77 million initial contacts received by children’s social care in 2021/22, an increase of 10% in the last two years

• An estimated 282,320 early help assessments were completed in 2021/22, a 16% increase in the past two years

• There were 650,270 referrals made to children’s social care in 2021/22, an increase of 21% since 2007/08, when this research began

• The number of children subjects of child protection plans in 2021/22 has increased by 74% since 2007/08

• 217,800 section 47 enquiries were undertaken in 2021/22, up 184% since 2007/08

• The number of children in care has increased, up 35% since 2007/08, as has the number of care experienced young people being supported by local authorities

• Parental domestic abuse, substance misuse and poor parental mental health remain some of the most common reasons why children come to the attention of early help and/or children’s social care services

• ‘Abuse or neglect’ remains the predominant reason for referrals to children’s social care services and children coming into care.

Local authorities have a legal duty to keep children safe from harm and to promote their welfare. Twelve years of austerity and a 50% real terms reduction in local authority budgets, plus reductions in other public services, has impeded the ability to work with children and families as early as possible to prevent the escalation of need. Disparate pots of time-limited grant funding from government and local authority investment over the past two years has helped to alleviate some demand pressures. However, this is no substitute for a long term equitable and sufficient funding settlement for all local authorities, which all children and families would benefit from, no matter where they live.

Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said: “This report offers further insights into the impact of the pandemic on children, local communities, and public services. We have seen significant learning loss, particularly for more disadvantaged pupils, at all key stages and ages and attendance at education settings has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels. Despite a significant fall in safeguarding activity in 2020 linked to lockdowns, higher levels of need and risk are now being seen in children’s social care in 2022 and families continue to present later, with complex, multifaceted needs which are more acute. A sharp increase in claims for free school meals and a clear deterioration in children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing adds to this worrying picture with unplanned arrivals of unaccompanied asylum seeking children at the highest level in years adding further complexity.

He went on to say: “It will still be some time until we see the full impact of the pandemic and we are now facing a cost of living crisis. Day in, day out, we are working hard to support children and families and should be readying ourselves for whatever comes next, but our staff are stretched to breaking point. Families are less resilient than they were, and so are public services. This research highlights the many challenges we face in identifying or meeting children’s needs as early or as well as we would like to. Sadly, were it not for the pandemic experience, some of these needs could have been met earlier in the system and not escalated to crisis point. On top of this after 12 years of austerity and hand to mouth funding for local authorities, we do not have enough social workers or placements for children in care and the cost of both are spiralling. Funding does not match the levels of need we are seeing. Too often funding is allocated on a competitive and short term basis or taken out of the system completely, lining the pockets of rapacious hedge funds. On top of all this, we are increasingly worried about the cost of living crisis and how many more children will fall into poverty, reducing their quality of life and their life chances. The system is crying out for change.

Steve Crocker concluded: “Throughout the report, leaders of children’s services shared their worries about the difficulties they face, their fears for the future but also their appetite for system change alongside a new funding settlement for children and families. There is an opportunity to change within our grasp via a series of reforms to social care, education and special educational needs policies and we stand ready to play our part. We simply can’t go on as we are. Our children deserve better, and so do our workforce. Government must draw together at a national level the separate policy initiatives and pots of funding for unconnected policy intentions, initiate a shift away from private sector profiteering and into one substantial coherent whole that invests funding in the right places within the system. That way, we can make this a country that works for all children.”

ENDS

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) Ltd is the professional leadership association for Directors of Children’s Services and their senior management teams in England.


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ADCS response: Ofsted’s annual report 2021/22

Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said:

“This report adds to the growing evidence base capturing the disruption caused by Covid-19 to public services and its impact on children’s lives. The pandemic has led to a significant deterioration in children’s mental health, lost learning across all ages, very young children with speech and language delays and missing other important developmental milestones and attendance is not yet at pre-pandemic levels. Furthermore, children are now coming to the attention of children’s social care with more complex and acute issues, which we will need to meet. Staff across education and social care are working extremely hard and at full capacity to support children to recover from the immediate impact of the pandemic, despite being overstretched and exhausted, but there is more work to do. On top of this we now face a cost of living and energy crisis that will place further pressure on households, staff and services, making this work more difficult. Latent need from the pandemic has yet to emerge, and for services and the workforce to be in a position to respond when it does, we need government’s support. This must include addressing longstanding workforce challenges right across early years, education and social care sectors which, as the report notes, are compounding many of the issues highlighted in this report and impeding efforts to support recovery.

“We share HMCI’s concern that children are bearing the brunt of workforce shortages right across education and social care. Without enough teachers, social workers, staff in early years settings and children’s homes and without enough foster carers and placements of all types for children in our care, in the right places how can we ensure children’s needs are met? We need to make the most of the opportunities in front of us to reform the education, social care and special educational needs systems, to tackle profiteering by some on the backs of vulnerable children and manage the rising use and cost of agency social workers. ADCS want to work with the government on this. We can and we must do better for children.”

ENDS


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ADCS response to PLWG SO consultation

​Read the ADCS response to the consultation on the PLWG’s report on the use of Supervision Orders.

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ADCS response: Report on the Children and Families Act 2014

Responding to the House of Lords report ‘Children and Families Act 2014: A failure of implementation’, Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said:

“This report underlines many of the challenges we’ve been raising for some time and does it in a clear way. The 2014 Act aimed to improve services for and the lives of vulnerable children. Some of the reforms included here are having a real and tangible impact, such as the role of the virtual school head in supporting the education of children in care. Other reforms included in the Act have progressed less well, or have not had the desired impact for a whole host of reasons, including those relating to special educational, needs and disabilities. Often the sufficiency of funding is an issue but there are also difficulties in having the right data or levers to understand what needs to happen and influence others. Whilst mental health services were not covered in the reforms, the committee draws attention to the difficulties children and young people face in accessing timely support and asserts that the government has not grasped the importance or severity of this problem, my fellow directors and I can only agree. ADCS has repeatedly raised the issue of children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing and the urgent need for a review of children’s mental health services - the current system is not working for children and it threatens to overwhelm the social care system.”

ENDS


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Social, emotional, and mental health

The 2014 SEND reforms were ambitious, rightly raising expectations and extended entitlements to support for children with special needs and disabilities from birth up to 25 years, but for myriad reasons, they have not delivered the intended outcomes. Despite record levels of spending there is growing frustration and dissatisfaction on the ground from all sides.

Over the summer, the Department for Education has been consulting on the proposals outlined in the SEND and AP Green Paper. It’s clear the current system is not working for children or their families, schools and local government, and that we need to work together, in partnership with parents, to ensure that the new SEND system does.

Since 2014, we have seen a near doubling of children with identified special educational needs and recent estimates suggest high needs budget deficits could reach £3.6 billion by March 2025. Despite a recent injection of funding, the green paper did not acknowledge that costs are baked into the system for years to come, quite possibly until all children currently in the system reach 25 years.

The number of children who have Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) as their primary need for an EHC plan has increased significantly and we have seen a drastic increase in the number of children who require mental health support too. NHS Digital figures show that one in six children had a probable mental health disorder 2021, before we even consider the impacts of the pandemic. We need to reflect on why these numbers are rising and ask what this says about us as a society.

The SEND system is based on a medical model of disability, one which assesses and identifies the needs of children but then remain relatively fixed. It’s not clear to me that this is the right model; within any reforms that are to come, we need to support a shift in the system so the underpinning principles are around a proportionate and dynamic response. SEMH and Speech language and communication categories of special needs are, by definition mutable and improvable for many children especially where we can bring the right support and interventions around the child and family at the earliest possible stage.

I believe we should be paying serious attention to the context and environment in which our children are growing up in. How society’s norms and cultures heap expectations on children to succeed, the impact of inequalities and the ever creeping sense of doom from pandemics, climate crises, war, the cost of living crisis and more. We need to think about how we help our children to thrive in difficult and anxious times whilst not being too quick to give them a label that will stick with them and may not always be the best way to support them in the long term. As we work alongside the government and others towards a better SEND system for children this is food for thought. Ultimately, though we need a country that works for all children and families.

This colmn first appeared in CYP Now - Policy Context: Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs | CYP Now.


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ADCS response: Commission on Young Lives

Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said:

“The Commission’s final report draws on the findings of its four thematic reports to set out a national plan of action for change. Any efforts to prevent children and young people from adversity, exploitation and harm are welcome. The report calls for a focus on earlier support for children and their families to prevent crises and for a greater level of investment in them, both of which are long overdue. We agree with the Commission that the recommendations from the children’s social care review must not be ‘kicked into the long grass’. We need to change parts of the system that are not working for children and families, significant government investment is needed to achieve this.

“Youth services are a key part of early help, they offer young people positive activities, opportunities, and safe places to go, yet they were amongst the many vital services local authorities were forced to cut during a decade of austerity. There is a clear role for youth services to play in helping children and young people recover from the effects of the pandemic too. Now is the time for ‘a return to investing in children and their families’ and the services that support them, not a return to austerity.

“The Commission adds its voice to calls for youth justice reforms, for urgent action on child and family poverty and on removing the racial biases that children face. It also calls for desperately needed investment in a mental health recovery programme for children and young people. Serious violence, criminal exploitation and harm should be a national priority, and so should providing help and support to children and families at the earliest possible opportunity. The country is facing many competing challenges including the ongoing impact of the pandemic and a cost of living crisis and the Chancellor will have some tough decisions to make. However, children must not bear the brunt of austerity again; the financial and human costs would be too great.”

ENDS


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​NCASC 2022 Speech

​NCASC 2022

On 2 November Steve Crocker made his keynote address to the National Children and Adult Services Conference.


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Comment: Research by the Uni of Oxford on children’s homes...

ADCS President, Steve Crocker, said:

“The children in our care deserve the very best care that meets their needs and gives them every opportunity to thrive in life, ideally as close to the people and places they know as possible. However, finding the right placements for children when and where they need it, is a significant challenge when the number of children in our care is increasing and demand for places far outstrips supply. Moreover, local authorities are the only purchasers of placements so providers can pick and choose who to accept and at what cost.

“This important research fills a gap in our knowledge about the impact of the creeping privatisation of the children’s residential care market. Researchers raise several important issues worthy of further discussion and debate, especially around the quality of care and the ability of local authorities to find the upfront investment in building new public sector provision. These findings should certainly be considered by the government as it continues to develop its response to the independent review of children’s social care.

“Children’s services have long operated in a mixed economy with what were previously small scale private, voluntary, charitable and community providers involved in the delivery of services locally, however, ADCS remains concerned about the growing levels of risk in the system due to rapid changes in ownership, leading to a dash by new owners for excess profits and considerable levels of borrowing and debts held by some private companies offering care placements. Should any of these providers fail, no single local authority could step in, and it would be children who suffer the greatest consequence.

“ADCS has long held the position that the government needs to step in to abolish excess profit making in this sector and invest, or help cash strapped local authorities invest in, new, not for profit provision.”

ENDS


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Comment: Changes to IR35 taxation rules

Chair of the ADCS Workforce Development Policy Committee, Rachael Wardell, said:

“ADCS has long raised concerns around the spiralling costs of agency social work on local authorities. It is vital that we have a strong consistent, permanent workforce to support children and families but we are seeing more of our workforce turning to agency, particularly among newly qualified social workers and this is a growing concern. ADCS is also concerned about the practice of some agencies who are only offering teams of social workers rather than individual workers, and at high costs. This is only putting even greater strain on already stretched budgets and it does not benefit children and families. Local authorities will be considering what the changes to IR35 taxation rules mean for them, their workforce, and most importantly, for the children and families we work with - we urge government to do the same.

“Local authorities are looking at their own employment offer so that it better reflects what social workers want and need, but we need the government’s support to improve workforce sufficiency and stability to reduce our reliance on the agency social work workforce. The flexibility provided by agency social workers can be helpful in managing peaks and troughs in demand for services, however, it’s important that the market is effectively managed to ensure it provides a quality workforce and value for money.”

ENDS


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Report on family life

Commenting on part one of the Independent Family Review by the Children’s Commissioner for England Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said:

“This new research gives an important insight into modern family life, what it means to children and grown ups and where they turn for support. Families are complex and come in different shapes and sizes, this can change over time, and do not have to include blood relatives, yet what comes across clearly in this report is the importance of strong, positive and lasting relationships in children’s lives and the protective effect families can have against adversity. Investing in families in order to improve children’s well-being and long term outcomes is not only the right thing for the government to do, it is good for society, and it is smart economic policy. Similarly, investing in the unmet needs of adults helps create healthy, happy families and has a knock on effect on society too.

