Thirty-Seventh Report - Support for vulnerable adolescents

There is reluctant leadership of the challenges faced by vulnerable adolescents which undermines ownership of the problem. The Department for Education reluctantly confirmed that it is ultimately responsible for ‘holding the ring’ across Whitehall on vulnerable adolescents. However, it is … Read more There is reluctant leadership of the challenges faced by vulnerable adolescents which undermines ownership of the problem. The Department for Education reluctantly confirmed that it is ultimately responsible for ‘holding the ring’ across Whitehall on vulnerable adolescents. However, it is not clear what this means or how it translates into action when so very many government departments and local agencies play a role in supporting vulnerable adolescents. The Vulnerable Children and Young People Strategy Board has recently been repurposed to provide a co-ordinating picture, bringing together government’s understanding of complex children and young people. This is a start, but it has only met once and it is too early to say what role this Board will play in helping to unify support and identifying and helping to address gaps and overlaps that impact on vulnerable adolescents. The Department for Education tells us that its overarching responsibility should not translate into to a single system but there is a lack of common definitions or language that will help young people navigate the disjoined systems and receive the support they need. Government has specific programmes to support specific vulnerabilities and joins up individual programmes between departments. However, we agree with the current Children’s Commissioner that collaboration is not taking place at the strategic level that is needed to provide the proper support for vulnerable children and young people. Recommendation: The Department for Education should set out within six months its accountabilities for vulnerable adolescents, the terms of its leadership role and how strategic planning and oversight will work. 1 Persistently absent refers to pupils missing 10% or more of sessions where a session is equal to half a day. 6 Support for vulnerable adolescents Show less

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Critical local multi-agency safeguarding partnerships are still not working well enough, which risks those vulnerable adolescents that need support and help falling through the gaps. While in some places multi-agency safeguarding partnerships may work well, in other places, sadly, they … Read more Critical local multi-agency safeguarding partnerships are still not working well enough, which risks those vulnerable adolescents that need support and help falling through the gaps. While in some places multi-agency safeguarding partnerships may work well, in other places, sadly, they do not. In May 2022 the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel found multi-agency safeguarding arrangements “are not yet fit for purpose everywhere” and are more fractured and fragmented than they should be, with weak links between the leadership and the front line risking vulnerable adolescents that need support and help falling through the gaps. The three statutory partners—police, health and local authorities—have a shared and equal duty to protect children and young people. We are concerned that if no one is solely responsible, the buck will be passed. We note that education is not a statutory partner and that the independent review of children’s social care has already recommended that schools be named as a fourth safeguarding partner. The Department for Education tells us it is continuing to improve multi-agency safeguarding arrangements and it considers that professional curiosity and good quality leadership across the three partners are key. It tells us it works area by area to understand where there are risks and has recently restructured to bring its regional focused teams together. However, the Independent Children’s Social Care Review found the existing mechanisms for independent scrutiny to be ‘relatively weak’ and it is not clear to us how the Department knows where to focus its support. Recommendation: Government should set out within six months how it plans to improve the way multi-agency safeguarding partnerships work. Show less

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It is not clear how lessons and learning from changing threats, serious case reviews and child safeguarding review panels are embedded in day-to-day practice. Time and again reviews into child deaths highlight poor coordination between services, including insufficient joined-up leadership … Read more It is not clear how lessons and learning from changing threats, serious case reviews and child safeguarding review panels are embedded in day-to-day practice. Time and again reviews into child deaths highlight poor coordination between services, including insufficient joined-up leadership and a lack of appropriate and timely information-sharing around cases, as a contributing factor in the death. Adolescents may be exposed to ‘extra-familial’ harms which occur outside the home, such as sexual exploitation, modern-day slavery, serious violence and criminal exploitation. The Department for Education acknowledges the care system was designed to response to harm originating from inside a family. However, we were told there is a growth in older age groups and an increasing occurrence of extra familial harms. As such social work practice and the design of the care system is still adapting to known and changing risks to vulnerable young people. The Department for Education tells us it does evaluate what works but good practice does not reach everywhere, and social work practice is still variable. Despite the learning available it is unclear how lessons are disseminated to those people working directly with vulnerable adolescents to ensure that necessary actions are taken by all those that play a role in safeguarding children. The Department acknowledges that it would be helpful to build lessons into national standards, to reduce the reliance on every individual within the system identifying and acting on lessons learnt. Recommendations • Government should set out within six months how it will ensure that learning from national reviews is built into day-to-day practise, including supporting appropriate and timely data sharing, by those working with vulnerable adolescents. Support for vulnerable adolescents 7 • The Department for Education, in its response to the Care Review should set out how the revised care system will more effectively address the risks to adolescents pos Show less

