Children looked after by local authorities in England

On 18 April 2024, the House of Lords is scheduled to debate the following motion:

Lord Laming (Crossbench) to move that this House takes note of the continuing increase in the number of children and young people being committed into the care of the local authorities.

This briefing provides an overview of looked-after children by local authorities in England. Local government funding is devolved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

1. What are local authorities’ responsibilities?

1.1 An overview

Local authorities have powers and duties relating to children’s social care. Many of these are contained in the Children Act 1989 and include:

• a general duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need in their area
• a duty to provide accommodation to children in need under certain circumstances
• a power to make an application to the court for a child to be placed in the care of the local authority
• a duty to make enquiries to decide whether it needs to take action to protect a child if that child is the subject of an emergency protection order, is in police custody, or it believes is suffering or likely to suffer serious harm

The Children Act 2004 places a duty on local authorities to promote cooperation between itself and other relevant organisations in order to improve the well-being of children in its area. This includes protection from harm and neglect as well as positive duties such as promoting physical and mental health.

The Department for Education (DfE) also publishes statutory guidance which local authorities must have regard to. ‘Working together to safeguard children’ sets out the legislative requirements on individual services, as well as:

• a framework for the three local safeguarding partners (the local authority, an ICB [integrated care board] for an area, any part of which falls within the local authority area, and the chief constable for police for a police area, any part of which falls within the local authority area) to make arrangements to work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of local children, including identifying and responding to their needs
• the framework for the two child death review partners (the local authority and any ICB for an area, any part of which falls within the local authority area) to make arrangements to review all deaths of children normally resident in the local area, and if they consider it appropriate, for those not normally resident in the area^[1]

In a 2019 report on pressures on children’s social care, the National Audit Office set out the course of action a local authority could take, depending upon its assessment of the risk to the child. This included taking a child into the care of the local authority “in the most severe cases”:

• At the referral stage, a local authority can decide to take no further action, or refer a child to more universal services, such as those provided by children’s centres.
• If, following an initial referral and assessment, a local authority decides that a child requires further support then, under section 17 of the Children Act 1989, they will be defined as a child in need. Under this classification, the local authority is required to provide the child with a range and level of services appropriate to their needs.
• In cases where there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm, under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 the local authority can launch an investigation into their welfare. This is generally in partnership with other agencies, such as the police. If concerns are substantiated and the child is judged to be at continuing risk of harm, then an initial child protection conference should be convened within 15 working days.
• At the initial child protection conference, the decision will be made as to whether the child needs to become the subject of a child protection plan.
• In the most severe cases immediate action will be taken to take a child into the care of the local authority. These children will be looked after by local councils, and usually live with foster carers, or in residential care settings such as children’s homes.^[2]

While the local authority has statutory duties once a child is referred to them, they should have in place ways for providing early help. The DfE’s statutory guidance says:

Local organisations and agencies should have in place effective ways to identify emerging problems and potential unmet needs of individual children and families. Local authorities should work with organisations and agencies to develop joined-up early help services, which can be delivered through a Family Hub model where they exist, based on a clear understanding of local needs. Local authorities should use the joint strategic needs assessment (JSNA) to inform their early help offer.^[3]

More information on the legislative framework can be found in the House of Commons Library briefing ‘An overview of child protection legislation in England’ (21 November 2023).

1.2 Looked-after children

Local authorities have specific duties concerning the care of looked-after children. The DfE states that under the Children Act 1989 a child is looked after (CLA) by a local authority if they:

• are provided with accommodation, for a continuous period of more than 24 hours (Children Act 1989, sections 20 and 21)
• are subject to a care order (Children Act 1989, part 4)
• are subject to a placement order^[4]

The DfE publishes five volumes of guidance on the Children Act 1989.^[5] Volume 2 of this guidance sets out how local authorities should execute their responsibilities regarding care planning, placement and case review for looked after children. It states that:

These responsibilities are designed to support the local authority in its primary duty set out in section 22(3) of the 1989 act to safeguard and promote the welfare of the looked after child and to act as good corporate parents to enable each looked after child to achieve his/her full potential in life.^[6]

Section 22(3) of the Children Act 1989 places a duty on local authorities in relation to looked after children:

It shall be the duty of a local authority looking after any child—

(a) to safeguard and promote his welfare; and

(b) to make such use of services available for children cared for by their own parents as appears to the authority reasonable in his case.