“The Association has long called for children and their families to be at the heart of all decisions made in Whitehall, to create a country that works for them. Improving outcomes for children and families must be the golden thread running across all government departments. Financial pressure was a common concern raised by the families surveyed, linked to the cost of living. Now more than ever, families need the government to support them with rising food, fuel and energy prices which will push many more families into poverty, and damage children’s life chances.

“For children in care who cannot live with their birth families we must ensure they too benefit from the loving, supportive and enduring relationships that they need and deserve. The independent review of children’s social care seeks to put relationships front and centre of children’s social care and to shift the dial on how and when we support children and families making the case for greater investment in them. ADCS is keen to work closely with government, and others, to achieve meaningful reform for children in care and to secure the long-term sustainable investment needed to enable all children and families to thrive.”

ENDS


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Boosting children’s future life chances

I was recently struck by a report published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) following a review, chaired by Sir Angus Deaton, on inequality. The IFS published five papers on families and early childhood development, one of which concerned early childhood inequalities.

The importance of the early years cannot be overstated. The greatest opportunities to make a real and tangible difference to children’s outcomes occur when they are very young and growing up. Experiencing material hardship such as food insecurity and poor-quality housing can have a lifelong impact on health, development, educational attainment and social and economic outcomes. The end child poverty campaign has conducted research showing that 27% of children in the UK are living in poverty which tells us the scale of the problem we must overcome.

The Deaton Review found that despite unprecedented public investment over the past two decades in the early years, there has been a relative shift away from spending on the most disadvantaged families towards families in work. Indeed, the report notes that much policy has focused on children aged two and over despite evidence of the first 1,001 days being a crucial developmental period.

Improving the life chances of children must be at the heart of all policy decisions. The need to think and act differently in order to mitigate against the risks of longer term challenges and rising inequalities is more pressing than ever, particularly as we are seeing more families fall into poverty due to the pandemic and the cost of living crisis. We must target available funding towards the most disadvantaged in order to affect generational change, investing in the early years workforce is a must too. Indeed, recent Treasury figures found a £2.37bn underspend on tax-free childcare over the past four years.

The impacts of early life inequalities are lasting but there is much this government can do improve children’s life chances. Education is a way out of poverty, yet poverty is one of the main barriers to learning, and we expect more children will fall into poverty as families struggle with food, fuel and energy prices. When exploring educational inequalities, the IFS found that there has been virtually no change in the disadvantage gap at GCSE level over the past 20 years, despite decades of investment. If the government is serious about levelling up this country, then we must invest in the right areas, and in the right way, to make a real tangible impact to ensure that no child is left behind.

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This column first appeared in the MJ - Boosting children’s future life chances (themj.co.uk)


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Comment: Opportunity Areas programme

Commenting on the Opportunity Areas programme Gail Tolley, Chair of the ADCS Educational Achievement Policy Committee, said

“ADCS welcomes all efforts to improve educational outcomes of children and young people, particularly those living in disadvantaged areas. Children’s life chances should not be determined by where they grow up. The Opportunity Areas programme provided additional funding for local areas to adopt innovative place based approaches to improve children’s educational outcomes and it is positive to see that this has been continued via Education Investment Areas. Whilst there has been a number of worthwhile projects implemented during the programme, these will not have the desired lasting impact without sustainable, long-term funding. The programme demonstrated the importance of place based working and strong local partnerships and this must remain a central part of our collective efforts to help children recover from the impacts of the pandemic.”

ENDS


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Priorities for the New Prime Minister

Over the past year ADCS members have spoken about the opportunities arising from the various reform programmes currently in train across children’s services. We will soon have a new Prime Minister who will of course have their own policy direction and we will potentially have a new crop of ministers too. As we prepare to work with a new government, I have been reflecting on what their priorities should be.

Demand for our services continues to rise yet we lack a funding settlement that reflects this. A decade of austerity resulted in local authority budgets being cut in half which forced us to cut many of the services that allow us to support children and families early. This is a false economy which only stores up problems for the future; it is no coincidence that, according to LGA research, most local authorities have overspent on their children’s social care budgets in recent years. Providing proper, long term and sustainable funding for the vital services children, young people and their families rely on, placing a stronger emphasis on early help, must be a priority for the new Prime Minister and their cabinet.

In children’s services, major reviews are usually a rare occurrence but we have had three, so far, this year, not to mention landmark reports from the Competition and Markets Authority and the National Panel. However, the obvious gap is a national review of children’s mental health services – there is no time to lose and this must be a key priority action area for government. The Schools White Paper, SEND and AP Green Paper and Care Review have all arrived at a critical time for children’s services and it is essential that the government’s response to these important documents considers the system as a whole. There are a lot of recommendations coming out of them and they will relate to different government departments who must have a joined up approach in order to effect real change.

Another major policy initiative already in train is the government’s commitment to ‘levelling up’. Beyond education and skills, the Levelling Up White Paper says little about improving children’s life chances, yet this should be central to any levelling up agenda. As a Director of Children’s Services in the North East region, I see first-hand the impact of poverty and inequality on children’s outcomes. Over 4 million children in the UK are currently living in poverty, 75% of whom in working families. If we are to give these children the best start in life, we need to begin with tackling the causes of child poverty and be truly ambitious for all children and young people.

The new Prime Minister has within their gift the opportunity to build a country that works for all children. The Care Review calls for a vision for children’s social care but we think this should go further and be part of a coherent and strategic long-term plan for childhood from the early years through school and adolescence to adulthood. We stand ready to work with government to create such a plan. ‘Does this improve outcomes for children?’ must be the golden question asked in all government departments before implementing policy changes. Children and young people must be at the forefront of all of our thinking, they are our future.

This column first appeared in the LGC - John Pearce: Children’s services priorities for the new prime minister | Local Government Chronicle (LGC) (lgcplus.com)


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Comment on survey on cost of living crisis

Responding to the findings of a survey by Community Care on the cost of living crisis, Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said:

“The cost of living crisis is affecting households across the country, including the children and families we support and our staff. These findings highlight the bleak reality for many of the children and families we work with, and the situation will only get worse in the winter months without further practical solutions from government to support families. While local authorities up and down the country are working hard to provide services and support to their local residents to help with rising costs, we urgently need government to provide the long term solutions that are needed during this difficult time.

“We expect many more children and families will fall into poverty because of the rising costs of food, fuel and energy, yet there is no national strategy to reduce child poverty in England. Given what we know about the impact of poverty on children’s outcomes and life chances addressing it must be a priority for the new Prime Minister.”

ENDS


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Cabinet Office consultation on reforming ethnicity facts and...

ADCS response to Cabinet Office consultation on reforming ethnicity facts and figures

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Reset and Renew

The Association recently held its annual conference in Manchester. This was the first in person conference in three years; it was great to be with colleagues again to discuss our shared challenges and share best practice.

In my speech to delegates I reflected on the challenges we faced during the pandemic. While I hope we never experience a situation like it again, it is important to harness learning from what went well and, crucially, what didn’t. ADCS will be making a representation to the public inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic and we are pleased that sense has prevailed and the inquiry will now have a clear focus on children. As we learn to live with Covid-19, it strikes me that the hard work continues as we reset and renew to help children and young people recover from the effects of the past three years.

The challenges of recruiting a permanent social work workforce was a strong theme at conference this year and in my speech too. The workforce is our greatest asset; without enough social workers, and without supporting them well, we cannot support the children and families we serve. I have also been vocal about profiteering in children’s services, particularly via children’s homes and social work agencies. Currently I can’t find a single agency worker, they are only being offered to us as a team and/or being sold back to us at double the price. This cannot be right and addressing this issue could go some way to help addressing our workforce shortages.

At conference we had sessions on the multiple reform programmes currently underway. ADCS members are not stuck in the past as custodians of the current system, we want change and as I said in my speech now is a once in a generation opportunity on multiple fronts to realise the change to make the whole system for children sustainable and better. An area where I am concerned there is not yet the appetite for change from certain quarters is in the children’s mental health system. Current access, waiting times and treatment targets for mental health support and services are not good enough. Good mental health and wellbeing is one of, if not, the most important issues raised with us by children and young people today. We need to listen to them, and we need to act, ignoring this is a disaster waiting to happen.

This column first appeared in the MJ - Reset and renew (themj.co.uk)


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LPS Public Consultation - Joint ADASS, ADCS and LGA Response

Liberty Protection Safeguards Public Consultation - Joint Response on behalf of ADASS, ADCS and the LGA

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Comment: Ofsted children’s social care dataset

Commenting on Ofsted’s annual children’s social care data 2022 John Pearce, ADCS Vice President, said:

“Ofsted’s latest annual children’s social care data highlights the continued challenges facing local authorities when trying to find placements for children in our care. While the number of children’s homes has increased this does not necessarily increase overall capacity as the number of children living in individual homes is reducing with more solo or low occupancy homes. As a result need continues to outstrip supply so finding the right placement for a child, at the right time, as close to home as possible is increasingly difficult. The uneven distribution of homes across the country is an added challenge with homes frequently opening up where housing is cheaper not where they’re needed most, as is the unwillingness of some providers to take children with any level of complexity for fear of the impact on their Ofsted rating. This can mean children and young people with complex needs, who are equally deserving of our love, care and support, are placed miles away from their friends, families and communities or in a home on their own and sometimes in unregulated provision. This is not in the best interests of children, and it has a knock-on effect on the availability of homes and local authority budgets. It’s a vicious cycle.

“Placement sufficiency has long been an issue for local authorities, and we face similar challenges when trying to find placements in secure children’s homes for a small but extremely vulnerable cohort of children and young people. These children are in extreme distress and placements are often needed at short notice. As the data shows there are only 13 secure children’s homes in England, no provision in some parts of the country at all, demand for beds has grown and therefore long distances are frequently involved. There has also been an increase in young people with substantial mental health needs within this group which may be linked to the significant decrease in Tier 4 Mental Health bed provision for young people. Where a secure placement cannot be found or the young person’s needs are so severe they are unable to live with other children, a single bedded children’s home has become the only option. The rise in single bedded children’s homes is reflective of the level of complexity of need many children are experiencing but it is also a consequence of the need to ‘match’ children when they are living in a home together. While getting the balance of young people in a home is critical, so is ensuring that children and young people have the opportunity to develop and nourish positive peer relationships as this is in their best interests. We need to fundamentally rethink this issue in conjunction with government, Ofsted and our key partners.”

ENDS


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“Now is a once in a generation opportunity”

“Now is a once in a generation opportunity on multiple fronts to realise the change that is needed to make the whole system…better serve those it is designed for; children, young people and their families”, the President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, Steve Crocker, said in a speech to the ADCS Annual Conference 2022.

Steve Crocker used his speech to look ahead towards a critical time for children’s services following the publication of the independent review of children’s social care, the Schools White Paper and the SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper. “We must seize the moment and embrace the opportunity but not curtail our ambitions, there are areas where we must go further and faster.”

Steve Crocker reiterated his call for a national review of children’s mental health services. Directors of children’s services are responsible for all children in their area and it is those children who “almost always point to mental health and wellbeing as their biggest priority, so I am duty bound to raise it on their behalf.” The way the system is currently designed “does not work for children in acute distress”. Despite support from all sectors, we are yet to see action from the NHS. “It feels like the crisis in children’s mental health services continues to languish in the too difficult pile and that simply isn’t good enough for our children.”

On the SEND Review

“ADCS welcomed the publication of the SEND and AP Green Paper and it is reassuring to see inclusivity at the heart of these plans…Many aspects of the Green Paper are to be welcomed, including the focus on strengthening collaboration and accountability across all partners in the system, clarifying their roles and responsibilities, and creating a less adversarial, more child-centred system, one based on children’s needs…The piece of the jigsaw that’s missing for me is any mention of the financial black hole that is high needs deficits, with most recent estimates suggesting this could reach £2.4bn by March 2025…Since 2014, we have seen a near doubling of children with special educational needs, we need to reflect on why this is and what this says about us as a country. The costs associated with the current SEND system are baked in for years to come, this reality must be addressed alongside the reform programme.”

