Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 19
19
Rejected
Publish national children's social care sufficiency strategy and mandate local out-of-area placement reduction plans.
Conclusion
The Department for Education must publish a national sufficiency strategy for children’s social care as a matter of urgency and publish data on the extent to which sufficiency requirements are being met on an annual basis. It should also require all local authorities to develop and publish strategies for reducing the number of out-of-area placements and work with local authorities to share and scale up examples of good practice. (Recommendation, Paragraph 46)
Government Response Summary
The government rejects publishing a national sufficiency strategy, stating that local authorities are best placed for sufficiency planning. Instead, they are supporting regional collaboration through Regional Care Cooperatives and investing £560 million to expand local authority placements.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
The Government is committed to reducing the number of children entering care by supporting families to stay together safely. This is why we are investing in family help, kinship care and preventative services throughout the country. Where care is necessary, it is vital that children are placed in homes that meet their needs, in the right location and at the right time. Local authorities are best placed to understand and respond to these needs, which is why sufficiency planning is a local authority’s statutory duty. This duty already extends to ensuring they can provide sufficient placements within their local area. We recognise the challenges in securing sufficient placements and are supporting regional collaboration through the development of Regional Care Cooperatives (RCCs), which will help local areas forecast, plan, and meet sufficiency needs more effectively. Alongside this, we are investing £560 million to expand local authority children’s homes and foster care placements where they are most needed. While we do not believe a national sufficiency strategy would be responsive enough to children’s needs at a local level, we are working closely with the two RCC pathfinder areas and supporting improved placement commissioning and forecasting as we believe there is an important role that the regions can play. We remain committed to helping local authorities meet their sufficiency duty and scale up good practice through regional coordination and targeted investment.