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We are extremely concerned about the waiting time for children to receive support for mental health issues and about the proportion of adolescent girls seeking help. A survey found nearly 1 in 5 of 6- to 16-year-olds in England had … Read more We are extremely concerned about the waiting time for children to receive support for mental health issues and about the proportion of adolescent girls seeking help. A survey found nearly 1 in 5 of 6- to 16-year-olds in England had a probable mental health disorder in 2021. The same survey also found that almost 40% had experienced a deterioration in mental health since 2017. In addition, 13.5% of 11- to 16-year-olds felt their lives had been made ‘much worse’ by COVID-19 restrictions. But support is not meeting children’s need and some children with mental health issues have had to wait a very long time to start treatment. In 2020–21 the average waiting time for children to start treatment for their mental health issues at different health bodies ranged from 6 days to 81 days, with more than 22,000 (5%) of children and young people waiting more than 12 weeks. The proportion of adolescent girls known to be in contact with secondary mental health services is far greater than for boys. For example, 18% of 16-year-old-girls are in contact with secondary mental health services, compared to 11% for boys. The Department for Education tells us there has been additional funding, some of which is particularly focused around eating disorder services, because it had seen the waiting lists for those rise and a pandemic-related impact, particularly on young girls. There has also been an NHS England consultation, which closed early in 2022, on introducing waiting time standards for access to community and A&E mental health care. However, we are yet to see these standards implemented. Recommendation: Government should report back to the Committee within six months on progress on the implementation of access standards for community and A&E mental health care. Show less

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We asked the Department for Education what it considers it can do to support young girls with their mental health. It told us that it ensures the work it does with the Department of Health and Social Care is built … Read more We asked the Department for Education what it considers it can do to support young girls with their mental health. It told us that it ensures the work it does with the Department of Health and Social Care is built on an understanding of the data, so that it can spot patterns in the data and “make that part of the conversation”. It told us that the government has invested an extra £2.3 billion a year for mental health services overall by 2023–24, which should enable an extra 345,000 children and young people to access NHS-funded mental health support. It added that some of the funding will be spent on eating disorder services resulting in another 2,000 places in eating disorder services this year. When asked whether departments are doing enough on preventative work on mental health, the Department for Education told us that it could not say it was sufficient given there is “obviously still a problem”.46 Currently there are 750 children and young people waiting for mental health treatment in Gloucestershire with some young people waiting over 18 months. The Department for Education said it would write to us with further details on the waiting times.47 Show less

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The Department for Education also spoke about an NHS England consultation, which closed early in 2022, on introducing waiting time standards for community and A&E mental health care.48 The new standards would comprise a 24-hour standard for urgent community mental … Read more The Department for Education also spoke about an NHS England consultation, which closed early in 2022, on introducing waiting time standards for community and A&E mental health care.48 The new standards would comprise a 24-hour standard for urgent community mental health care, a four-week standard for children and young people who need non-urgent community mental health care, and a standard of one hour for people arriving in A&E and needing a mental health assessment. The Department for Education described the setting of the standards as “important” as they would provide a “yardstick” for measuring performance. It said that people had welcomed the potential setting of the standards but had reported that meeting them would be a challenge.49 Youth justice Show less