On the Schools White Paper

“We can’t talk about the SEND and AP Green Paper without mentioning the Schools White Paper in the same breath…The White Paper is about much more than structural reform and we must keep our eye on the other prizes here; the realignment of responsibilities with powers and ensuring the right accountabilities in the system which support the drive for inclusion. I am genuinely hopeful that the measures set out will take us towards a more coherent education system that works for all children, whatever their needs, wherever they live… the acid test for a ‘good’ school should be that it is good for its most vulnerable pupils.”

On the Care Review

“We, the people in this room, didn’t design the current system and we are not the custodians of it, on the contrary, we are probably the first to tell you where it doesn’t work! ADCS contributed to the Review, and it is reassuring that as sector experts, we have been listened to. And, while we do not agree with everything in it… it creates a platform and a clear framework for realising change…where significant, structural change is proposed we have to carefully test and try these proposals…We can’t repeat the mistakes of the past in implementing well intentioned policy without carefully testing the consequences and then amending policy to get it right – and getting it right for children is what we are all interested in… ADCS is committed to working with government on the reform programme – we are keen to maintain the momentum and get things moving quickly.”

On funding

“The financial realism set out in the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care is welcome and gives an indication of how much is needed to reset the system and get it to a place where significant reform can land…Year on year we are stripping services back to fit the shrinking financial envelope rather than developing to meet the ever changing needs that are present in our communities. This is just storing up problems for the future and we are teetering on a financial cliff edge…Here are some quick wins that ADCS would wish to see brought forward at pace: The government could take swift action to address the challenges around social work agencies; update the local authority funding formula prior to the next spending review; address costs of home to school transport; introduce kinship leave to match adoption leave; And while it’s not a quick win, driving diversity in our own leadership must be a priority.”

On Ukraine

“The Homes for Ukraine and family schemes were operationalised in short order – quite rightly so. There are though still issues to iron out…and make sure that we have all of the right safeguards for children in place…ADCS has been calling for the Home Office and other government departments to come together to develop a holistic view of the various resettlement schemes and the cumulative impact on place…so we can ensure parity in the treatment and support we offer anyone fleeing persecution, no matter where they come from.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

• The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) Ltd is the professional leadership association for Directors of Children’s Services and their senior management teams in England

The full speech can be found on www.adcs.org.uk


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ADCS President Conference Speech 2022

​ADCS President, Steve Crocker, made his keynote speech to the ADCS Annual Conference 2022 on 7 July 2022


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Comment: National Age Assessment Board

Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said:

“Unaccompanied asylum seeking children are vulnerable, they arrive here in search of safety and deserve our compassion, help and support. However, there are too many cases where children are wrongly assessed as adults and, therefore, children do not always get the support they are entitled to. Conducting age assessments is complex work requiring specialist skills and is frequently the subject of legal challenge which local authorities are dealing with alone. The increasing numbers of children arriving in this country is placing pressure on our staff who are carrying out these checks and so the establishment of a new National Age Assessment Board (NAAB) will hopefully create some additional capacity in the system once it is up and running. A coordinated national approach should also help us capture best practice. Engagement with gateway local authorities will be key here as they have a lot of expertise in this area. However, we await further information from government about how the NAAB will link with excellent social work practice taking place in local authorities. It is important that the NAAB is driven by a child-centric approach and decisions are timely; whilst the age of an individual is unknown they should be supported and accommodated as a child. The care and best interests of asylum seeking children must be at the heart of all decisions made.”

ENDS


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ADCS response: Homes for Ukraine scheme extended to under 18s

Commenting on the written ministerial statement confirming that the Homes for Ukraine scheme will be extended to some unaccompanied children, Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said:

“The continuing war in Ukraine is devastating the lives of children and families, many of whom have been forced to leave everything they know behind in search of safety and protection. Local authorities have welcomed many Ukrainians into their communities via the Family Visa and the Homes for Ukraine schemes and are helping them settle in and access essential services, such as GPs, childcare, and school places.

“We have been involved in ongoing conversations with government, LGA, Solace and others, about how to open a safe route to the UK for unaccompanied children and the additional safeguards that will be needed, over and above those already required as part of the Homes for Ukraine scheme. The government has, today, confirmed that the Homes for Ukraine scheme will be expanded to under 18s who have already applied to the scheme but are not travelling with a parent or legal guardian. Local authorities urgently need robust guidance, and sufficient funding, to support us to keep children safe and to meet their needs, we are disappointed that this was not published as this announcement was made. We eagerly await the guidance to understand better what the expectations are for local authorities.

“Local authorities want to play our part in this humanitarian crisis, but we need government’s support with this. There are outstanding issues with the two schemes in place to welcome Ukrainian refugees which need to be quickly resolved, including the disparity in funding between the two schemes. To keep children safe and to ensure their immediate and future needs can be met, it is vital that all the necessary checks are completed prior to visas being issued and that funding is forthcoming before checks are undertaken. Should the situation arise where a child’s placement breaks down, the legal status of those children and the role of the local authority needs to be clearly set out in guidance. Furthermore, there are currently several schemes in place to welcome refugees and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children into the UK, and so it will be important for government to consider these schemes together to understand the pressures on the system as a whole and to ensure equity between the different schemes.”

ENDS


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Eligibility for free early education entitlement for...

A joint submission from ADCS, LGA and the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) Network to the consultation on eligibility for the free early education entitlement for two-year-olds from families with no recourse to public funds.


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Comment: social worker caseloads and LA budget cuts

Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said:

“Recent government statistics on the children’s social work workforce show that the average number of caseloads has reduced slightly over recent years and was at 16.3 in 2021, however, this is not true for everyone, everywhere. It is crucial that caseloads are manageable and where they are not, good managers should challenge upwards. Social workers do incredibly important work on behalf of us all; if they are overwhelmed by their work this will have an impact on their mental health and wellbeing and on their work with children and families too. That said, there is no ‘right’ number of caseloads, cases vary in their complexity, therefore it is difficult to look at the number of caseloads in isolation. Generally, lower caseloads are better as this enables social workers to work more intensively alongside children and families to address their needs more effectively. That said, when allocating cases, we need to consider things like complexity, risk and the experience of the social worker too. We know what is needed to secure the very best outcomes for children and families - we need enough high quality social workers to support children and families who need it and we need enough funding from national government to invest in both child protection work and helping children at the earliest possible opportunity when we know we can make the biggest difference to them. However, there are some very practical constraints on local authorities in a context where need for help and support is increasing, we struggle to recruit and retain enough social workers nationally and after a decade of year on year cuts to local authority budgets. An independent review of children’s social care is due to report soon, and we are hopeful it will include recommendations that meaningfully address the workforce sufficiency and funding issues we currently face.”

Ends


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Comment: Supporting Families Programme

Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said:

“Local authorities are committed to supporting children and families as early as possible. There is no doubt that the earlier we provide support to help them overcome the issues they face, the less impact these challenges will have on their lives but also on society as a whole. The previous Spending Review gave us greater clarity until 2025 around this vital line of funding which forms part of our preventative offer to local communities.

“For a long time the programme was designed to be a separate programme but it has now become more integrated into our work and the latest phase of the programme promises to tackle barriers and to create momentum and change. As the programme evolves with each funding round there is a growing emphasis on inclusion and these are welcome developments. We hope that the programme continues to develop and marks the beginning of a long-term commitment by government. One that has at its heart early help, relationship-based practice and a holistic focus on a child’s lived experience, within their family and within their community which would undoubtedly change lives.

“The value of early help and preventative services cannot be overstated, yet even before the pandemic a decade of austerity has meant that we are having to make tough decisions about how funding is allocated. The continuation of the Supporting Families programme is a welcome step but we need a greater national focus on working with children and families who are at risk of poor outcomes at the earliest possible stage. This requires adequate long-term national investment to allow us to provide this vital support where it is needed.”

Ends


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ADCS response: Queen’s Speech 2022

Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said:

“Children should be at the top of the government’s agenda. However, for years Brexit and more recently the pandemic has dominated government’s time, attention, and its legislative programmes. The focus on children, children’s rights and children’s services was limited in the Queen’s speech, therefore, some urgent issues remain unaddressed.

“We welcome the government’s ambition to level up society, however, this will ring hollow without investment in children, the full range of services they rely on and the issues many of them face - in particular early help and family support services that can prevent problems becoming more serious. Today, millions of children live in poverty, this is damaging the lives and life chances. Rising food and energy costs will only make things harder for many children and their families. Now more than ever we need a child poverty reduction strategy, England is the only country in the UK without one.

“We are pleased education was a focus of today’s Queen’s speech. The Schools Bill reaffirms many commitments already made by the government, including for all schools to be part of a strong, multi academy trust, and a register of children not in school. A register in and of itself will not keep children safe, but it is an important step in helping us to find out the number of children being educated other than at school and identifying children who are vulnerable to harm. In addition to this, a duty will be placed on local authorities to support home schooling families, any such duty would need to be fully funded and reflect the size of this growing cohort. Catering to the needs of all learners and inclusivity must be at the heart of the government’s new education reforms if all children are to benefit, whatever their needs, wherever they live. We look forward to working with government and others as the Bill progresses.

“Most mental health problems begin in childhood so ensuring children get the right help and support at the earliest opportunity is crucial. For too long children have been facing long waits to access help and support with many being told they are not ill enough, or too ill to access local services. Furthermore, the pandemic has created a tidal wave of need for adequate mental health support for children. We await further detail on the draft Mental Health Bill, at present it is unclear whether the draft Bill will include children and young people’s mental health services – a system which is ripe for review.”

Ends


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Comment: secure welfare placements

Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said:

“This desperate situation once again highlights the dearth of suitable placements to meet the needs of our most vulnerable children and young people at times of extreme crisis or distress. Many local authorities report major difficulties in sourcing a secure children’s home placement; despite local authorities only making a handful of these placements a year, demand for beds far outstrips supply. Local authorities can then have no other option but to create a highly bespoke placement in the community with intensive wrap around support, while suitable alternatives are sought, costing tens of thousands of pounds per week. Often, community based registered providers can be reluctant to accept children into their care due the levels of need and risk that they can present. In the Spending Review 2021 there was some welcome investment in secure children’s homes, but it will take time for vulnerable children and local authorities to feel the benefits of this. ADCS hopes that the independent review of children’s social care’s final report will include meaningful solutions to the placement shortage crisis we are currently facing, as will the government’s response.”

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ADCS response CMA children’s social care market study

ADCS response to the Competition and Markets Authority children’s social care market study

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Comment on the importance of anti-racist and anti-discriminatory...

Steve Crocker, ADCS President, said:

“A child’s place of learning should be a safe place where children feel comfortable, secure and protected, and where children’s rights are protected and safeguarded. Where this goes wrong, the repercussions for children, their families and the wider community can be devastating.

“As directors of children’s services, it is our role to work closely with multi-agency partners who work with or interact with children and young people and to hold them to account when behaviours fall short of what is expected. Where there have been failings, a commitment to learning is key if we are to adequately safeguard and protect all children. Children deserve nothing less.

“There are lessons from practice which help us to develop and influence change for the better but let us be clear, racism and discrimination have no place in our practice, our workplaces or communities and will not be tolerated. All leaders across public services have a role to play in shining a light on social injustices faced by children. We know that children from Black and ethnic minority backgrounds are overrepresented in the youth justice and care systems and in school exclusions. We have suggested that this disproportionality be explored in detail by the independent review of children’s social care as a first step to addressing it. We must do more as a sector and as a society to stand up for change, to challenge ourselves and each other and to ensure anti-racist and anti-discriminatory practice is at the heart of our work with children and young people if we are to achieve a fairer, more tolerant society.”

Ends


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ADCS President’s Inaugural Speech 2022

​On 6 April 2022 Steve Crocker made his inaugural Presidential Speech at the Museum of London

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ADCS response: SEND and alternative provision green paper

Charlotte Ramsden, ADCS President, said:

“We welcome the long-awaited publication of the SEND review and the accompanying green paper. The paper’s emphasis on meeting the needs of children in mainstream education settings, with targeted support where needed, and where this isn’t possible in high quality specialist provision is welcome. Bringing greater consistency in how children’s needs are assessed and met by the SEND system will be helpful and we are pleased the government is committed to creating a new SEND and alternative provision system where every child and young person can access the right support, at the right time and in the right place. We are keen to work with government and others including parents, health partners and schools on the new national SEND standards as they develop and see a shift towards a more inclusive education system which ADCS has long called for.

