For me, the best moment of a really interesting and positive seminar at 10 Downing Street a week ago on Monday was when the prime minister told us of a recent encounter with some young people in care. It was great to hear him very honestly report that he had been surprised at how bright, articulate and engaging they had been. It was even better when Blair and Alan Johnson expressed their determination to make the childhoods of those within the care system secure, healthy and enjoyable; when they told us that the goals for children in care should be exactly the same as our goals for our own children.
Whatever one thinks of the new ‘Care Matters’ green paper, in one respect the government has got it absolutely right. If we are to transform the lives of children and young people in care we need the sort of real leadership that has characterised the past nine years. However, we also need to see something similar from every council leader across the land. The transformation that is needed is one of local authority cultures; although frankly we all need a change of attitude towards the children and young people who are parented by the national and local state.
60,000 children and young people in care have benefited from some Labour reforms. Having been a member of the standing committee on the children (leaving care) bill when I was an MP, it’s been wonderful to see the improvements in some young people’s lives where the subsequent act has been implemented well. However, it’s also been clear that some councils are taking their statutory responsibilities more seriously than others and that the general improvement in, for instance, education results is outstripping the slightly improved outcomes for children who have the council as their ‘corporate parent’. Care leavers are still horribly over-represented in the homeless and the prison population. Alarmingly they seem to be falling further behind.
Thankfully we have a green paper which lays out the ground for a discussion over the next three months and already seems to have put its finger on a few key issues.
Care Matters aims to address the shocking instability of placements by raising standards and improving the recruitment and training of foster carers and residential workers. It seeks to ensure that every child in care is in a good school and aims to support their constructive use of leisure through free access to all council facilities.
Very significantly it expresses its opposition to young people leaving care at 16. In fact the very concept of ‘leaving’ care is to be replaced by a whole series of measures to support the sort of complex transitions which sees most young adults staying in very close contact with home to their mid 20’s and far beyond.
Perhaps most important of all it stresses the need for us all to listen to those often very able and articulate young people who have survived experiences of neglect and abuse which might easily flatten us all.
Good intentions, then, although there are many improvements which could be made to stiffen such resolve. One very important concept to be developed further is that of the social work ‘practice’ operating on behalf of the local authority with the devolved power to commission resources and the ability to stick with the child throughout their childhood and the immediate years beyond.
Local authorities have many important responsibilities but parenting some 500 local children is a very particular duty. We will need imaginative ways of working, inventive models of commissioning and a thorough breach in the divide between public, private, voluntary and community if this is to succeed.
Nevertheless, this is the big problem which can be resolved. Blair could serve future generations very well by setting in place the inexorable and relentless transformation which children in care need. It will be a test of the mettle of any successor to take it further on.