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Between 2010–11 and 2020–21, the number of children cautioned or sentenced for an offence reduced from 85,300 to 15,751 (an 82% reduction) and the number of first- time entrants to the youth criminal justice system reduced from 46,012 to 8,848 … Read more Between 2010–11 and 2020–21, the number of children cautioned or sentenced for an offence reduced from 85,300 to 15,751 (an 82% reduction) and the number of first- time entrants to the youth criminal justice system reduced from 46,012 to 8,848 (an 81% reduction).50 We asked the Ministry of Justice about the NAO finding that the government does not fully understand the reasons for this dramatic fall. The Ministry of Justice referred to work it carried out in 2017 which suggested that “potential drivers” of the reduction in first-time entrants to the criminal justice system were an increased focus on early intervention for people on the cusp of criminal activity to prevent them offending, and diversionary activity by youth justice services to reduce the number of children who have offended entering the youth justice system.51 However, when asked whether the impact of that early intervention and diversionary activity was measurable, the Ministry of Justice clarified that it was only measurable in terms of its investment in this area.52 The Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities said it would write to us with 46 Qq 54–56 47 Q 78 48 Q 57 49 Q 79 50 C&AG’s Report, para 12 51 Qq 30, 31 52 Q 33 16 Support for vulnerable adolescents the reduction in the numbers of adolescents coming into contact with the criminal justice system more than once due to the Supporting Families Programme, albeit that this is a narrower cohort than all adolescents.53 Show less

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Whilst the number of children in youth custody across all ethnicities has reduced (by 73%) between 2010–11 and 2020–21, the proportion from ethnic minority backgrounds has increased (from 32% to 53%).54 Furthermore, the Ministry of Justice drew our attention to … Read more Whilst the number of children in youth custody across all ethnicities has reduced (by 73%) between 2010–11 and 2020–21, the proportion from ethnic minority backgrounds has increased (from 32% to 53%).54 Furthermore, the Ministry of Justice drew our attention to a recent HMI Probation report found that young black boys, aged 10–17, are 2.8 times more likely to enter the youth justice system than would be expected given the proportion of black children this age in the general population.55 The Home Office and Ministry of Justice could not fully explain these disparities. In response to our questions about what is driving the disparity, the Ministry of Justice told us that there are a range of complex “societal factors” at play. However, it acknowledged that some interventions may be contributing to disparities, such as the police’s use of stop and search (for which the Home Office take a policy lead) and decisions about whether to remand someone in custody ahead of their trial (an area of Ministry of Justice policy responsibility). For example, the Ministry of Justice told us that the data shows that a high proportion of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children are remanded into custody (sent to a secure centre for young people until their trial).56 The NAO report included data on the rates of juvenile first-time entrants to the criminal justice system. The Ministry of Justice were not able to explain the disparities and said it would write to us with any information it has to explain the disparity.57 Show less

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When asked about its plans, the Home Office acknowledged that nobody should be targeted by the police on the basis of their ethnicity, or any other factor linked to their background. It told us that it works with communities to … Read more When asked about its plans, the Home Office acknowledged that nobody should be targeted by the police on the basis of their ethnicity, or any other factor linked to their background. It told us that it works with communities to make sure that communities have a framework for scrutinising the use of police powers where “that would be useful and necessary”.58 The Ministry of Justice told us that it is working to reduce disparities by improving the clarity of decisions about whether to remand someone in custody ahead of their trial, and increasing the legal advice that children are provided when in police custody. It also said that it is pushing to ensure that local partnerships have the data they need to understand local disparities and are acting locally to address these.59 When asked about whether it felt confident it had the resources to address the issue, the Ministry of Justice told us the complexity of the issues causing the disproportionality, and the need for action across many different policy areas, makes it difficult to guarantee success.60 Data sharing Show less

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Multi-agency safeguarding partnerships started in 2019, aimed at joining up local NHS, policing, and local authority services to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in their area.25 In May 2022, three years after they started, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel found the new partnerships were “not yet …

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We asked the Department for Education what is being done to review multi-agency safeguarding partnerships to ensure they work better and to stop horrific events, such as the cases of Star Hobson and Arthur Labinjo-Hughes from recurring. The Department for Education said there are 135 safeguarding partnerships across the country …

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The Department for Education explained that the care system was originally set up to address issues that originate from within the home and was not designed to address ‘extra- familial’ harms that take place outside the home.37 It said that to help address this, it has produced guidance on risks …

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The national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, set up to commission reviews of serious child safeguarding cases, has consistently highlighted cases in which poor coordination between services, including insufficient joined-up leadership and a lack of appropriate and timely information-sharing around cases, were a contributing factor.40 The Department for Education told …

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