“The paper rightly acknowledges that the current SEND system is not working for many children. The 2014 reforms were ambitious, rightly raising expectations and extending support up to 25 years, but they have not delivered the intended outcomes. Despite record levels of spending there is growing frustration and dissatisfaction with how the reforms are working on the ground. The support and services children with additional needs receive has a huge impact on them and their families, all stakeholders must work together, in partnership with parents, so that collectively we are better able to meet the needs of children and young people now and help prepare them for an independent adult life in the future. So, supporting a successful transition to adulthood must be a key feature of the new national standards.

“Many aspects of the green paper are to be welcomed including those focussing on strengthening collaboration and accountability across all partners in the system and clarifying their roles and responsibilities, creating a less adversarial, more child centred system based on children’s needs and inclusion. Improving the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND is a joint endeavour and so we welcome the strengthened role and commitments of health partners as outlined.

“We are pleased the green paper acknowledges the need to create a financially sustainable system which provides value for children in terms of their outcomes and experiences, and for the taxpayer. The additional funding being made available to support the proposals is welcome, but with high needs budget deficits rising, threatening the financial sustainability of some local authorities there is still not enough money in the current system to meet the level of need being seen. We recognise that reforms won’t happen overnight, but the current system has a high level of cost baked into it for the foreseeable future which is placing unsustainable pressure on local authorities.

“It will take time to work through the detail of the proposals outlined in the green paper, and to consider the implications for local authorities and, most importantly, for children and young people. The Association will be responding to the consultation in due course once we have gathered the views of our members and will work constructively with partners to implement these necessary changes.”

Ends


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Comment: Mental health of children in care survey

Commenting on a survey on the mental health of children in care in England in 2020 and 2021 Charlotte Ramsden, ADCS President, said:

“We welcome the study’s focus on the mental health of children in care, and the factors associated with improved mental health outcomes in this cohort. These include positive relationships with friends, carers and social workers and being satisfied with the frequency of contact with social workers. Living with a relative or sibling, spending less time on screens and not being excluded from school were also seen to be positive factors. The forthcoming Schools White Paper must have inclusion at its heart, not only is this important for the mental health of children in care but for all children.

“There are some important messages in this report, captured through the surveys of children and young people, I’m sure the findings will be of interest to all those working with and supporting children in care. While the impact of successive lockdowns and ensuing restrictions on children and young people will have varied, we cannot ignore that there is a rising tide of poor mental health amongst children and young people. Most mental health problems begin in childhood so ensuring children get the right help and support at the earliest opportunity is crucial. Over the years much focus has been placed on improving mental health support for children and young people but too many children continue to face long waits to access appropriate help and accessing mental health support for children has long been an issue for children in care - we must do better for them.

“Local authorities are absolutely committed to finding stable, loving homes for the children in our care and recruiting and retaining enough social workers so that we can meet children’s needs, but we need government to support us with this via a nationally led and funded campaign to encourage more social workers into the profession and to want to stay.”

ENDS


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ADCS response: Spring Statement 2022

Charlotte Ramsden, ADCS President, said:

“The additional funding for the Household Support Fund announced today is welcome, however, many children and families are facing a perfect storm of rising food, fuel and energy prices alongside increasing tax bills which will place enormous pressure on households and on living standards. The worsening cost of living crisis will trap and pull more children and families into poverty which we know constrains people’s opportunities and damages children’s life chances. There is clear evidence that one of the human costs of poverty is rising demand for children’s social care. While we recognise public finances are under huge strain it is a false economy not to fund children’s services properly and sustainably so that we can help children and families at the earliest opportunity, before their problems escalate. Furthermore, it makes no sense that England continues to be the only country in the UK without a child poverty reduction strategy.”

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Comment: referrals to children’s social care

Sara Tough, Chair of the ADCS Families, Communities and Young People Policy Committee, said:

“Keeping children safe from harm is the highest priority for all local authorities and we work in partnership with colleagues in schools, health services, the police, and others to do this. School staff see children nearly every day and have a key role in the multiagency response to safeguarding children, it is important that they receive adequate training and support to help them with this. There are very clear thresholds set out in legislation for how and when to intervene in family life, and that is right. Not all referrals to children’s social care will result in further activity, such as a child protection plan. As the FOI findings show, some referrals result in ‘no further action’ when thresholds for further activity have not been met. This means ‘no statutory social work intervention required’ not that there was no support offered. Before a decision is made every case will be assessed, discussed, and investigated to ensure all the evidence available at the time has been examined to ascertain whether concerns are substantiated.”

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Comment: OCC report on attendance data

Charlotte Ramsden, ADCS President, said:

“Schools play an important role in keeping children safe alongside helping them develop academically, socially, and emotionally. We share concerns that while most children are in school every day there is a worrying number of children who are not. Understanding the reasons for this and working with children and their families to get them back into education when they should be is a priority for all local authorities.

“Local authorities are committed to working in partnership with all schools and others to maximise attendance, to tackle persistent absence and remove any barriers to attending school. We saw strong examples of partnership working between local authorities and schools during the pandemic and this has become embedded in many areas. There is an opportunity in the forthcoming Schools White Paper to be clear on the central role local authorities have in the education system and to create an education system with inclusion at its heart.

“When children aren’t in school, for whatever reason, we want to know where they are and that they are safe. If they are being educated elsewhere, at home or otherwise, we want to know that it’s a suitable environment and offer support if needed. However, we can only do this with the fullest picture possible of who is and is not in school, yet there are gaps in our understanding of this. The government has taken an important step by announcing its intention to create a register of children educated at home but there are other actions it could take to help us meet our statutory duties, such as giving local authorities the powers to compel a school to admit a child to avoid learners waiting weeks for a school place to become available. After two years of disruption to children’s lives and their education we owe it to them to make attendance everybody’s business, children’s life chances are at stake.

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Comment: The Future of Children’s Social Care report

Commenting on the new report Charlotte Ramsden, ADCS President, said:

“This report is a helpful contribution to the current conversations about the changes that are needed to achieve the best outcomes for children and families. It reiterates several important issues which ADCS has been raising with government for some time, such as increasing levels of demand set against a decade of reductions to local authority budgets. We agree with the need for a sustainable, long term funding settlement for children’s services, a greater focus on early help and prevention and a national focus on recruiting and retaining foster carers.

“Analysis in the report shows that if we continue as we are the number of children in care will significantly increase, as will the financial, and human, costs associated with this. Although care can be the right thing for some children, we should be doing all we can to support families to stay together safely, in line with the Children Act 1989. Government should support us in this by ensuring we have appropriate resources to keep children safe from harm and to provide targeted early help at the earliest opportunity. The report describes a blueprint for change, the role of local authorities, central government, and others in enabling this, and the benefits it could offer if adopted across the country which I’m sure will be of interest to the sector as debates around the future of the children’s social care system continue. We now need to see the government and the national review of children’s social care provide meaningful solutions so that we can build a care system that works for all children.”

ENDS


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Comment on the 2014 SEND reforms

Charlotte Ramsden, ADCS President, said:

“The SEND reforms in 2014 were rightly ambitious, raising expectations and extending support from birth to 25 years, yet they are not delivering the intended outcomes for children. Despite record levels of spend there is growing frustration and high levels of parental dissatisfaction. I’m sure all stakeholders would agree we cannot go on as we are. Reform is long overdue; the system in its current form has resulted in perverse incentives at odds with inclusion in mainstream schools towards specialist provision and unsustainable levels of demand for education, health and care plans, resulting in significant high needs funding deficits, which could threaten the financial stability of local authorities. Additional funding alone cannot solve the fundamental systemic challenges we now face in meeting our statutory duties. The national reviews of the SEND and children’s social care systems and the forthcoming Education White Paper provide opportunities for us to collectively consider how we best support children and young people with additional needs and disabilities to thrive. Creating an inclusive mainstream education system that meets the needs of all learners is an important part of this, as is creating a partnership system that is focussed on the holistic needs of children and young people, to enable them to attend the most appropriate setting, as close to their home and community as possible, while also supporting them to maximise their independence and be ready for a high-quality adult life.”

ENDS


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ADCS response: Action for Children report on early help

Responding to the report Too Little, Too Late: Early help and Early Intervention Spending in England Matt Dunkley, Chair of the ADCS Resources and Sustainability Policy Committee, said:

“This report outlines the difficult financial position local authorities are in and the value of early help services. There is no doubt that the earlier we work with children and families to help them overcome the issues they face, the less impact these challenges will have on their lives but also on society as a whole. The problem is there is currently not enough funding in the system to enable this approach in all local authorities. For years, ADCS and others in the sector have called for long-term funding in early help and preventative services. The investment in Family Hubs is a positive step, and will build upon some of the important work that local authorities are already doing, but there is clearly a long way to go. Reduced funding for local authorities alongside increased need for our help and support has led to tough decisions about scaling back services.

“Services most at risk include those that tackle the root causes of the problems children and families face before they escalate. Before the pandemic, children’s services were dangerously close to becoming a ‘blue light service’ but we are now seeing greater complexity of need being presented by children and families. As the cost of living increases, more people will be pushed into poverty and more children and families will need our support. All local authorities recognise the benefits of early help and intervention, we want to support families earlier to improve their outcomes and prevent them from reaching crisis point, but we need more financial support from government to do so. For the Treasury, long term, equitable national investment in early help for all local authorities is not only a smart and efficient economic policy, but also the right thing to do. Children and families cannot, and should not, wait any longer, their life chances depend on it.”

ENDS


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Levelling up

Early this year the government is set to publish its long awaited Levelling Up White Paper - it may even be published by the time you read this. Levelling up will mean many things to different people and we of course will have our own priority areas. As a Director of Children’s Services, I see first-hand the impact of poverty and inequality on children and their outcomes. The Levelling Up White Paper presents an ideal opportunity to address these issues which will have only been worsened by the pandemic.

For children’s services, levelling up must involve investment in the variety of services that support children but also investment in children and families themselves. Over 4 million children in the UK are currently living in poverty, 75% of whom in working families. If we are to give these children the best start in life, we need to begin with tackling the causes of child poverty and be ambitious for them. During the early stages of the pandemic, the government recognised and responded to some of the obstacles that children living in poverty face when schools were closed to all but a small number. Laptops were ordered and children were given access to free broadband to help them learn at home. The announcements were welcomed at the time, but it is disappointing that these actions were not built upon with other more tangible initiatives to try and tackle the rising number of children living in poverty. I believe that the levelling up agenda provides us with the opportunity to do just that, but this relies on government committing to developing a cross-departmental strategy to reduce and then end child poverty. It is, of course, the responsibility of all government departments to drive levelling up, not just the department that is leading the white paper.

The greatest opportunities to make a real and tangible difference to children’s outcomes occur when they are very young. We know that growing up experiencing material hardship such as food insecurity and poor-quality housing can have a lifelong impact on health and development. Investment in the government’s flagship free childcare policy has reached £3.5 billion in each of the past three years, yet the rates paid to providers do not guarantee quality and emerging evidence suggests the 30-hour offer may in fact entrench disadvantage by displacing children from non-working families who qualify for fewer hours. This ongoing focus on childcare rather than developing high quality early education does seem somewhat at odds with the social mobility agenda. We need to work with children and families who are at risk of poor outcomes at the earliest possible stage, yet our spending and interventions remain skewed towards reactive services despite evidence that early help and support can improve children’s health, development and life chances.

Within local authority children’s services there is also much we can do. But without the funding to intervene early and support children before problems escalate, we have very little chance to reverse these trends. Before the pandemic, a decade of austerity left local government funding in a parlous state and children’s services teetering on the edge of becoming a ‘blue light’ service. Tough decisions have had to be made about how funding is allocated and often the services most at risk are those addressing the root causes of problems children and their families face before they reach crisis point. There is also a role for health services who have a vital role in ensuring better access to services at the earliest point. Poor mental health can have a devastating and lifelong impact on children and young people, yet all too often children experience difficulties in accessing services, wait months for support and reach crisis point in the process.