Section 22(4) and 22(5) make provision about the local authority considering the wishes of the child and their parents, amongst others. In its statutory guidance on the Children Act 1989, the DfE explains this as follows:

Section 22(4) of the 1989 act, consistent with article 12 of the UNCRC [United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,^[7] provides that, before making any decision with respect to a child whom the local authority are looking after or proposing to look after, the authority must, so far as reasonably practicable, ascertain the wishes and feelings of the child. Section 22(5) provides that, in making any decision in relation to the child, it should give due consideration to those wishes and feelings, having regard to the child’s age and understanding.^[8]

The DfE’s guidance sits alongside the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010, “which bring together in a single set of regulations those duties which are at the heart of effective corporate parenting to improve the outcomes of looked after children”.^[9] The guidance sets these out as follows:

• placing the child at the centre of the work
• effective care planning
• ensuring that a child or young person is provided with accommodation which meets his/her needs
• ensuring that an effective review is conducted of the child’s case within the specified timescales^[10]

The guidance states that a key principle of the Children Act 1989 is that children are best looked after within their families “with their parents playing a full part in their lives, unless compulsory intervention in family life is necessary”.^[11] It sets out that the principle is reflected in the following:

• the concept of parental responsibility
• the ability of unmarried fathers to share that responsibility by agreement with the mother, by joint registration at birth or by court order
• the local authority’s functions to provide services which support children and their families
• the local authority’s duty to return a looked after child to his/her family unless this is against his/her interests
• the local authority’s duty, unless it is not reasonably practicable or consistent with his/her welfare, to endeavour to promote contact between a looked after child and his/her parents or others^[12]

The responsibility of a local authority in improving outcomes for looked-after children and actively promoting their life changes “has become known as corporate parenting”.^[13] This reflects the sharing of this task between the local authority and partner agencies.

The DfE’s guidance is part of a range of materials which, together with the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010, “set out how local authorities and their partners should carry out their full range of responsibilities in relation to care planning, placement and review for looked after children”.^[14] Annex 1 of the guidance presents how the documents fit together within the overall framework set out in the guidance.^[15]

2. Number of looked-after children in England

The DfE publishes national statistics on children looked after in England (including adoptions).^[16]

There are different measures for the number of CLA including the headline figure, rate per 10,000 children and whether the headline figure is recorded as at 31 March in a given year or CLA starting in a given year or ceasing in a giving year.

The number of children looked after at 31 March 2023 in England was 83,840. This is an increase of 2% on the previous year.

In the most recent edition of its statistical release on CLA, the DfE states that a large increase in the number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) has affected the figures in the release in some areas:

Many of the changes within the release can be explained by the large increase in UASC this year. UASC have increased by 29%, following the 37% increase seen last year. UASC influence many of the changes seen in the figures this year as they are a distinct cohort with specific characteristics, for example they are generally male, aged 16+ years.^[17]

Figure 1 shows the total number of CLA for each year between 2019 and 2023.

Figure 1. Number of children looked after at 31 March 2019 to 2023, England

However, as the population of children changes over time the rate of CLA per 10,000 children aged under 18 is also used. The rate accounts for differences in the numbers of children over time as the population changes. Figure 2 shows the rate per 10,000 children under 18 between 2010 and 2023. It shows a gradual increase in the rate from 57 CLA per 10,000 children under 18 in 2010 to 71 in 2023, an increase of 14. Half of this increase has occurred since 2018, when the rate was 64.

Figure 2. Children looked after at 31 March 2010 to 2023 rate per 10,000 children under 18, England

Figure 3 shows the rate per 10,000 children by English region. The rate of CLA by English region varies widely. There is also variation at the local authority level in this measure. The DfE illustrated this with the following example: “Blackpool has the highest rate at 191 CLA per 10,000 children and Merton has the lowest at 26 CLA per 10,000 children”.^[18] Figure 3 shows how the rate varied between different English regions at 31 March 2023.

