Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 14
14
Acknowledged
The Innovation Programme was intended to both improve outcomes for children in the social care...
Conclusion
The Innovation Programme was intended to both improve outcomes for children in the social care system and produce savings. The Department accepts that residential care in children’s homes can be expensive and it is often a last resort where they do not ideally want children to be.38 The Care Review reports the cost of places in children’s homes running as high as £5000–7000 per week.39 The Care Review also sets out the improved health, attainment, employment and sibling connection outcomes for children supported 31 C&AG’s Report, para 16 32 Q 34 33 EPC0005 p.2 34 Qq 40–41 35 Qq 32–34 36 The independent review of children’s social care, Final Report, p.12 37 Qq 32, 35 38 Q 78 39 The independent review of children’s social care, Final Report, p.121 12 Evaluating innovation projects in children’s social care through kinship care compared to other residential settings.40 Our witnesses described the ‘huge priority’ around supporting children to live in families, whether kinship care or fostering in line with the recommendations of the Care Review.41
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges that residential care is expensive and is testing Family Network Support Packages to implement family-led alternatives to care as well as delivering a fostering recruitment and retention programme in the North-East.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
4. 2 The department already works closely with both the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and HM Treasury (HMT) at working and ministerial levels. All departments have an interest in children’s social care policy given the considerable impact on local government funding and council budgets. In 2021-22, local authorities spending on children’s and young people’s services was £11.9 billion. This has increased by 32% (£2.9 billion) since 2015. 4.3 The department has worked in close collaboration with DLUHC and HMT on the publication of Children's social care: Stable Homes, Built on Love which seeks to put children’s services on a long-term sustainable footing by pivoting majority service use to early family help and support and, where appropriate, increased (and more easily accessible) use of fostering and kinship arrangements. The government is therefore satisfied that the publication of its implementation strategy addresses this recommendation. 4.4 The government wants local authorities to use funding flexibly where there are financial barriers to implementing family-led alternatives to care, through family network support packages. The department will test how to optimise implementation of Family Network Support Packages in local areas, alongside reforms to Family Help and child protection, through an end-to-end Families First for Children Pathfinder. 4.5 Further, the department will be delivering an initial fostering recruitment and retention programme in the North-East Regional Improvement and Innovation Alliance. This will introduce a regional support hub and targeted communications and will aim to improve retention using the evidence-based model Mockingbird. The aim is to create end-to-end improvements in fostering recruitment and retention. This initial programme will allow the department to test and develop a best practice regional model that can then be delivered more widely.