This does nothing to reduce future demand, is more expensive in the long term and leads to poorer outcomes. The government must invest in the type of preventative services that reduce demand and improve lives. Schools, early years and further education settings are essential parts of the preventative agenda and during the pandemic demonstrated the potential for future ways of working and the impact we have when working in flexible partnership.

The pandemic adds a new sense of urgency to the growing calls for concerted action on child poverty and to level up society. The efforts of a whole host of campaigners and groups have kept this issue high on the agenda and as we continue to collectively focus on recovery, this offers the government an opportunity to turbo charge its levelling up efforts. Whilst education is of course important, the social and emotional conditions that support children to engage in learning and thrive must also be in place.

Charlotte Ramsden, ADCS President 21/22

This column first appeared in the MJ


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Levelling up

Early this year the government is set to publish its long awaited Levelling Up White Paper - it may even be published by the time you read this. Levelling up will mean many things to different people and we of course will have our own priority areas. As a Director of Children’s Services, I see first-hand the impact of poverty and inequality on children and their outcomes. The Levelling Up White Paper presents an ideal opportunity to address these issues which will have only been worsened by the pandemic.

For children’s services, levelling up must involve investment in the variety of services that support children but also investment in children and families themselves. Over 4 million children in the UK are currently living in poverty, 75% of whom in working families. If we are to give these children the best start in life, we need to begin with tackling the causes of child poverty and be ambitious for them. During the early stages of the pandemic, the government recognised and responded to some of the obstacles that children living in poverty face when schools were closed to all but a small number. Laptops were ordered and children were given access to free broadband to help them learn at home. The announcements were welcomed at the time, but it is disappointing that these actions were not built upon with other more tangible initiatives to try and tackle the rising number of children living in poverty. I believe that the levelling up agenda provides us with the opportunity to do just that, but this relies on government committing to developing a cross-departmental strategy to reduce and then end child poverty. It is, of course, the responsibility of all government departments to drive levelling up, not just the department that is leading the white paper.

The greatest opportunities to make a real and tangible difference to children’s outcomes occur when they are very young. We know that growing up experiencing material hardship such as food insecurity and poor-quality housing can have a lifelong impact on health and development. Investment in the government’s flagship free childcare policy has reached £3.5 billion in each of the past three years, yet the rates paid to providers do not guarantee quality and emerging evidence suggests the 30-hour offer may in fact entrench disadvantage by displacing children from non-working families who qualify for fewer hours. This ongoing focus on childcare rather than developing high quality early education does seem somewhat at odds with the social mobility agenda. We need to work with children and families who are at risk of poor outcomes at the earliest possible stage, yet our spending and interventions remain skewed towards reactive services despite evidence that early help and support can improve children’s health, development and life chances.

Within local authority children’s services there is also much we can do. But without the funding to intervene early and support children before problems escalate, we have very little chance to reverse these trends. Before the pandemic, a decade of austerity left local government funding in a parlous state and children’s services teetering on the edge of becoming a ‘blue light’ service. Tough decisions have had to be made about how funding is allocated and often the services most at risk are those addressing the root causes of problems children and their families face before they reach crisis point. There is also a role for health services who have a vital role in ensuring better access to services at the earliest point. Poor mental health can have a devastating and lifelong impact on children and young people, yet all too often children experience difficulties in accessing services, wait months for support and reach crisis point in the process.

This does nothing to reduce future demand, is more expensive in the long term and leads to poorer outcomes. The government must invest in the type of preventative services that reduce demand and improve lives. Schools, early years and further education settings are essential parts of the preventative agenda and during the pandemic demonstrated the potential for future ways of working and the impact we have when working in flexible partnership.

The pandemic adds a new sense of urgency to the growing calls for concerted action on child poverty and to level up society. The efforts of a whole host of campaigners and groups have kept this issue high on the agenda and as we continue to collectively focus on recovery, this offers the government an opportunity to turbo charge its levelling up efforts. Whilst education is of course important, the social and emotional conditions that support children to engage in learning and thrive must also be in place.

Charlotte Ramsden, ADCS President 21/22

Words: 781


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Comment: international placements for children in care

Commenting on FOI request findings on the use of international placements for children in care, Sara Tough, Chair of the ADCS Families, Communities and Young People Policy Committee, said:

“Child protection cases with an international element are complex, not least because countries will have their own child protection systems and processes. Obtaining assessments for family members that meet the requirements of key tests in British law can be both difficult and time consuming, however, this should not prevent local authorities from exploring prospective carers as an option when this is in the best interests of the child. Positively, the report notes that more children in care had family abroad explored as potential carers in 2018-2020 than in 2015-2017, which shows local authorities continue to consider international placements as an option, even in the context of a global health crisis. As with other care proceedings we are involved in, the ultimate test is making sure children’s needs can be met, now and in the future. It is also important, where possible, to involve children and young people in decisions about their lives, children may not want to move away from the places and people they know and love.”

ENDS


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ADCS response: Levelling Up White Paper

Commenting on the publication of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities White Paper, ADCS President, Charlotte Ramsden, said:

“This White Paper is, according to the Secretary of State, about ending ‘historic injustice’. However, we are sorely disappointed that the Paper has failed to address one of the biggest historic injustices blighting the lives and life chances of millions of children today – rising child and family poverty. This appears to be a golden opportunity missed. Coordinated, cross government action to reduce and, ultimately, end child and family poverty cannot wait.

“Levelling up must start with investment in our children and young people so we welcome the White Paper’s focus on improving education and skills, including illiteracy and innumeracy rates amongst children. Ensuring children attend good schools and have these basic life skills is important but so too is ensuring that all children and their families can afford the basics, such as food, heating and a roof over their heads. Without this how can we expect children to be able to learn and thrive?

“Investment in infrastructure, broadband and housing in the areas highlighted in the Paper will help to develop some communities in which children and young people live and therefore make a difference to them, but we are clear that levelling up must go beyond this. We must be ambitious for all children so that their life chances are not impacted by where they grow up.

“To truly level up society and achieve a country that works for all children in a post-Covid world, we need long-term strategies to urgently close the gaps in education, health and poverty.”

ENDS


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Comment on OCC report: Children’s Social Care – putting...

Commenting on the Children’s Commissioner’s report, ADCS Vice President Steve Crocker said:

“This latest report by the Children’s Commissioner raises a number of important issues such as the importance of consistent, strong relationships for children and young people, the need for greater a focus on children in the health system, and formalising the role of schools in safeguarding arrangements to name just a few.

“It includes recommendations for both local and national government around placement sufficiency and stability. Ensuring that children in care have a secure, consistent and caring home to stay in is one of the highest priorities for all local authorities. In some cases, moving homes can be positive, necessary and in the best interests of the child in question, or for other children in the same place. Unfortunately, finding the right placement, at the right time and in the best location for a growing number of children in our care is becoming increasingly difficult because we face a national shortage of placements of all types. The work being carried out by the Care Review and the Competition and Markets Authority will be crucial in the enabling local authorities to meet their sufficiency duties in future. The DfE’s recent announcement of new investment in both open and secure children’s homes as well as registration changes by Ofsted will also help ease these challenges down the line.

“Regulatory reform, greater access to mental health provision, investment in the workforce, and moves to address profit making is needed in both the short and longer term. We also need an urgent discussion about the right response to children and young people with very complex and overlapping health, education and social care needs, we believe a wholly new and much more therapeutic approach is needed. We also support the Commissioner’s calls for the DfE to play a greater role in securing sufficiency in secure children’s homes.”

ENDS


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Use of interim DCSs

Charlotte Ramsden, President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), said:

“Directors of children’s services carry huge responsibilities on behalf of their local communities. Our statutory role means that we are responsible for children in care, safeguarding and child protection, supporting children and young people with special educational needs and overseeing school admissions as well as managing multi-million-pound budgets and thousands of members of staff. One person cannot achieve this alone, it is a huge team effort, requiring the backing and support of the authority’s wider senior management team, as well as political leaders. It also requires a complex multi-agency system, including partners such as the police and health colleagues, to work well together because safeguarding children is everyone’s business.

“These roles can be hard to fill and the salaries of directors need to be considered within the context of comparable senior officers in other parts of local government, the health service and education. Interim leaders can be employed to cover gaps whilst recruitment takes place for a permanent director or to take on a planned role as part of improvement work, which is often for an agreed period, meaning several changes in a short timescale. Improvement work is hard, and it takes a long time, working alongside Ofsted, government departments and local political leaders. This is a much wider and more complex issue than the role and effectiveness of the director alone.”


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Comment on financial incentives paid to foster carers by local...

Edwina Grant OBE, Chair of the ADCS Health, Care and Additional Needs Policy Committee, said:

“We need many more carers to provide loving, stable homes for a growing number of children and young people in our care. Despite the current pressure on budgets, local authorities continue to invest in recruitment campaigns to encourage people to open their hearts and homes to children who need it. Some local authorities may also offer financial incentives to widen their local pool of carers, alongside other benefits such as leisure passes. The most important thing to consider is whether we have enough high quality carers who are motivated by improving children’s lives. The process for approving foster carers is rigorous and these processes are regularly reviewed. All of the foster carers I speak to want to foster so they can change a child’s life.

“The practice of offering financial incentives is increasingly becoming the norm and will overtime boost in-house provision and reduce costs in the longer term, as such it’s likely that more local areas will follow suit. These decisions are taken locally and we believe it would be unhelpful to introduce a national level of incentive fee which would risk driving up costs in areas where a financial incentive isn’t already offered. Instead, we urgently need a national recruitment and retention campaign, that is centrally funded, to ensure the right foster home is available at the right time, for every child.

“We hope the CMA’s study and the national review into children’s social care will address the concerns we have been raising for many years, including the shortage of appropriate placements.”

ENDS


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Comment on UASC age assessments

ADCS President Charlotte Ramsden said:

“Unaccompanied asylum seeking children are fleeing desperate situations and arrive here alone in search of safety. Their care and best interests must be at the heart of any decision made, but we are aware of too many instances where children have been wrongly assessed as adults. Conducting age assessments is complex and specialist work and the persistently high numbers of arrivals we have seen in recent months is adding pressures to those caused by the pandemic. However, age assessments are frequently the subject of legal challenge and local authorities are picking up the pieces where decisions made by Home Office are found to be incorrect. This is placing additional pressure on us and our staff at a time when children’s services and social workers are already stretched. It is also a scary and worrying time for children who are far from home and initially placed in unregistered and unregulated settings, namely hotels.

“Urgent improvements are needed in the initial screening process that takes place at ports of entry. ADCS cautiously supports the government’s plans to introduce a common assessment process, however, action is needed now. Age assessments must be driven by a child-centric approach and should be thorough as well as timely. Engaging with gateway local authorities in particular will be key here as they have a lot of expertise in this area. The safety and best interests of asylum seeking children must be at the heart of any reforms or decisions made.”

ENDS


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ADCS response: Removal of the LAMB Grant

Commenting on the removal of the Local Authority School Improvement Monitoring and Brokering (LAMB) Grant Charlotte Ramsden, ADCS President, said:

“Local authorities have a crucial role to play in supporting all schools across place, regardless of governance arrangements. Throughout the pandemic local authorities have worked together with schools to make sure children and young people are in school, learning and fed, highlighting unequivocally the critical role of the local authority in education. This announcement, however, appears contrary to these strong relationships when we should be building on them.

“The Local Authority School Improvement Monitoring and Brokering (LAMB) Grant provides vital resources for local authorities to support schools of all types in their local areas, often in close partnership with MAT leaders. Many local authorities use the Grant to fund school improvement teams and to provide earlier support for schools to avoid the need for formal intervention. Clearly, this is in the best interests of all learners; the suggestion that low levels of formal interventions indicate that this funding is no longer required is misguided. The Grant provides vital resources for critical school improvement activity and is especially important for smaller schools in rural areas. ADCS is concerned that its removal will limit the ability of local authorities to fulfil some of their statutory responsibilities around education and schools.

“Reducing the LAMB Grant to 50% on a per school basis from 2022/23 and removing it from 2023/24, will negatively impact many schools and millions of children. The shift towards de-delegation to fund these activities only puts more pressure on school budgets. The forthcoming Education White Paper provides an opportunity to rebalance the role of local authorities in education alongside academy trusts to create a better school system for all learners. However, with this decision taken in advance of the White Paper despite significant concern expressed in consultation returns, it is not clear how this new funding arrangement will better align academy and maintained schools, given that they are financed differently with many inconsistencies in levels of funding available to different types of schools. This announcement instead appears inconsistent with plans to create an ‘eco-system of schools’ to drive school improvement and improve outcomes for all children.