Figure 3. Children looked after at 31 March 2023 rate per 10,000 children under 18, by English region

The DfE provides data on the primary need of CLA. When a child is assessed by children’s services their primary need is recorded. This is “hierarchical” and if a child has more than one need then the need highest up the list is reported. The reasons recorded include:

• as a result of or because they were at risk of abuse or neglect: 54,810 children (65%)—the most common reason identified
• primarily due to living in a family where the parenting capacity is chronically inadequate (family dysfunction): 10,570 (13%)
• due to there being no parents available to provide for the child (absent parenting): 7,290 (9%)
• due to living in a family that is going through a temporary crisis that diminishes the parental capacity to adequately meet some of the children’s needs (family being in acute stress): 6,160 (7%)
• due to the child’s or parent’s disability or illness: 4,010 (5%)
• due to low income or socially unacceptable behaviour: 1,000 (1%)^[19]

The DfE notes that these figures have been “broadly stable” over the last five years and that the largest change since 2022 was in ‘absent parenting’ which rose by 1,470. The DfE states that this increase is due largely to the increase in UASC which are mainly reported within this group.

Children can enter the care of local authorities for different reasons. The DfE says that these reasons include:

• a care order: a court order placing a child in the care or supervision of a local authority
• a voluntary agreement: this allows the local authority to provide accommodation for a child where there’s parental consent, or when no-one with parental responsibility is in place
• a placement order: a court order allowing a local authority to place a child for adoption
• detained for child protection reasons
• detained under youth justice legal statuses^[20]

In 2023, 76% of CLA were looked after under a care order. The DfE has said that an increase in children who are looked after under voluntary arrangements has increased because of the increase in UASC:

There has been an increase in both the number and proportion of children looked after under voluntary arrangements; 19% of CLA were looked after under voluntary agreements this year, up from 17%. Much of this increase is due to the increase in UASC, who are usually voluntarily accommodated.^[21]

Most CLA are looked after in foster placements, but they may also be placed in children’s homes or other environments or may be placed for adoption. The DfE presents the following statistics on where CLA were placed (comparing 2023 with 2022):

• in foster placements: 68%, down slightly from 70%
• in secure units, children’s homes or semi-independent living accommodation (for example hostels, lodgings or flats where staff are employed to provide support and advice): 17%, up slightly from 16%
• with parents or other person with parental responsibility: 7%, same as last year
• for adoption: 2%, down from 3%
• in the community, living independently, or in residential employment: 3%, up from 2%
• in other residential settings (including care homes, schools or custody): 2%, up from 1%^[22]

The DfE states that these figures have remained broadly similar over the past five years, with the “main changes [being] a slight decrease in CLA placed in foster placements (71% in 2019 to 68% in 2023) and an increase in children placed in semi-independent living accommodation (4% in 2019 to 8% in 2023)”.

On the locality of placements, the DfE stated that:

The same proportion of placements this year were inside the council boundary as last year—56% of all CLA placements, down from 58% in 2020 and 2019.

The majority of CLA were still placed within 20 miles of home, 70%, however this has decreased from 73% in 2021. 21% were placed over 20 miles from home. Information for the remaining 9% was not known or not recorded—in most cases this will be because the child was UASC, but it could also be because the home address was not known or for reasons of confidentiality.

As might be expected, location of placement varies by type of placement—children placed for adoption are the most likely to be placed over 20 miles from home (51%). Children placed with parents (92%) or in a foster placements (76%) are most likely to be placed 20 miles or less from home.^[23]

3. Pressures on the provision of children’s social care

Local authorities in England receive funding from a range of sources, including from central government grants, business rates, and council tax. This is used to fund various services, including children’s and adult’s social care, housing and waste management. In recent years, cost and demand pressures faced by local authorities have outstripped overall inflation.^[24] The government recently finalised the local government funding settlement, which sets out how much councils will receive from the government in 2024/25 and provides estimates of their spending power.

Local governments are subject to many increases in costs higher than the rate of general inflation, as well as increasing demand for services.^[25] In a letter to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt ahead of the March 2024 budget, the Local Government Association (LGA) said that councils were facing significant shortfalls because of cost and demand pressures:

Our analysis shows that by 2024/25 cost and demand pressures will have added £15bn (28.6%) to the cost of delivering council services since 2021/22. Despite increased funding in both 2023/24 and 2024/25 we estimated in October 2023 that the sector was facing a funding gap of £2.4bn in 2023/24 and £1.6bn in 2024/25. We have not revised this analysis following the OBR’s [Office for Budget Responsibility] new projections at the 2023 autumn statement. However, if we were to do so we would anticipate a greater funding gap in 2024/25 as inflation and wages are forecast to be higher in 2024/25 than in our October model. The funding gaps produced by our analysis relate solely to the funding needed to maintain services at their current levels. The implication here is that councils do not have enough funding simply to stand still.^[26]

The LGA highlighted particular pressures, including:

