Vulnerable children on social service plans getting “postcode lottery of support”: Children’s Commissioner

Research carried out by the Children’s Commissioner has uncovered “considerable variation” between what happens to different groups of children and between different local authorities, when it comes to children on child in need plans.

The report, published yesterday (5 March), notes that children on child in need plans are the largest group of children supported by children’s social care in England.

The Commissioner’s office examined the proportion of children in need with a child in need plan across local authorities in England. In one local authority, 70% of the children involved with children’s social care were on child in need plans, while in another it was as low as 3.6%.

“Unless the distribution of need across the country is indeed this varied, this suggests a variation in thresholds for intervention across the country,” noted researchers.

Analysis of Department for Education data by the Commissioner’s office found that the use of child in need plans “varies widely” between local authorities, with up to a ten-fold difference in the rate of plans per 10,000 children.

Researchers warned this suggests there could be an unfairness in which children get access to a child in need plan as a result of where they live.

Across local authorities, the average time a child spends on a child in need plan varies from just over a month (35 days) to over a year (388 days), the data revealed.

“Findings from the office’s review of local authority procedure documents show that guidance for what should happen on a child in need plan is varied, which is unsurprising given that there is very limited guidance from the Department for Education about how long a plan should last for, how often a child should be visited, or when a plan should be reviewed,” said the Commissioner's office.

In the majority of local authorities, there was no minimum requirement for children to be visited by social workers or other lead professionals. In 74% of the local procedures reviewed, no minimum frequency was specified.

Further, the research found the rate of children having no further action taken after a referral to children’s services varied “substantially” by local authority, with between 1.6% and 63% of children’s most recent referrals leading to no further action taken.

The Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, recommended the following proposals to improve the consistency of support for children and families in need of support:

• There needs to be consistent thresholds for assessment and support under section 17, through defined national thresholds of needs and strengthened national guidance for local authorities on the use of children in need plans as an intervention.
• Improved data reporting to distinguish children who are being assessed for a child in need plan, from those awaiting an assessment, or who are on a child in need plan.
• There needs to be better join up of the support children and families receive through section 17. Every child should have one single plan that can effectively meet their needs.
• Improvements to section 17 support should be underpinned by a statutory duty to deliver universal early help provision.
• There needs to be a Children’s Social Care Funding Formula, that is ring-fenced by the Department for Education.

Responding to the report, Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) President John Pearce said: “This new report is welcome and makes a number of important points about the need to put early help on a statutory footing with dedicated, ring fenced funding, and calls for better national data. The Government is developing a new family help offer in response to the independent review of children’s social care and the report raises important questions that could usefully play into this work. It is also clear the ambition set out can only be met if sustainable funding is allocated to local authorities for early help services.

“Each local authority has developed its local service offer over time to meet the needs of the local population, geography and context within the available financial envelope. As we enter the 14th year of austerity, this will look markedly different from place to place. This flexibility is particularly important here given the broad range of needs of the children we work with in this space, including homeless young people, families with no recourse to public funds and children with disabilities. It is important that social workers can use their professional judgement when assessing the level of support required and the frequency of visits. Therefore, any calls for consistency and blanket guidance must be carefully considered as services must be tailored to individual needs.

“ADCS will continue to engage with government on making sure children’s best interests are at the heart of these decisions.”

The Department for Education has been approached for comment.

Lottie Winson