“As the government plans the education system for the future there must be a strong and defined role for the local authority at its heart.”

ENDS


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Comment: Jenny Coles receives CBE

Steve Crocker, ADCS Vice President, said:

“I’m really pleased to see former ADCS President Jenny Coles recognised in the New Year’s Honours list. Jenny has played an important role in the Association over many many years, first as a policy committee chair and then as ADCS President 2020/21, and I’m delighted to see Jenny’s commitment and dedication to making a difference to the lives of children and families acknowledged in this way.”

ENDS


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Comment on Covid-19 related workforce shortages

Steve Crocker, ADCS Vice President, said:

“As employers of thousands of social workers who deliver vital services for children and families every day, local authorities are planning for workforce shortages should a high number of social workers fall ill with Covid-19 or need to self- isolate in line with government guidelines. During the first wave of the pandemic local authorities responded to workforce shortages by redeploying the qualified staff we already had to different roles as well as using agency social workers when necessary and nationally we were supported by the Social Work Together campaign. Nationally we need to recruit and retain more social workers so any additional workforce shortages as a result of Covid-19 will be a challenge for us, this is why any efforts to encourage experienced social workers to support the profession and children and families once again are welcome.”

ENDS


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ADCS comment following the death of Star Hobson

ADCS Vice President Steve Crocker said:

“While we cannot comment on the specifics of this case, it’s important to say that Star’s death is a tragedy. Reports in the media of what Star endured in her very short life are heart-breaking.

“In recent weeks, two high profile cases where young children have been killed by the very people who should have loved and cared for them most have shone a light on the child protection system. National and local learning reviews are ongoing, and we all have a duty to ensure these horrendous cases produce lasting learning for the greater good.

“For our part as leaders of local services within a multiagency system that protects many thousands of children on a daily basis, we know just how complex and difficult child protection work is. The way we safeguard children has improved in recent years, but we cannot be complacent. There is much greater recognition that safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility and that a range of professionals must work in a multidisciplinary way to achieve this goal, including social workers, teachers, GPs and many others. We are constantly learning, working with our partners trying to ensure the systems we have in place to keep children safe are as effective as they possibly can be. However, despite the best efforts of the agencies involved no system is fail-safe, as much as we might want it to be.

“When things do go wrong it is crucial that we take onboard any lessons, but it’s equally as important that the system is designed and, crucially, resourced properly, so that we can identify children and families who need our help and support earlier to prevent them from reaching crisis point and effectively safeguard children. Social workers are one part of a multi agency group of professionals tasked with keeping children safe from harm; they carry huge responsibility on behalf of us all and they must be supported by a system that enables them to do their jobs effectively. We hope any system level recommendations that come out of the national review into children’s social care will enable us to better meet the needs of all children and young people.”

ENDS


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Comment on child protection and SoS statement on Arthur...

Charlotte Ramsden, ADCS President, said:

“Removing a child from their family is the most serious state intervention in family life and there is rightly a clear framework set out in legislation on how and when local authorities should seek to do this. Indeed it’s important that where children need to come into care they do, but our system is based on the principle that wherever possible children are best placed in their family, this sits at the heart of social work and is enshrined in the Children Act 1989. The tension between early intervention and the prompt removal of children from a dangerous situation must be acknowledged as should the real difficulties and dilemmas faced by our staff when making complex, life changing decisions to keep children safe from harm based on the multi-agency information assessment and analysis available at that time. We welcome the recognition by the Secretary of State for Education that the effectiveness of the multi-agency system is crucial to assist in these decisions and that the plan for the national review and the JTAI reflect this. ”

ENDS


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ADCS response: Ofsted’s annual report 2020/21

Steve Crocker, ADCS Vice President, said:

“Ofsted’s report describes the varied impact the pandemic has had on children’s lives, but also the incredible lengths staff right across the education and social care sectors have gone to to continue supporting children and young people in incredibly difficult circumstances. Examples in the report include staff going above and beyond in children’s homes moving in with children who had to self-isolate, early years staff adapting to support very young children to recover curiosity and rebuild confidence through play and there will be many other examples up and down the country. It’s important all of the extraordinary work which has taken place, right across the children’s sector, in response to the challenges we’ve faced is acknowledged.

“The pandemic continues to impact on us all. While children’s experiences have varied, Covid-19 has disrupted education at all levels, it has increased risks in the home, impacted on children’s emotional, mental and physical health and on their wellbeing. Schools face ongoing disruption with the youngest age groups continuing to experience the highest rates of infection. For some children and families the pandemic has heightened pre-existing challenges from poverty and poor quality housing to access to safe places to play and food. This report clearly reinforces the urgent need for a comprehensive, cross cutting plan for childhood that extends beyond education catch up, taking a holistic vision of children, to ensure every child can thrive not just survive. The plan must consider the differential experiences across the country; some children have lost weeks of face to face teaching due to isolation periods, on top of national and local lockdowns. As the report states, some children with special educational needs and in the secure estate have had particularly poor experiences during this period which cannot be right, local authorities are facing systemic challenges in the delivery of our statutory duties which we hope are addressed by the national reviews into children’s social care and special educational needs.

“We share HMCI’s concerns about how time away from school and learning has impacted children’s educational progress, and also their mental health and emotional wellbeing. The government has invested in tutoring to help children ‘catch up’ on lost learning but this has been via one-off investments rather than as part of a multi-year, multi-level plan. Education recovery must focus on improving children’s broader outcomes, as well as academic. Similarly, the spending review provided some welcome additional funds for children and families however, we need a sustainable long term funding settlement for children’s services which enables us to keep children safe from the immediate risk of harm and to support children and families earlier before they reach crisis point. This is the only way we can ‘build back better’ and enable children to be in a position to learn and play their fullest part in our society.”

ENDS


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ADCS comment following death of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes

ADCS President Charlotte Ramsden said:

“The death of a child at the hands of those who should love and care for them is both heart-breaking and contemptible. Whilst ADCS does not comment on individual cases it is important to comment on the child protection system at this sad time. Significant strides have been made in recent decades to help improve our ability to safeguard children; the use of relationship based practice models, our knowledge of effective interventions and the embedding of multi-agency working have all played a role. The creation of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel to support the sector to maintain a focus on learning and reflecting on lessons is vital, however there is always more learning to be done.

“As well as learning lessons and improving systems when things do not go as planned, children’s services need the ability to meet the needs of children and families as early as possible to avoid escalation. The commitment to family hubs and the Supporting Families Programme signals a growing recognition of the vital importance of early help systems which are central to identifying children who experience vulnerabilities and working with families to safeguard children.

“Over the course of the pandemic, local authorities and partners have continued to support all children and families, especially those with the most acute needs. The social restrictions introduced to protect wider public health unfortunately added a layer of extra complexity to what is already an incredibly complex and challenging area of work. Sadly, it is not possible to eliminate all risk.

“Any death of a child is tragic. In recent years, there have been advancements in the public debate surrounding such tragedies and increased public awareness of the impact of abuse and neglect. Whilst there is still a long way to go, this has led to stronger multi-agency working and a greater understanding of the complexities professionals face when deciding how and when to intervene in family life.

“The Care Review is grappling with many of these issues and as leaders of one part of the multi-agency safeguarding system, along with the police and health service, we continue to engage with the review to make sure any recommendations for systemic change best meet the needs of children and young people.”

ENDS

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) Ltd is the professional leadership association for Directors of Children’s Services and their senior management teams in England.


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President’s Speech to NCASC 21

ADCS President, Charlotte Ramsden’s speech to the 2021 National Children and Adult Services Conference.

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Proposals for a national care system

“The proposal as it stands will create very significant disruption with few guarantees of improved outcomes for children, in fact the opposite could easily arise from huge structural reforms. Nationalising 152 local care services and dividing other key services, such as health provision into two sections, would require the creation of new laws as well as the wholesale transfer of records, systems and staff, the tearing up established guidance and ways of working as well as the severing of democratic links with local communities.

“The separation of care from family support and child protection work in local authorities plus the creation of other agencies to oversee independent reviewing officer functions, the purchasing of care placements and a network of new local advisory boards risks more siloed working and confusion, not less. We are ambitious for children and open to reform but we should learn from the failed reforms of probation services and the NHS. This does not seem like the best use of either energy and resources at this time and carries unacceptable levels of risk.”

ENDS


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Comment on Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s third...

Charlotte Ramsden, ADCS President, said:

“This latest national learning review from the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel considers some very distressing cases. It is clear the pandemic has intensified some of the ‘hidden harms’ we’ve heard about, bringing the health, safety and wellbeing of children to the fore. Babies and very young children cannot tell us how they feel or what is happening to them and disrupted access to the formal and informal networks families rely on, from health visitors to grandparents, further heightens the risk of harm as the rise in serious incident notifications shows.

“This review highlights some longer term challenges in both policy and practice that require urgent action. This includes the involvement of, and focus on men, both before the birth of a baby and the weeks and months following. Our collective focus is almost exclusively on mother and child and this is crucial, but we must make space for fathers and other male figures in both assessments and offers of parenting support. The Panel calls for new government investment in multi-agency responses, which the Association wholly supports. The role of health services are particularly important but there is more we can all do as local leaders, strategic partnerships and frontline professionals, to understand and respond to the needs of men and share our respective insights in order to keep children safe.”

ENDS


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Afghan resettlement efforts

Commenting on the contribution of children’s services to the resettlement of Afghan refugees, Charlotte Ramsden, ADCS President, said:

“Councils are proud to support the humanitarian effort to resettle evacuees from Afghanistan and are already providing support to families who have arrived in the country in recent days, many of whom remain in hotel quarantine in line with pandemic control measures for red-list countries. We are working closely with central government, charities, housing and health providers on securing longer term accommodation options as well as putting in place mental health and trauma support. Councils are also coordinating generous donations of essential clothes, toiletries and toys from the public.

“Children’s services teams across the country are supporting a very small number of young evacuees who are unaccompanied as well as children and young people who are already in our care with friends and family still trapped in Afghanistan and are working hard on potential education arrangements for the new arrivals too. The government has just confirmed additional funding to facilitate new school enrolments as well as additional support in the classroom and with transport, which is welcome. For councils to be able to support these vulnerable children and their families properly we will need ongoing financial support from government to ensure these schemes are both sustainable and help people of all ages to thrive in their new home.”

ENDS


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Comment on 2022/23 SEND funding allocations

Commenting on the uplift in SEND funding from 2022/23, Matt Dunkley, Chair of the ADCS Resources and Sustainability Policy Committee, said:

“The government’s SEND reforms in 2014 were ambitious, and rightly so, raising expectations and extending the entitlement of support from birth up to 25 years. Several years on, there is growing frustration and record levels of parental dissatisfaction, despite record spending. There are too many perverse incentives against inclusion in mainstream schools and towards increased specialist provision in the way the reforms have turned out on the ground. The government now must face a stark choice of either reforming the reforms, or dramatically increasing funding even further to achieve the intended aims. In this context, it is disappointing that the government’s SEND review, which began in 2019, has yet to conclude.

“This latest uplift in funding to support learners with special educational needs and disabilities is welcome, but by itself it will not address the systemic challenges we now face in the delivery of our statutory duties, particularly in relation to the growing cohort of 19 – 25-year-olds requiring education, health and care plans. This has resulted in unsustainable growth in high needs funding deficits, which distort school spending and could fundamentally threaten the financial stability of local authorities when the accounting rules change in 2023.

“Local authorities, schools, and health commissioners are facing a perfect storm of increased parental demand for high-cost specialist placements, often backed by the SEND Tribunal, insufficient capital funding for new maintained special school places, growing reliance on the costly independent and non-maintained schools, shortages of education psychologists, special educational needs teachers, occupational therapists and specialist mental health provision.

“The DfE and Ofsted have been keen to closely monitor local authorities’ progress against the ambitions of the 2014 reforms. However, from our perspective, government departments and agencies have, at times, overlooked their own role in facilitating change. What is certain, is that we cannot carry on as we are, and that sentiment unites all stakeholders in the system.”