• the cost of the increased national living wage on providing adult social care
• escalating costs of home-to-school transport for children with special educational needs and disabilities, driven by ongoing growth in the number of children with education, health and care plans
• increasing costs and demand in adult social care
• increasing costs of homelessness services as a result of multiple contributory cost and demand drivers, including asylum and resettlement issues and an insufficient supply of affordable housing

On the costs of children’s social care, the LGA said that costs were rising and placement numbers had increased:

Budgets up by 13.6 percent in 2023/24 compared to 2022/23 driven by huge increases in placement costs. LGA research has shown that in 2022/23 councils paid for over 1,500 placements costing £10,000 or more per week—more than 10 times greater than the 120 placements purchased by councils at this price in 2018/19.^[27]

In November 2023, the LGA published the results of a survey of councils providing social care in England.^[28] The aim was to assess costs arising from “high-cost” social care placements and explore why the costs of certain placements were particularly high. The LGA’s key findings were as follows:

• Based on the responses to this survey, local authorities across England spent approximately £4.7bn on children’s social care placements in 2022/23, compared to a budgeted figure of £4.1bn—an overspend of almost £670mn (16%).
• Similarly, it is estimated that local authorities across England had a projected expenditure of £5.4bn on children’s social care placements for 2023/24, compared to a budgeted figure of £4.7bn—an overspend of approximately £680mn (14%).
• On average, these figures equate to approximately £31mn per council in 2022/23 and £35mn per council in 2023/24, with an average overspend of £4.4mn per council for both financial years.
• Based on the responses to this survey, it is estimated that English councils paid for approximately 120 placements costing £10,000 per week or more in the 2018/19 financial year, compared to over 1,500 in 2022/23.
• In 2018/19, 23% of respondent councils paid for at least one placement costing £10,000 per week or more, compared to 91% in 2022/23.
• High-cost placements tended to be emergency more frequently than planned placements, although they were if anything more frequently long-term than short-term placements.
• The most frequent factors cited as driving the high cost of certain placements were a lack of choice in providers, children in care exhibiting challenging behaviours, and complex or significant mental health needs.
• Based on the responses to this survey, it is estimated that English councils supported almost 11,000 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in 2022/23, along with almost 13,000 care experienced former UASC.
• Respondents noted a wide variety of additional issues arising from high-cost placements, including observations that the situation has deteriorated still further following the beginning of the 2023/24 financial year.^[29]

In its letter to Jeremy Hunt, the LGA said that council spending was increasingly concentrated on fewer people because “as resources have diminished, councils have protected services such as social care (adult and children’s) where there are clearly defined statutory responsibilities and regulatory oversight”.^[30] It said that on average, for those councils with social care responsibilities, social care accounted for 63.9% of budgeted service spend (excluding education) in 2023/24. This was an increase from 56.5% in 2016/17. The LGA expressed concern that this meant that councils were less able to support other key issues including housing, levelling-up, the cost-of-living crisis and climate change.

The House of Commons Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee’s February 2024 report, entitled ‘Financial distress in local authorities’, also cited social care, homelessness and meeting demand for services for people with special educational needs and disabilities as particular sources of financial pressure on local government.^[31]

On children’s social care, the LUHC Committee found that significant spending had been driven by high agency costs, high placement costs and high demand.^[32] In addition to more children requiring care, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that prices were higher than they should be because the market for the children’s residential home sector was not working well. There was wide recognition, including by the government, that resources being diverted away from prevention to cope with immediate need contributed to rising costs overall. In February 2023 the government announced a new strategy to reform children’s social care, including an extra £200mn over the following two years (see section 4 of this briefing for further information).^[33] However, the committee wrote that it was concerned “at the receding prospect of timely delivery of reforms”. It argued that the government needed to better understand the short-term budgetary pressures on local authorities and “develop a package of support and funding to enable continued service delivery while wider system reforms are implemented”.^[34]

In March 2022, the CMA published its final report for its children’s social care market study.^[35] As referred to in the LUHC Committee’s February 2024 report, the CMA said it was “clear to us that this market is not working well and that it will not improve without focused policy reform”. The CMA said that overall its view was that there were significant problems in how the placements market was working. It found that:

• a lack of placements of the right kind, in the right places, means that children are not consistently getting access to care and accommodation that meets their needs
• the largest private providers of placements are making materially higher profits, and charging materially higher prices, than we would expect if this market were functioning effectively
• some of the largest private providers are carrying very high levels of debt, creating a risk that disorderly failure of highly leveraged firms could disrupt the placements of children in care^[36]

