Support urged over 'kinship' care

16 June 2011 Last updated at 14:32 GMT Children in poor inner-city areas are more likely to be raised by other family members, researchers say Better support is needed for the thousands of children being raised by family members who are not their parents, a children's charity says.

The Buttle UK study showed one in 77 UK children were being raised in "kinship" care in 2001 and it believes the figure has risen "considerably" since.

These children were more likely to be living in poverty and overcrowded homes, it added.

The report argues new policies are needed to help the "invisible" carers.

The study, produced by the charity in conjunction with the University of Bristol, found that more than 90% of families with kinship care arrangements were working on informal agreements and therefore not entitled to financial support from social services.

The research was gathered using 2001 Census data.

Although more up-to-date data will not be available until 2013, the report authors say the study marks the first time an accurate estimate on the number of kinship families has been made.

"If the government is going to meet its targets to reduce child poverty, children in kinship care need to be recognised as a group with specific and considerable needs," said report co-author Dr Julie Selwyn, director of the Hadley Centre for Adoption and Foster Care Studies.

'Critical role'

Buttle UK says it hopes its findings will be used by local authorities to inform new policy decisions on family and friends care due in September this year.

"Kinship carers are an invisible population who have little contact with social services," said Gerri McAndrew, Buttle UK's chief executive.

"This report shines a light, for the first time, on this hidden group who play a critical role in raising a generation of children and young people with little assistance, financial or otherwise.

"Even in these economically difficult times, we owe it to these families to give them the support they need."

The report notes that children in kinship arrangements were twice as likely as other children to come from poorer areas, while one in five children in sibling care also lived in overcrowded households with more than one person per room.

In England, one in five children lived in a kinship household where no adult was working.

Increasing levels of drug and alcohol abuse were cited as a key factor in the rise, as well as changes in "the nature of the family".

Children from minority backgrounds were over-represented in the study - with one in 11 of all African boys in England aged 15-17 reportedly living with relatives.

'Groundbreaking research'

In England, Scotland and Wales, the majority of children in kinship care were living with their grandparents.

In Northern Ireland, however, half of all kinship care children were being brought up by a sibling.

Paul, 24, has looked after his six brothers and sisters - aged eight to 18 - for the past two years after they were taken away from their mother following accusations of neglect.

"I had to give up my job to look after them so it's difficult and money is an issue but we're all alive, we all eat and there are few moments of madness," he said.

"Things will get tighter as the family grows older but for now everyone is still in school and we're all together as a family and that's what matters."

Sir Mark Potter, a former Head of Family Justice, which is linked to the High Court's Family Division, welcomed the study's findings and the renewed call for greater recognition of family carers.

"This is a very important piece of groundbreaking research," he said.

"I hope it will provide much needed impetus for action to improve their circumstances and their chances in adult life."

In a statement, the Department of Education said: "Local authorities need to consider how best to support carers and children involved in kinship care arrangements.

"That's why we have recently published new statutory guidance to local authorities to help tackle any inequality in how services are provided for kinship care families.

"We have also asked every local area to produce a plan by September this year setting out how they will identify and support these families."

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Help urged for forces children

20 May 2011 Last updated at 00:42 GMT By Hannah Richardson BBC News education reporter Children often feel anxious when their parents are on active service Schools in England should do more to help children of parents serving in the armed forces, Ofsted has said.

A report by the education watchdog says while forces children generally do as well as other pupils, frequent school moves can have an adverse effect.

It says exam results can suffer and the uncertainty of having parents in conflict zones can lead to social and emotional problems for some children.

The government says it is providing cash to help schools tackle the issues.

It is allocating a ?200-per-pupil premium to provide pastoral assistance and a ?3m fund to help mitigate potential problems in schools with high numbers of services children.

Ofsted's report was commissioned by the Ministry of Defence to identify where support for service children could be improved.

Overall, forces pupils tend to do as well, if not better than the national average, but where there are high levels of mobility, performance is not so good, says Ofsted.

'Gaps in education'

There was a clear recognition that the mobility associated with service life can have a detrimental effect on children, the report said.

This was particularly so when moves took place during GCSE years and could have a big impact on pupils' results.

It added that continual moves had a negative effect on these youngsters' friendships and their personal development, and they often had "gaps" in their education and needed help to catch up.

"The combination of deployment of a family member and regular moves of home and school can cause anxiety and stress for service families whether living in the UK or overseas: education is disturbed, social networks are disrupted and parents left behind have to cope with the effects of being a 'single parent'," the report added.

And it pointed out that schools reported an increase in the number of problems related to the social and emotional welfare of service children. This had led to a need for extra school-based counselling.

One pupil told inspectors he missed a "male presence" in the house and that he still worried about his father's placement in Iraq even though it was several years ago.

At another school, children were regularly heard to say: "Four more sleeps until Daddy is home!"

'Anxieties'

Chief inspector Christine Gilbert said: "Service children often attend many different schools over the course of their school life. This makes continuity and progression in learning hard to achieve, and there is more we should be doing."

She added that information about each child's progress should be passed effectively from school to school to ensure their development and learning was as good as it could be.

"Service children are missing large parts of their curriculum and essential training in key areas, and they struggle to catch up. This is made all the harder for them given the anxieties about their parents when on active service."

The report called for the Ministry of Defence to keep a register of service children and young people in education and to allow greater flexibility in relation to movement dates for families of serving personnel.

It called on schools to be aware of the distinct needs of service children and to make any provision necessary for them. They should also improve the system for transferring children's records from one school to another when they move.

A government spokesman said the Department for Education did record numbers of service children in England's state schools but the list was not exhaustive.