ENDS


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Annual Conference 2021 Presentations

​Charlotte Ramsden CBE - President’s Address - view speech

Minister Ford MP - view speech

Care Review and Permanence

Rethinking responses to adolescents and risk

Children’s Commissioner

Education Recovery

The future mental health system for children and young people

Inspection


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Press release: Presidential address, ADCS Annual Conference 2021

“No child must be left behind in recovery as we move “cautiously but irrevocably” towards a life free of pandemic restrictions, one where we learn to live with Covid-19”, the President of the Association of Children’s Services, Charlotte Ramsden, said today in her speech to the ADCS Annual Conference.

Charlotte Ramsden, who used her speech to highlight the opportunities ahead, including the Care and SEND Reviews, noted that “whilst we have some concerns as to where the case for change might lead, I do think that the review’s upfront acknowledgement of poverty as the principal driver of demand is an important step in tackling the wider societal determinants of family distress”. She also used her speech to thank ADCS members, made up of senior leaders in children and young people services, for their efforts in helping drive forward the Association’s policy priorities such as in the family justice system and ensuring that children’s health needs are higher up the health reform agenda.

Charlotte Ramsden stressed the important role that local government plays in relation to schools and colleges; “schools are at the heart of their local communities, they are not islands nor are they oases”. She went on to say, “the LA has a unique, democratic, place-based role drawing together multiple partners, providers, volunteers and professionals, community groups, and support services. The relationship between local government and schools is symbiotic. Children’s future life chances depend upon schools and local government working in concert”, she said.

She continued, “the announcement in May of £1.4billion for Education Recovery was disappointing, but we take on face value that there will be further investment to come.” Education recovery must go beyond academic attainment and it “cannot be achieved in isolation from improving children’s wellbeing holistically.”

On Ofsted’s review of sexual abuse in schools

The review “makes clear the sheer scale and prevalence of sexual harassment and online abuse experienced by our young people. It’s clear that a wider response is required beyond new guidance or changes to the curriculum, one that develops new expertise and also draws in young people, parents, carers and communities, in order to protect others from harm. Change at a societal level is urgently required to challenge the misogyny, prejudice, harassment and abuse that is still all too common if we are to protect girls without at the same time criminalising a generation of boys. A national campaign is also needed to tackle the casual acceptance of degrading and over sexualised representations of children and young people.”

On the Care Review

The Care Review “reiterates a series of very important issues that ADCS has been raising with government over the last few years - the value of early help, the impact of poverty on children’s lives and outcomes, the marketisation of services for vulnerable children, the slow pace of change in youth custody responses, funding and the lack of coordination for child and family policy across government.” However, “we must also recognise the incredible work undertaken by our social workers, and the wider workforce, on a daily basis.” Further, “the importance of avoiding lazy stereotypes and being ambitious for children in care cannot be overstated. The evidence is clear that the earlier we are able to support families, the more likely this is to happen. Instead, over the last decade central funding for these vital services has fallen dramatically and so all too often we are now only able to intervene when problems have escalated to near crisis levels. The review calls for a vision for children’s social care, we think this must go further and be part of a coherent and strategic long-term plan for children.”

On the SEND review

“I fear that the SEND Review has lost its mojo. Inevitably delayed due to Covid, it has also been effected by a set of changed circumstances altering the landscape. To date in the review, there’s been too much focus on parental wishes and education provision without any incentive for schools to be more inclusive. ADCS will be urging the review to: clarify accountabilities not just responsibilities; invest in short breaks and family support, and secure commitment from national health partners to invest in children’s health needs.”

On placements

“Children and young people with complex mental health needs, high rates of self-harming and suicidal behaviour are often hardest for us to find a placement for that actually meets their needs. Often when seeking to find the right placement at the right time for these children, corporate parents are left with little choice but to create bespoke single placements with intensive wrap around care. The impending ban on placing under 16s in semi-independent placements will exacerbate placement difficulties for this very vulnerable group of children. ADCS has advocated for a refreshed approach to registration of children’s homes, registering the provider not the building in a streamlined process which could include temporary registration for single flexible placements from known and trusted providers. The system must step up and urgently.”

On child poverty

“The impacts of Covid-19 have been differential. The pandemic has simultaneously exposed and heightened the stark disparities between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers. DfE’s own recently published data show that 1 in 5 children are now eligible for FSM. That’s 1.74million children of whom 430,000 have become eligible since the first lockdown in March 2020. The largest increases in eligibility are in primary-aged pupils. Conference, where is the national plan for children? An ambitious 10-year plan that commits to supporting children to recover from the pandemic and address long term disparities.”

“We need an holistic approach backed by significant and sustainable investment which brings together the educational recovery and wider recovery needs to restore wellbeing.”

ENDS


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Presidential Address ADCS Annual Conference 2021

Charlotte Ramsden’s Presidential address to the 2021 annual conference - 8 July 2021.

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Comment on NTS announcement

Commenting on the announcement of a new National Transfer Scheme, ADCS President Charlotte Ramsden said:

“We welcome any additional funding that has been made available for supporting unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) entering the UK as well as a national approach to age assessments which will share the risks associated with legal challenges where age assessments are disputed. Whilst this is a modest uplift in funding, and remains insufficient to cover councils’ costs, we support the principle that funding will follow the child. This is recognition of the pressures faced by local authorities, caused by rising demand and pressures within the care system as a whole. Councils simply do not have the resources to divert spend from support for other vulnerable children in their care to cover any shortfall in the costs.

“In our joint response to last year’s national consultation on the National Transfer Scheme, ADCS and LGA recognised the growing strength of feeling amongst our respective members in supporting mandation and ADCS is disappointed that the scheme is to remain voluntary. However, we are keen for the revised system, based on regional rotas, to work. This will take into consideration the totality of migratory pressures within a local area when deciding the number of UASC that will be transferred. That being said, there remains several unresolved issues that we have been raising with Department for Education and Home Office officials for a number of years. Funding levels remain inadequate, there is still a need for a range of suitable placement options to meet the needs of those who arrive, better availability of specialist mental health support and significantly quicker immigration decisions for young people, particularly those approaching their 18th birthday. We will continue to work with government on these pressing issues.”

ENDS


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Born into Care – a North East DCS perspective

Today, 8 June 2021, Nuffield Family Justice Observatory published Born into Care: Newborn Babies in Urgent Care Proceedings in England and Wales. Here, John Pearce, Chair of the North East Association of Directors of Childrens Services, responds to the findings of the report on behalf of North East DCSs:

The bite of austerity and the impact of poverty has long been felt in the North East. The recent “Born into Care” report highlights clearly the impact that is felt within our communities and the real and devastating impact that poverty has on the lived reality of many families. At first glance of these statistics you could be forgiven for thinking that services for children in the North East are lagging behind that of our southern counterparts and this could not be further from the truth.

Place based context is vital to our understanding of the levers that impact on our communities. The excellent research of Bywater, Featherstone and others leaves little doubt of the very clear evidence base linking the impact of deprivation to risk for children. The End Child Poverty coalition reports the North East as having the second highest rate of child poverty at 37% and this has seen the steepest rise in the last 5 years. All 12 North East local authorities feature in the top 20 local authorities nationally that have seen the sharpest increase in child poverty between 2014/15 and 2019/20. This is unsurprising news to those of us who live and work in this amazing part of the world.

The Born into Care series, highlights clearly that for too many of our families, life with a myriad of issues such as domestic abuse, poor mental health, the impact of trauma, coupled with significant poverty creates a complex and unequal system which leaves many families ill equipped to provide the safe nurturing environment for their children that they crave and their children need. The substantial reduction in local authority funding since 2010 has a had a massive effect on the North East and our ability to provide the range and depth of preventative services our communities need and deserve. This coupled with a health system often in acute crisis means that too many families find themselves in situations in which risks increase and resilience is compromised. This leads to an unsafe situation for more children that requires a court intervention to ensure they are protected from harm.

The local authorities of the North East have long since recognised the issue raised in the report, and have been committed to further research with Family Justice Observatory (Nuffield), into current practice that is currently been undertaken to inform service development so we can further mitigate the increased risk factors that are evident in the region.

There is a wealth of innovative practice in the North East, some of which will be highlighted in the upcoming Nuffield research, however there remain a number of complex factors which drive families and communities to be unable to provide “safe” care for children. This research highlights important questions for the whole system which require careful and active consideration. Looking only through the lens of any single agency practice will not address systemic inequalities that disproportionately impact on the most deprived communities. There are undoubtedly issues of system, culture and practice we need to develop in the North East and this requires commitment from all services across the system and collaboration with communities.

Local authorities across the North East remain committed to working with families and communities to enable and empower children to be brought up safely and securely within their birth families and communities. Sadly the risks outlined above outweigh the strengths, and systems in place to mitigate are not enough for too many.

Will we be able to achieve what is needed without whole system reform and significant investment in the social Levelling Up agenda? No is the clear answer, so we all need to play our part in providing a system that can give all of our children the opportunity they deserve to live in a safe, loving and nurturing environment.


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ADCS responds to the Wood Report

Sara Tough, Chair of the ADCS Families, Communities and Young People Policy Committee, said:

“The Wood Report gives us good grounds for optimism that change is in train in local partnerships across the country, that it is beginning to embed and this in turn is impacting on children’s outcomes. And, although the report identifies that some partnerships have been bolder and this transformation is at different stages in different areas, this is encouraging news given the review was commissioned just three months after the government’s own implementation deadline and was largely carried out during the pandemic. The events of the last 12 months have underlined the importance of partnership working in this space and the role of schools could not be clearer and, as the report recommends, they must be drawn closer to multi-agency arrangements in a more consistent way going forward.

“The report also calls on cross-departmental ministers and officials to do more to model the behaviours they wish to see in local partnerships, with a specific and sharp step up in support and encouragement recommended. Similarly, the bulk of recommendations are aimed at central government, including new investment in capturing and sharing good practice and expanding guidance as well as greater clarity on funding this joint work would be most welcome.”

Ends


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Charlotte Ramsden Inaugural Presidential Address - press release

Today, Thursday 22 April, Association of Directors of Children’s Services, published the written inaugural address of its new President for 2021/22, Charlotte Ramsden, Strategic Director for People, Salford City Council.

Charlotte Ramsden used her address to outline the Association’s policy priorities for the coming year. She began by looking at the “known unknowns” that will emerge over the forthcoming year. “We know there will be long-term impacts, good and bad, experienced by children, young people and their families.” These children and families will need “long-term sustainable support” which is delivered locally and addresses the entrenched social and cultural problems as well as the immediate impact of the pandemic. “What is unknown is the degree of severity and the legacy of those impacts.”

She then turned to the need for maintaining and strengthening partnerships. We have seen the huge value of local partnerships in our response to Covid-19 and Charlotte highlighted the importance of these as we navigate through recovery. “Partnerships are in our DNA… with strong partnerships we can be greater than the sum of our parts. Never has that been more evident than over the last 12 months.” She went on to praise the work of local government which has “shown astonishing flexibility and resilience within all of our services.” This has been particularly evident with schools where “LAs have vital co-ordination, support and challenge roles. In many ways schools and councils have never been closer than we are now as together we’ve worked to keep children in our sight, maximise school attendance, ensure children learning remotely are fed and supported.”

The forthcoming year will present real opportunities to improve support for children and families to achieve the best possible future. “But children are not just our future, they are our NOW” she said. She continued “if collectively we don’t get things right now, in the care review, in the SEND review… then they won’t have the future they deserve.” To achieve this, we must have a “Long-Term National Plan for Children and Young People” just as the NHS has a Long-Term Plan. This needs to be “ambitious and predicated upon a universal approach to enabling all children to achieve their potential” she said, “whilst retaining a focus on the poorest and the most vulnerable.”

On the Care Review

“ADCS wishes to amplify our influence in order to maximize the impact of the Children’s Social Care Review if it is to be the ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to build on the successes and improve the weaknesses in the social care system in order to improve outcomes for children. Crucially we need better residential care, with placements that meet children’s actual needs. We can achieve this though better commissioning, child-centred practice and regulation that works.”