The LGA submitted evidence to the CMA’s market study.^[37] In this the LGA said that local authorities were facing challenges because of an increase in the number of children in care:

Councils consistently highlight challenges around the availability of suitable residential and fostering placements. This is in part due to a significant increase in the number of children in care; there were 64,470 children in care in 2010, compared to 80,080 in 2020, a rise of 24 percent. This also represents an increase in the proportion of children in care, from 57 to 67 per 10,000 children over the decade.^[38]

In written evidence to the House of Lords Public Services Committee inquiry into the government’s social care implementation strategy (see sections 4.3 and 4.2 of this briefing for further information), the children’s charity Barnardo’s said that pressure on children’s social care was “at an all-time high”.^[39] It said the reasons for this were complex and linked both to the Covid-19 pandemic and “the lack of long-term investment in early intervention (and wider services), meaning families often find themselves reaching crisis point before being able to access help”. The charity also said that “data suggests that almost half of all looked after children have a diagnosable mental health disorder—compared to one in six in the general population”. It expressed concern that the government’s strategy did “not do enough to recognise the mental health support needs of children in and leaving care”.

4. Government reform of children’s social care

The government is currently implementing a series of reforms to children’s social care. These were a response to the independent review of children’s social care and other recent reports, such as the CMA’s review into children’s social care placements.

In February 2023 the government published its strategy for this reform alongside a consultation on its proposals. It published a response to the consultation in September 2023.

4.1 Independent review of children’s social care, 2022

The 2019 Conservative Party manifesto included a commitment to review the care system “to make sure that all care placements and settings are providing children and young adults with the support they need”.^[40] The government launched an independent review in March 2021, chaired by Josh MacAlister, founder and former chief executive of social care charity Frontline. The review reported on 23 May 2022.^[41]

The report recommended wide-ranging reforms to children’s social care. It argued that the current children’s social care system was “increasingly skewed to crisis intervention, with outcomes for children that continue to be unacceptably poor and costs that continue to rise”.^[42] It concluded that “for these reasons, a radical reset is now unavoidable”.

The report set out its conclusions and recommendations in the areas of family help, child protection, family, the care market, the care experience and the workforce. For a further discussion of the report and its findings see the House of Lords Library briefing ‘Independent review of children’s social care’ (2 December 2022).

4.2 Children’s social care implementation strategy, 2023

On 2 February 2023, the government published its strategy and a consultation on children’s social care. The consultation ran between 2 February 2023 and 11 May 2023.^[43] The government published its response to the consultation in September 2023.^[44]

The strategy and consultation set out proposals in response to the recommendations made by the independent review of children’s social care as well as the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel report into the murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson and the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) 2022 review into children’s social care placements.^[45]

The government’s February 2023 strategy is based on six pillars:

• family help providing the right support at the right time so that children thrive within their families
• a decisive multi-agency child protection system
• unlocking the potential of family networks
• putting love, relationships and a stable home at the heart of being a child in care
• a valued, supported and highly skilled social worker for every child who needs one
• a system that continuously learns, improves and makes better use of evidence and data

The strategy states that a “major reset” is required to “rebalance children’s social care away from costly crisis intervention to more meaningful and effective help for families”.^[46] The reform is designed to be implemented in stages. The first phase involves an investment of £200mn over two years “addressing urgent issues facing children and families now, laying the foundations for whole system reform and setting national direction for change”. Then after two years, the government intends to “refresh this strategy, scaling up the new approaches we have tested and developed, and bringing forward new legislation (subject to parliamentary time)”.

In the first phase, £45mn of the additional investment would be invested into a ‘Families first for children pathfinder programme’ in 12 local areas from September 2023. The pathfinders’ role would be to test models of family help to learn lessons before a national rollout.

As well as a new child protection lead practitioner role being created in the test areas, the government also committed to providing new multi-agency child protection standards in 2023 and amending guidance to local authorities, police and health partners to give greater clarity on their child protection responsibilities.