He added: "Parents cannot be compelled to record their children as service children, and some prefer not to for fear of being treated differently."

The spokesman said: "Our servicemen and women risk their lives for this country and it is a key part of the Armed Forces Covenant that we support their families.

"The attainment by service children is, on average, above their peers, but they face the unique challenges and stresses, and that is why the government is providing a ?200-per-pupil premium to help provide pastoral assistance for them."

He said the covenant also included a ?3m fund to help mitigate potential problems that schools with high numbers of service children might experience.

Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said he backed any moves which helped ease some of the unique burdens endured by service children.

Mr Hobby said: "The Ofsted report highlights the problems these children can face as they move to different areas while they may also be understandably anxious about the safety of family members serving in the armed forces."

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Child protection shake-up urged

10 May 2011 Last updated at 06:39 GMT By Hannah Richardson BBC News education and family reporter Eileen Munro said the focus on targets "are becoming obstacles on people keeping a clear eye on children"

Front-line social workers should regain the freedom to decide what is best for children in a shake up of England's child protection system, an official review says.

The review, by social policy expert Professor Eileen Munro, calls for targets and red tape to be scrapped.

Developing social workers' expertise will enable more children to stay with their families, she adds.

The government is investing ?80m implementing the reforms this year.

Education Secretary Michael Gove asked Prof Munro to review the child protection system in England, focussing on whether bureaucracy and targets have been getting in the way of good practice.

In her report, the expert from the London School of Economics, says: "Helping children is a human process. When the bureaucratic aspects of work become too dominant, the heart of the work is lost."

'Significant savings'

She argues that the system has become preoccupied by individuals "doing things right" rather than "doing the right thing".

Continue reading the main story Mark Easton Home Editor, BBC News

When the government asked Eileen Munro to review child protection procedures, her terms of reference contained a paradox.

On the one hand ministers said they wanted social workers to be free from unnecessary bureaucracy and regulation - to make decisions based on their professional judgment, not simply following procedures.

On the other, they said they wanted social workers to be clear about their responsibilities and to be accountable - lessons must be learned. Errors exposed. Names named. While the former is about the system being hands-off, the second requires it to be hands on.

Of course, it is not a simple either/or. There is a balance to be found between a tick-box approach that blinds professionals to the subtleties of individual cases and a laissez-faire model that sees vulnerable children slipping tragically through the net.

Professor Munro reflects this tension when she points out that timescales for assessing children at risk were introduced because of legitimate concerns about "drift". But now, she claims there's "an over-preoccupation" with such targets.

And she concludes this attitude has meant that learning from professional experience has been limited.

She recommends a chief social worker - similar to a chief medical officer - should be appointed to report directly to government and liaise with the profession.

Prof Munro's report sets out how the system can move from one that has become too bureaucratic and focussed on compliance to one that values and develops professional expertise.

She says centrally-prescribed time scales for formal procedures, such as social work assessments, should be scrapped.

Her report also calls on the government to revise social worker statutory guidance - said to be 55 times longer than that issued nearly 40 years ago.

The amount of regulation has led to child protection staff feeling obliged to do everything by the book rather than use their professional judgement, says the report.

Prof Munro also wants the government to ensure local areas have the freedom to innovate, with local authorities taking more responsibility for helping their staff to operate with a high level of skill and knowledge.

'Radical change'

And she calls for the social workers' expertise to be developed - pointing out that skilled help can enable more children and young people to stay safely with their families and bring "significant savings".

Prof Munro told the BBC people had "underestimated how much skill is needed to do good social work".

She said social workers did not stay on the front line long enough to become really good at the job.

"What I'm recommending is a radical change to how we see a social work career and we have a complete progression into senior management where you're still knocking on the front door and doing real work as well as managing the service."

Her report warns that more money will be needed at first to develop the additional training necessary to set the profession off on a "new path".

Prof Munro has stressed the importance of nurturing social work expertise

And it cautions that "cherry-picking" reforms will not lead to the desired improvements overall.

One of the major challenges, the report adds, is how to enable a wide range of professionals work together well for the good of vulnerable children.

Clear lines of accountability and named contacts are "vitally important" for this, she adds.

The report also places an emphasis on early intervention, calling on the government to place a duty on local councils to ensure there are enough early-help services for children, young people and families.

In particular it singles out the effectiveness of Sure Start Children's Centres in providing early help and intervention.

'Long term' implementation

Children's Minister Tim Loughton said the review presented some wide-ranging and radically different proposals for reform.

"It is now up to the government and the children's sector to work together to look at the recommendations in detail and assess the implications of their implementation in practice for the long term, not as a short term fix.

"To do this the government will be working closely with a group of professionals from across the children's sector and we will respond to Professor Munro's recommendations later this year."

Chief executive of children's charity 4Children said the review backed many of the calls families are making for a move away from bureaucratic assessment to personalised and hands on support for those who are struggling to cope.

"I hope that government follows Munro's recommendation of local support for families who are struggling but have not yet reached crisis point. Our new campaign, Give me Strength, argues for the urgent need to stop patching up problems after they spiral out of control and make prevention and early intervention a reality."

The College of Social Work agreed that social workers have been hampered by an excessive emphasis on form-filling and a compliance culture.

"Surveys have shown that child protection workers can spend more than 60% of their time at computer screens, time which would often be better spent in face-to-face work with children at risk of harm."

Children's Commissioner Maggie Atkinson said she welcomed the recognition that children and young people of all ages needed early intervention and help.

"Harmful behaviour affecting a child can occur at any age and professionals must be trained to recognise early on when family intervention and support is required for older children."

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