Gateshead council has called on central government to fund children’s social services “adequately” following the publication of The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care looking into the situation nationwide.
The review was established in January 2021 and chaired by Josh MacAlister, a founder of the social work charity Frontline. Mr MacAlister was aided by senior civil servant member Shazia Hussian, who led the review team.
The report stated: “Without a dramatic whole system reset, outcomes for children and families will remain stubbornly poor and by this time next decade there will be approaching 100,000 children in care (up from 80,000 today) and a flawed system will cost over £15bn a year.
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“Together the changes we recommend will shift these current trends and would mean 30,000 more children living safely and thriving with their families by 2032 compared to the current trajectory.”
The report recommends a £2bn government investment into family help, and an effort to destigmatise families asking for or in need of help. The report also recommends more resources should be allocated to kinship care, care whereby children and young people are looked after by extended family.
It says social service engagement with parents should be “compassionate and respectful”. Several parents were quoted in the report describing their negative experiences with social services and the lack of provisions afforded to them.
One parent interviewed said: “Don’t make assumptions, don’t twist words, don’t make amateur psychiatric diagnoses, do give opinions by all means, but have respect for what is fact and what is not.”
Councillor Gary Haley, cabinet member for Children and Young People at Gateshead Council, said: “We welcome the recommendations of the report, some of which we have already started to implement in Gateshead, including championing the importance of our fostering community.
“Our recent Foster Care Fortnight campaign raised awareness of fostering whilst celebrating our community of foster carers, social workers and extended families. We are pleased to see more people across the borough taking an interest in becoming foster carers and continue to encourage anyone who has an interest in fostering to get in touch.
“However, recruiting foster carers is just one of the ways our children’s services are working hard to ensure that all children and young people in Gateshead live happy, thriving lives. The cost-of-living crisis is likely to have a huge impact on our most vulnerable families, which is why extending our kinship care team, prioritising early help and placing social workers into six of our secondary schools has been so important.
“We’re also continuing to work on innovative ways to bring more people into the service, such as partnering with local education providers to offer earn-whilst-you-learn roles through our Social Work Academy. The programme, which enrolled its first cohort in 2020, has been a great success so far, as we’ve been able to employ and retain 26 social workers to support families in Gateshead.
“While these solutions are having a positive impact, the service is still faced with the challenges brought on by overstretched resources. We are supportive of the report’s call for more investment in earlier help for families which, given how stretched council budgets have become, we believe should be the government’s top priority to address and adequately fund.”
Cllr Steven Phillips, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Learning at North Tyneside Council, said: “We want our borough to be the best place for children and families to live, grow up and thrive and over recent years North Tyneside’s children’s services and youth justice services have been rated outstanding by Ofsted.
“Our service covers everything from fostering through to special educational needs provision and we have a robust plan in place to ensure these services are delivered to the highest possible standard both with resources and funding.
“We’re always looking to recruit more foster carers in the borough and through our successful fostering roadshows, we hope to continue to encourage more residents to open their homes to young people.
“As we look to the future, we want North Tyneside to continue to be a safe, happy and healthy place to grow up. The current cost of living crisis is having a real impact on our families and young people and our teams are working hard every day to provide support, signposting and other vital provisions to support our residents.
“We’ll continue to work closely with organisations across the borough to ensure every young person has opportunities and a voice."
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