The first phase would also see the testing of family group decision-making and ‘Family network support packages’, including plans for children living with friends or family (‘kinship carers’). This programme would sit alongside a national kinship care strategy to be published by the end of 2023, and a £9mn investment in training and support for kinship carers. The national kinship care strategy was published in December 2023.^[47]

The 2023 strategy set out other measures for the next two years including:^[48]

• a £27mn investment in recruitment and retention of foster carers
• a programme to support improvements in the quality of leadership and management in children’s homes
• a financial oversight regime for fostering agencies and large providers of children’s homes to increase financial transparency and reduce risk of market exit
• the establishment of an expert group to review standards of care, regulations and guidance
• a focus on retention and professional development of social workers
• delivering a children’s social care national framework and dashboard by the end of 2023^[49]

Specifically in relation to looked-after children, the strategy said that the government’s vision was for children to remain with their parents, but “wider family and friends can also offer a safe, stable and loving alternative to becoming looked after and moving in with a stranger”.^[50] The strategy said that being removed from the care of parents was traumatic for children but living with friends and family networks could “offer a stable and permanent option for children, including through permanent legal arrangements such as special guardianship orders (SGOs)”. It said that children were sometimes living with their immediate family whilst the state was their corporate parent:

We agree with the Care Review that too often children who can live with their immediate family are in care unnecessarily. Many children become looked after by the state, which then becomes their corporate parent, even though they are living with their grandparent, aunt, uncle or adult brother or sister. As of 31 March 2022, 15% of children looked after live with a relative or close family friend in a foster care arrangement. While some children do need to be looked after by the state, this should never be the primary option for children living within their family network.^[51]

Amongst its proposals, the strategy also said that:

• The government would update existing joint guidance by the DfE and the Department for Health and Social care on promoting the health and wellbeing of children looked after and extend it to cover care leavers up to age 25.^[52]
• Subject to consultation, the government would “strengthen and extend” corporate parenting responsibilities towards children in care and care leavers “across the public sector”.^[53]
• The government would work with local authorities in two areas to co-create regional care cooperatives (RCCs), with a view to testing them before rolling them out. The government would also work with partners across health, justice and the third sector to support the co-design of the RCCs. The strategy stated that working regionally would “help us to better predict what homes will be needed for children, and where they will be needed”.^[54]

The government said that family help should be something that was actively sought out “rather than something to be feared or ashamed of”. It said investing in support for families helps children to have happy and healthy childhoods. Where there are concerns about children’s safety, the government said that help for families can “be an enabler for strong child protection”:

The supporting families programme led to a 32% reduction in the proportion of children looked after in the 19 to 24 months after joining the programme; however, in the first 18 months, it saw an increase in child protection plans. This indicates that more early support for families leads to better identification of risk, but also safer reduction of risk.^[55]

The government argued that if the reforms it had set out were successful “the proportion of children living safely with their family or family networks increases and the proportion of children living in residential settings decreases”.^[56] This would be because:

• Families receive better support so problems are resolved before they escalate.
• Where children cannot live safely at home, local authorities test whether living with wider family members is the right move and support wider family members financially and practically to make this a possibility.
• Where children are in care, there are enough of the right kinds of foster home so that children only need residential settings where it is definitely the right option for them, for example if a child has specific and intensive therapeutic needs.^[57]

The government published its response to the consultation in September 2023. In the response the government provided an update on its progress since its February 2023 strategy was published. Comments relating to looked-after children included:

• Supported accommodation standards. “We have made regulations to introduce national standards and Ofsted registration and inspection for supported accommodation for looked after children and care leavers aged 16 and 17. Ofsted started registering providers on 28 April 2023 and registration becomes mandatory from 28 October 2023, before inspections begin in April 2024”.^[58]
• Update on expanding corporate parental responsibility. The government said its ambition was still to extend corporate parenting responsibilities to other government departments and public bodies. Local authorities would remain responsible for fulfilling their legal duties towards looked after children and care leavers under the Children Act 1989. The government said its proposals would not impact local authorities’ statutory duties to accommodate looked after children. It said that “in light of the consultation responses” it would be refining its proposals on primary legislation to support corporate parenting. The legislation would be introduced when parliamentary time allowed.^[59] The government said it would conduct a pre-legislation consultation “from autumn 2023”.
• Financial oversight. Since the publication of its February 2023 strategy the government said it had “worked with Ofsted on the scope and objectives of a financial oversight regime to monitor and warn of risks of provider failure across the residential care sector for looked after children”.^[60]
• RCC pathfinders. The government said its long-term vision for RCCs “remains unchanged” but analysis of the consultation responses and feedback had been used to refine its approach.^[61]

On 18 December 2023, David Johnston, minister for children, families and wellbeing, laid a written statement providing an update on the government’s children’s social care reforms.^[62] Mr Johnston updated the House of Commons on the publication of the following documents:

