Nursery World - Children and families in social care are ‘not getting a good enough deal’, report reveals

An ‘urgent’ new approach to children in social care is needed, after an independent review has found that the system is too focused on investigating families rather than providing them with support.

An independent review into children's social care has called for Government policies to tackle the inequality and poverty faced by families across England PHOTO Adobe Stock

The overwhelming message from children and families involved in the ambitious Case for Change independent review of children’s social care in England, led by Josh MacAlister, is that they are ‘not getting a good enough deal’.

Mr MacAlister likened the system to a ‘30-year-old tower of Jenga held together with Sellotape: simultaneously rigid and yet shaky’.

He said, ‘Improving children’s social care will take us a long way to solving some of the knottiest problems facing society - improving children’s quality of life, tackling inequalities, improving the productivity of the economy, and truly levelling up.'

Parenting interventions

The Department for Education’s 2019 Children in Need review found that over a six year period, one in ten children had a social worker.

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