Minister faces Education Committee on state of children’s social care and safeguarding reforms
The Education Committee will question Children and Families Minister Janet Daby MP as it holds the final session of its children’s social care inquiry, which has spanned two governments and taken place over the last year.
Meeting details
There will be questions about aspects of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that cover the role of schools and Ofsted in safeguarding children, as well as the Bill’s provision for family group decision-making meetings, and the proposed profit cap on providers of residential children’s homes.
Daby will also be asked how the Government could improve support for children in different care arrangements, including fostering, adoption and kinship care. Previous witnesses have called for a new strategy to improve recruitment and retention of foster carers, and measures to enable siblings to keep in touch. The Minister will also be pressed on whether there will be wider rollout of the kinship allowance pilot, and what plans she has to tackle the shortage of adopters, including for children from minority ethnic backgrounds or with additional needs.
MPs will be interested to hear about moves to improve early identification and support for disabled children, and about rising levels of demand that have contributed to children being placed out of area. The Committee heard evidence from care-experienced young people who had been placed as far as 100 miles from home.
The cross-party Committee will also scrutinise the Department for Education’s plans to improve rates of turnover and case loads at children’s services teams in local authorities. 47% of social workers say they do not have enough time to spend with the families they work with.