• The first ever national kinship strategy, ‘Championing kinship care’ which sets out support for family networks providing loving and stable homes to children.
• A new children’s social care national framework which sets out the purpose, principles and outcomes that should be achieved in children’s social care.
• Updated statutory guidance, ‘Working together’, which sets out how to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
• A data strategy which sets out the long-term plan for transforming data in children’s social care.^[63]

He also said the government was increasing its fostering reform budget:

I am also informing members that we will also increase our budget to deliver fostering reforms by up to £8.5mn, taking the total investment to £36mn. This is the largest ever investment in fostering in England and will support us to roll out recruitment and retention programmes to over 60% of all local authorities in England.^[64]

Mr Johnston said that the government would “also publish a children’s social care dashboard next year to understand progress towards the outcomes in the national framework.”^[65]

4.3 Local government finance update, January 2024

In December 2023, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities consulted on a provisional local government finance settlement for England for 2024 to 2025.^[66] Local government funding is devolved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

On 24 January 2024, Michael Gove, secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, announced that extra funds would be made available in addition to the provisional settlement set out in the December 2023 consultation.^[67] Mr Gove said that the government was aware of the financial pressures on local authorities:

We know that councils have faced cost pressures as a result of high inflation. That is why the prime minister has prioritised halving it; it is important that we stick to the plan. The government has also listened to the sector and to the issues raised by members of the House. For this reason, I am today announcing a wide-ranging package of support for local government.^[68]

Mr Gove announced that the government would be providing an additional £500mn of funding for local government to deliver social care. The increased funding would be reflected in the local authority allocations published in the final local government finance settlement:

The government recognises that pressures on social care, including for children, have increased significantly. In February 2023, the government published its strategy for children’s social care reform. After listening to the sector’s consultation responses, and to make sure councils can continue to deliver these services while we build the evidence for reform, I have today announced an additional £500mn of funding for local government. This will be allocated through the social care grant, which is ringfenced for adult and children’s social care. Where possible, councils should invest in areas that help place children’s social care services on a sustainable financial footing, whilst being mindful of the level of adult social care provision. This includes investment in expanding family help and targeted early intervention, expanding kinship care, and boosting the number of foster carers. This increase in funding will be reflected in the local authority allocations published at the final local government finance settlement.

This funding, in turn, will reduce pressures on other areas of children’s services such as home to school transport, where we recognise there has been a significant increase in pressures for special educational needs and disability services.^[69]

The LGA said it welcomed the extra funding for social care services but it would continue to work with the government to achieve sustainable long-term funding:

The LGA welcomes that the government has acted on the concerns we have raised and recognised the severe financial pressures facing councils, particularly in providing services to the most vulnerable children and adults through social care services and delivering core front-line services to communities.

We will continue to work with government to achieve a sustainable long term funding settlement and updated distribution mechanisms, as well as legislative reform where needed, so that local government can play its full part in delivering inclusive prosperity and growth through investment to support people, places, and the planet.^[70]

In its statement the LGA said it has warned that councils in England faced a funding gap of £4bn over the next two years. The extra funding was positive and would help ease some financial pressures for 2024/25, but “councils will still need to raise council tax and many will need to make cuts to local services in order to plug funding gaps”.

The final local government finance settlement was published on 5 February 2024.^[71]

The government’s spring 2024 budget confirmed the additional £500mn announced by Mr Gove.^[72] It also said that the government would provide matched funding for additional open children’s home placements:

Children’s social care reform—The government will provide £45mn match funding to local authorities to build an additional 200 open children’s home placements and £120mn to fund the maintenance of the existing secure children’s home estate, and rebuild Atkinson Secure Children’s Home and Swanwick Secure Children’s Home.^[73]

The budget also stated that the government was going to develop proposals to combat profiteering in the sector and look at ways of unlocking investment in new children’s homes:

The government will also develop proposals on what more can be done to combat profiteering, bring down costs and create a more sustainable market for residential placements which it will publish later this year. Furthermore, it will work with the Local Government Pension Scheme to consider the role they could play in unlocking investment in new children’s homes.^[74]

For further information on the local government finance settlement, and local government finance more generally see the following briefings by the Libraries of both Houses:

• House of Commons Library, ‘Local government finance settlement 2024/25’, 5 February 2024
• House of Lords Library, ‘Local government finances: Impact on communities’, 14 March 2024

5. House of Lords Public Services Committee report, February 2023

Following the publication of the government’s February 2023 strategy and consultation, the House of Lords Public Services Committee held a short inquiry to gather evidence on the proposed reforms. Although the committee largely welcomed the strategy’s focus on creating stable homes and using family networks, it raised concerns including around funding and the scale and pace of reforms.

