A stunning total of 140,000 vulnerable children are left without support because they do not meet the Government’s official criteria for needing help until their situation worsens, according to a new report by the charity Action for Children.
The Revolving Door
The “revolving door” effect happens when vulnerable children are referred back to social services shortly after being assessed and their cases closed because they do not yet qualify as being “in need”.
The report gives the example of a teacher making a referral for a child exhibiting signs of neglect. A social worker decides to look into the referral further and undertakes an assessment.
That finds that although there are some real concerns the child does not quite meet the threshold for support as a “child in need” so the case is closed.
Children in Need
Common causes of vulnerability are domestic violence, substance misuse, neglect, mental health problems in both child and parents, antisocial behaviour, sexual abuse, disability, homelessness and being a young carer.
The Department for Education found in 2015-16 that 49.6% of children identified as “in need” were affected by domestic violence, 36.6% by mental health problems, 19.3% by drug misuse, and 17.5% by neglect.
“If assessment does not lead to appropriate support for a child, then we miss an opportunity to act early,” the charity warned. “Some children may be stuck in a ‘revolving door’ into children’s services, repeatedly referred and assessed but not receiving help.”
Putting Children First
The Department for Education recently published research that found that most children referred to children’s services in 2010-11 were re-referred at least once in the following five years, suggesting they were not cared for effectively.
Action for Children said that problems clearly persisted for those vulnerable children, and they were sent back to children’s services multiple times by professionals concerned about them rather than being treated when their cases were worrying but less serious.
Aware of this problem the Department said in a policy paper in December that there were “158,060 children nationally whose needs are considered serious enough to warrant a social work assessment but do not go on to become “in need”. A smaller subset of these children go through the same process twice within a short period of time. We want to test new models of providing support to these children to mitigate the risk that they will re-enter the children’s social care system at a later stage with more severe needs.”
Opportunities
While the report focuses on neglect it notes several opportunities for improvement. One local authority staff member is quoted expressing deep frustration. “Let’s tackle it,” that worker said. “We’re involved, let’s tackle it once and for all. Let’s not keep going over, and backwards, and to and fro, let’s tackle it once and for all, first and foremost, do it… it just doesn’t make sense not to.”
Most significantly the Children and Social Work Act gained Royal Assent early this year meaning that local authorities, health and police services must make arrangements to work together for children’s welfare, streamlining their processes.
A particular focus is on ensuring services for children and adults work together since children are often made vulnerable by problems affecting their parents.
Responding to the proposals last year Isabelle Trowler, the Government’s Chief Social Worker for children and families, said “we must be enabled to use our professional judgment in flexible and creative ways, rather than having to follow a procedural path or series of legal rules (that are) far too automated to match the social complexity of the lives of the children and families with whom we work.”
by Stewart Vickers
The post Politics: Vulnerable Children Let Down appeared first on Felix Magazine.
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