On children living in poverty

“When I first came to Manchester a very long time ago to study geography at University, I saw for the first time real inner city poverty and I was enraged at the injustice of it, particularly the way it blighted children’s life chances. The burning desire to do something about it changed my career trajectory away from becoming a geography teacher … to training to become a social worker. Now, so many years later, Manchester and Salford are beacons of regeneration. But, poverty is once again, rife, not just here up north, but everywhere. We must shine a light on inequality and do all we can to prevent child poverty becoming an epidemic wrapped up in a pandemic.”

On sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools

“The importance of a universalist approach has been highlighted by the recent and extremely distressing anonymous testimonials posted by women and girls on the website ‘Everybody’s Invited…’ Schools cannot fix all of society’s ills and it is certainly true that there’s a casual acceptance of degrading and over-sexualised representation of women and girls in our society. This has fermented a culture of misogyny which requires profound socio-cultural change if we are to protect girls without at the same time criminalising a generation of boys.”

On joined-up partnership working both nationally and locally

“Central government departments must work together to influence the Treasury…One way of doing this would be a commitment from the nine different central government departments each of which has some responsibility for some aspect of children’s policy, to… join up their thinking and most importantly pool their financial resources. Please stop the waste of time and money that results from dangling disparate, small, time-limited pots of funding to tackle complex, multi-dimensional and entrenched social and cultural problems.”

She went onto say, “one of my policy priorities for the year ahead will be to advocate for the development of a more effective interface – nationally, regionally and locally - with providers of adult health and social care services in the creation of more and seamless 0-25 services for those who need them… together I think we can make sure that the physical, mental and emotional health needs of children and young people are prioritised in ICS developments… The emerging operating model for ICSs… appears to have forgotten children… How can this White Paper have even been conceived of, never mind written in a child-blind way? … As your President I will seek ever closer partnership with health colleagues to meet children’s needs better and together with our friends and colleagues in ADASS and the LGA.”

The full written address can be found on the ADCS website.

ENDS


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Charlotte Ramsden Inaugural Presidential Address

Charlotte Ramsden’s inaugural Presidential speech made on 22 April 2021.


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Digital innovation in children’s social care

During the first few months of the pandemic all of us managed to adapt and innovate in ways that would usually have taken years, all the while during a national lockdown. A number of digital platforms suddenly became the venue of choice for meetings (not to mention the weird and wonderful backgrounds on offer!) We also had to adapt quickly to support our children and families during this time. After a year of working in this way, we can now create the opportunity to consider what we have learnt and what we would want to maintain post-Covid.

Digital innovation in children’s social care has been an ongoing topic of debate for a number of years. The idea of using technology to improve efficiency or reach families sooner sounds appealing, but this should not come at the expense of social worker judgement. More recently the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care explored the effectiveness of machine learning through predictive analytics, yet the research showed that this was limited at best. Children’s social care is complex and personalised. Building relationships is central to the work of social workers and other professionals who support children and families at times of need. This is not to say that such approaches have no place in the sector, indeed some local authorities are exploring the use of machine learning models as an additional tool to support professional decision making. Similarly, many of us will have been considering which aspects of technology we want to take forward, especially in training, to help support more children and families at an earlier stage.

One thing often been fed back to me over the past year is the importance of seeing people face-to-face, whether that be colleagues or children and young people. Many of our frontline workers have continued to visit those families at the greatest risk during the pandemic, with protective measures in place, but video interaction has replaced a lot of activity. During a video call you can’t always see what’s going on ‘behind the camera’ and you may not notice things that workers would be quick to pick up on had they visited the child’s home. Also, we know many families have struggled with access to technology. Yet despite these obstacles, the use of digital platforms has allowed to us work with more children and families who were otherwise hard to engage with, and this has been true of some professionals too. Clearly, face-to-face interaction will not disappear from children’s services but there are elements of these new ways of working that open up new avenues to improving practice.

The key, as it is with so many things, is finding the right balance including what is beneficial for children as well as practitioners. Being able to physically meet people in their home is an important part of social work and I can’t see this ever being replaced, however who’s to say we can’t use technology to improve practices that we have held dear for so long?

Jenny Coles, ADCS President, 2020/21.

This article was first published as part of a special report in CYP Now in March 2021 - https://www.cypnow.co.uk/features/article/digital-innovation-in-social-care-special-report


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Comment on UASC arrivals and age assessments

Commenting on UASC arrivals and age assessments, ADCS Vice President Charlotte Ramsden said:

“Where unaccompanied asylum seeking children arrive in this country, their care and best interests must be at the heart of any decision made. These children and young people are fleeing desperate situations and arrive here alone in search of safety, whilst many already have a connection to this country, such a family members. The increasing numbers of arrivals in gateway authorities, such as Kent and Portsmouth, by boat over the past year has created unprecedented demand on their services and though councils will do all that they can to help, we need more support from government. For example, there are unresolved and ongoing issues with the National Transfer Scheme (NTS) that the Association has been raising for a number of years. These include issues around funding rates, and making immigration decisions more quickly so that children and young people have certainty about their immigration status before their 18th birthday.

“Conducting age assessments is complex and specialist work and is frequently the subject of legal challenge; individual local authorities cannot be expected to undertake this alone. ADCS has been encouraging the Home Office and the Department for Education to think longer term about the establishment of a national resource for some time. This should absolutely be social work based with specialist training in place and any decisions made must be concluded at pace. Engaging with gateway local authorities in particular will be key here; they have lots of expertise in this area. The safety and best interests of asylum seeking children must be at the heart of any reforms. All children and young people who are eligible deserve to be given the right support to meet their needs and welfare.”

ENDS


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DCMS Youth Sector Engagement Exercise - ADCS submission

ADCS submission to the DCMS youth sector engagement exercise

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Trauma informed practice in children’s services and beyond

Due to its unfamiliarity and unpredictability, the pandemic is clearly a stressful and traumatic event. Although the full impact of our shared Covid-19 experience on both individuals and society remains to be seen, we know that far greater numbers of children and young people will have been exposed to repeated and extended trauma, including bereavement and family breakdown, by the time this is all over. Many more will have felt scared or confused by how radically their lives can change with little or no notice.

Although there is hope on the horizon, vaccines alone won’t help us fully recover from this experience. Beyond the economy, emotional health and mental wellbeing must be firmly on the national recovery agenda. People of all ages will need reliable, long-term support to come to terms with losses and an altered future that is different than they imagined.

The Covid-19 pandemic is an event like no other in living memory, so there is no direct template to follow for recovery. In the wake of previous epidemics, higher prevalences of psychological problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder, psychological distress, depression and anxiety were recorded amongst the general population. This certainly chimes with the outcome of recent research and health surveys plus children and young people regularly cite emotional health as one of their top concerns at this time. Covid-19 has clearly intensified the challenges many children and families face and its impact is now evident at the front door of children’s early help and social care, in the rising number of benefit claims, increased homelessness, hunger and greater demand for mental health support.

There are lessons for us to draw from disaster recovery too. Here the need for targeted support to mitigate longer term impacts on children’s wellbeing and development is underlined as well as a universal component emphasising wellness and resilience, typically via schools. A public health style approach to recovery could accelerate the use of trauma informed and restorative ways of working via the incorporation of these principles into policy and practice across the spectrum of public services. It’s easy to see the benefits of building strong, trusting relationships between learners, their families and school staff, for example. The clear line of sight school leaders now have into their pupil’s family life is a strong foundation for this shift coupled with the strengthened relationships between schools, local authorities plus the voluntary and community sectors.

The pandemic has impacted on almost every aspect of our work with children, young people and families. The longer it persists, the greater the risk of physical, mental and emotional fatigue and exposure to secondary trauma on our staff and communities. There are many challenges as well as opportunities for us as employers too. A trauma informed response acknowledges difficult experiences and focuses on what is needed for recovery. It will require a commitment to cultural and organisational change as well as investment at both a local and national level.

Jenny Coles is ADCS President and Director of Children’s Services in Hertfordshire.

This article firsst appearaed in CYP Now in February 2021 - https://www.cypnow.co.uk/other/article/trauma-informed-practice-policy-context-1


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Put child poverty reduction strategy at heart of national...

The latest available statistics, which pre-date the pandemic, show that 4.5 million children in the UK were living in poverty in 2019/20. Alarmingly, the Institute for Public Policy Research recently estimated an additional 200,000 children will have been pulled into poverty by the end of 2020 as a result of Covid-19, whilst an analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests a further 300,000 children would be pushed into poverty overnight if the £20 weekly uplift to Universal Credit payments is not retained in April.

Whilst Covid-19 has touched us all in some way its impact has not been evenly spread; health, social, educational, racial, geographical and generational inequalities have become more and more visible as the pandemic progresses. Over the last 10 months further challenges have been heaped on a growing number of children, young people and their families as work is disrupted, education is lost and people fall ill. I know from discussions with my fellow directors across the country that the number of children and young people becoming eligible for free school meals is increasing week on week right across the country.

The stark differences between disadvantaged children and young people and their more affluent peers have never been more visible or pronounced. From overcrowded housing and access to safe, outdoor spaces to play during the first lockdown to the food parcels being sent home from school and the fact the government is buying and distributing hundreds of thousands of laptops to facilitate home learning. Whilst these actions are welcome during a crisis, the solutions on offer are only temporary.

ADCS believes a comprehensive child poverty reduction strategy in England must be at the heart of the national recovery plan. Children are now the group most likely to be in poverty, and child poverty has been rising in both absolute and relative terms since for nearly a decade. Over the same period poverty amongst pensioners has fallen dramatically proving progress is possible. Indeed, the pandemic has shown what we can achieve when we work together. From the rapid development and enactment of new laws and the inspiring show of collective support in communities to the mammoth logistical effort to roll out the vaccination programme.

Education is a way out of poverty yet poverty is one of the main barriers to learning. Recent data show that the educational attainment gap between poorer pupils and their more affluent peers is no longer narrowing for the first time in a decade. So, as well as a focus on getting pupils safely back into school in the coming weeks, we need coordinated action on addressing lost learning now and tackling inequalities. Indeed, the government’s own Social Mobility Commission continues to warn that social mobility has ‘stagnated’ and inequalities will remain entrenched without urgent action. Whether we call it social mobility, social justice or ‘levelling up,’ this issue deserves much more attention.

The pandemic adds a new sense of urgency to the growing calls for concerted action on child poverty. The efforts of a whole host of campaigners and groups have kept this issue high on the agenda in recent months. Moving into the recovery phase offers the government an opportunity to turbo charge its levelling up efforts. Whilst education is of course important, the social conditions that support children to engage in learning and thrive must also be in place. To do this we must continue working together to persuade the Treasury not to think of investment in children and their families as a burden or even only of benefit to individuals but as an investment in our society, now and in the future.

Jenny Coles is ADCS President 2020/21 and Director of Children’s Services at Hertfordshire County Council.

This article was first published in the LGC in February 2021 - https://www.lgcplus.com/services/childrens-services/jenny-coles-put-child-poverty-reduction-strategy-at-heart-of-national-recovery-plan-17-02-2021/


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Comment on DfE’s Vulnerable Children and Young People...

Commenting on the latest findings of the Department for Education’s Vulnerable Children and Young People survey, ADCS President Jenny Coles said:

“The latest findings from the survey clearly show that the pandemic continues to impact on the lives of children and families, particularly the most vulnerable. Although Covid-19 appears to pose a lower risk of infection to children and young people, they have been affected by the secondary impacts of the pandemic such as loss of learning, the impact on their mental and emotional health and being unable to access services they may have previously relied on. As the survey findings note, local authorities are now seeing greater complexity of need being presented by children and families. Added to this, we know that early help and preventative services across the country are experiencing an increase in demand. Now more than ever we need to work with children and families who are at risk of poor outcomes at the earliest possible stage, but only with adequate long-term national investment can we continue to provide this vital support.

“Throughout the pandemic, all local authorities have had to consider how we can deliver essential services as members of our workforce fall ill or are required to self-isolate, including our social workers. Although the latest survey findings show that the number of social workers being unable to work due to coronavirus has slightly increased, local authorities have adapted, for example by redeploying their existing staff to fill gaps because those staff are already familiar with local arrangements and systems. The whole workforce has continued to work incredibly hard throughout the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns but we anticipate that our peak in referrals to children’s services is yet to come. When it does this will put added pressure on a workforce that was already under strain pre-Covid-19.”

ENDS


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