The committee held four evidence sessions in March 2023, received written evidence as part of its inquiry and published its report ‘A response to the children’s social care implementation strategy’ on 25 May 2023.^[75] 

The committee’s report said that whilst there was much to commend in the government’s strategy, because in many key areas it moved in the right direction, it “fails to deliver the radical reset that is needed”.^[76] The committee said it lacked “scale, ambition and pace” and that it would initially only have an impact in a few areas “and then only as a pilot programme”. The committee noted that some witnesses provided evidence that interventions and reforms already have “strong evidence demonstrating their efficacy”, so could be rolled out now rather than waiting to be rolled out after a pilot programme.^[77]

Speaking to the report’s conclusions and recommendations, the committee’s chair, Baroness Morris of Yardley (Labour), said:

The children’s care system is in crisis and while the government’s strategy is a step in the right direction, it falls short of delivering the immediate real time benefits to children and families that we need. The strategy is a golden opportunity, but it could be wasted.

Vulnerable young people are being failed by the system. There are shortages of every kind of care, and children are being placed in settings that do not work for them. This is untenable. As one young person we spoke to told us: “I am a person not a number”.^[78]

The committee expressed concern that the government’s plans did not address a need for reform of residential homes:

We explore in chapter 5 the severe shortage of placements within residential homes. This has meant that in some cases, young people are placed far from their families, and that providers have been able to raise prices to profit from this shortage. The government’s approach to addressing this is regional care cooperatives. Aside from availability, however, there is very little information within the strategy around the role of residential homes; Barnardo’s told us that the strategy “does little to consider the role of residential care settings”.

[…]

We consider that the strategy’s focus on stable, loving homes ignores the need for radical reform of residential homes. There are likely to always be some children who need this kind of provision for at least some of the time. Not enough has been done for these young people in the strategy: action needs to be taken to raise standards.^[79]

Josh MacAlister, a former schoolteacher and founder of the social work charity Frontline, who undertook the independent review into children’s social care in 2022, gave evidence to the committee’s inquiry. He said “I genuinely think this is the right direction and that the government made some very positive announcements”.^[80] However, he added that the proposals were “not of the scale of […] change that will see a tipping point in the system for some time”.^[81]

The committee’s report raised concerns about funding. The independent review called for a £1.03bn investment in the first two years of the strategy and total investment of £2.6bn over four years. The strategy did not specify funding for subsequent reforms beyond the £200mn initial investment.

The government welcomed the committee’s report and said it would consider it alongside other consultation responses.^[82] The government noted the committee’s emphasis on providing funds to all local authorities, but reiterated the need for evidence-based interventions to be trialled, then scaled. On future funding, the response said “towards the next spending review, we will assess the level and form of investment required to achieve meaningful and sustainable change system wide”.

For further information on the committee’s report and the government’s response see the House of Lords Library briefing ‘Reforming children’s social care: Public Services Committee inquiry’ (14 September 2023).

6. Read more

• House of Commons Library, ‘Reform of children’s social care in England’, 21 March 2024
• House of Lords Library, ‘Local government finances: Impact on communities’, 14 March 2024
• House of Lords Library, ‘Strengthening family life in England: Archbishops’ Commission on Families and Households’, 30 November 2023
• House of Lords Library, ‘Reforming children’s social care: Public Services Committee inquiry’, 14 September 2023
• House of Lords Library, ‘Independent review of children’s social care’, 2 December 2022
• Department for Education, ‘How we’re transforming children’s social care’, 29 January 2024
• Department for Education, ‘Children’s social care data and digital strategy’, 15 December 2023
• All Party Parliamentary Group for Care-Experienced Children and Young People, ‘Inquiry on extending corporate parenting responsibilities across the public sector’, March 2024
• Scottish Government, ‘Children’s social work statistics Scotland: 2021to 2022’, 25 April 2023
• Welsh Government, ‘Children looked after by local authorities: April 2022 to March 2023’, 27 February 2024
• Northern Ireland Department of Health, ‘Children’s social care statistics for Northern Ireland 2022/23’, 24 October 2023

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Cover image by Stephen Andrews on Unsplash.