How have children in care fared under New Labour? As the ‘new dawn’ broke on 2 May 1997, I drove to Flintshire in North Wales to attend another session of the long running public inquiry into the abuse of children in north Wales’ children’s homes. The inquiry, in which I represented a large group of care leavers, had started in late 1996, following widespread allegations of sexual and physical maltreatment of children in the care system. As I readied myself for another depressing litany of abuse and neglect, I remember hoping that the election of a Labour government would indeed herald a new dawn for children in care, and thinking that one measure of our success as a government would be whether we could deliver for this especially vulnerable and often voiceless group.
The inquiry focussed mainly on large children’s homes, and when it finally reported in 2000 some questioned the relevance of its analysis. Many of the larger homes had closed, and the majority of looked-after children were now living in foster care. But the inquiry served a crucial purpose in highlighting, as never before, the dreadful life chances of these children and the abject failure of the state and local authorities, as guardians, to support them properly not just in care, but after leaving it.
A decade on, our government has engaged with the needs of children in care and care leavers in a way which would have been inconceivable before 1997. The Every Child Matters agenda has ensured a far better focus on looked-after children as they pass through education. Fewer children – although still too many – constantly move from home to home. Of course, there are still problems, as highlighted by the recent debate over covert selection (and accompanying discrimination against children in care) in school admissions.
Support for care leavers is crucial. Some of the most harrowing stories I heard in north Wales concerned children who were suddenly and arbitrarily abandoned by the system on reaching adulthood. One client had lived in the same home since the age of 12. On his 18th birthday, he was simply dropped off at the local railway station with his suitcase and a £10 note, and told to go wherever he chose – anywhere but back to the place which had been his home for the previous six years. Of course, there were also many examples of decent and committed care workers trying to provide follow up support, but there was no system to guarantee it.
Much has changed since the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 imposed the duty on local authorities to assess children leaving care for the advice, assistance and support required and to prepare and regularly review a ‘pathway plan’ for each child.
The main problem with the act is inadequate implementation. Pathway plans are only any good if prepared and executed properly; care leavers are still being placed in run down bed sits, hostels used by drug addicts and other unsuitable accommodation. So there should be enforceable national standards for accommodation for care leavers and, better still, communal accommodation provided until the of age 21 or even older, to combat the loneliness and isolation many feel and to enable care leavers to develop effective support systems amongst themselves. Ideally, care leavers would have the option of remaining in foster care until 21 to receive the emotional support needed to continue in education, and financial support (directly or in kind, for example subsidised housing) would continue until 25.
In this area, as in many others, much has been achieved since 1997, but there is much still to do. I’m convinced that only a Labour government has the commitment to take forward this agenda, and to ensure that future generations of children in care can have the opportunities and fulfilment all too often denied to their predecessors.
Richard Scorer is a lawyer based in Manchester and a Labour PPC.