"More children should be in care", say MPs

I'm John Dennis. I'm the Managing Director of Insight and I spend a lot of my time working with providers of Social Care. I was struck by a news headline recently, from the BBC website. The story is based upon a report from the House of Commons Education Select Committee. In some ways, the report and the story are encouraging! We need to have  a public debate in this country about Children in Care.

The professional view of taking children into care has moved back and forth in recent years. As it became more and more clear that the life prospects of children in care were very poor, professionals increasingly took the view that 'at home with parents' may be the best of two poor choices. However, after the death of Baby P, the pendulum swung the other way and admissions to care are now up by something like 30% across England and Wales.

So this does seem like a time when a public debate could help professionals to understand what those who pay for public services expect from them. However there is an elephant in the room!  I recently witnessed some discussions among child care professionals. One of the main topic under discussion was cost and how cash strapped Councils can reduce the cost of children in care. Several people said that Care for Children is by it’s nature very expensive. The key would be to “reduce the size of the front door”. In other words to find ways to take less children into care!

The members of the House of Commons Education Select Committee may have written a good report, however until Parliament “joins up’ it’s thinking about resources and services, the public debate may have to wait.

Meanwhile we can all look forward to a prolonged game of Parliamentary fantasy football with children’s lives providing the footballs...