Overview
The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care’s final report sets out am ambitious vision for change, and provides a ‘once in a generation opportunity’ to deliver significant reform to children’s services. The Government have already announced plans to implement several of the Review’s recommendations that support effective child protection and multi-agency working.
The Children in Care and Care Leavers Forum will provide the latest overview of the children’s social care system, including updates from The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, APPG for Looked After Children and Care Leavers, and the Department for Education. Through interactive discussion, Q&As, and workshop sessions, this Forum will attendees with the knowledge and skills to implement innovative ways of working that improve outcomes for care experienced young people.
What to expect:
- A comprehensive overview of the proposed reforms to the children’s social care system
- Strengthen your multi-agency working to better support children and care leavers, and provide them with a consistent core offering of support
- Interactive discussion sessions on Family Help, improving child protection, embedding evidence is service design, trauma informed practice, and supporting care leavers
- Live, in person networking opportunities with colleagues across the care sector
Policy Background
The recently published final report from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care sets out over 80 recommendations for government, public services, businesses, charities, and the public sector. Combined with the SEND Review, Schools White Paper, and Best Start for Life Report, the Care Review presents an opportunity for a significant overhaul to how support for vulnerable young people is delivered. The Care Review’s recommendations are broad and far reaching, but core themes are improved multi-agency collaboration, implementing evidence-based best practice, strengthening safeguarding procedures, and workforce development.
Collocating multidisciplinary teams is not a new concept, but the Care Review and Best Start for Life Report highlight the need for these teams to work in a coordinated way and to share information effectively. The Government have recognized this need, and already announced plans to establish a a new Digital and Data Solutions Fund to help local authorities improve service delivery for children and families through data sharing and technology.
The Government also support the development of a National Children’s Social Care Framework, which will set a clear direction for the social care system, and provide best practice, evidence-based, ways of working to support young people in care. Alongside this, there are plans to revise the support that social workers receive early in their careers with a focus on child protection, in line with the Care Review’s proposed “Early Career Framework”.
In addition to these areas, the Care Review makes recommendations on the role of teachers in safeguarding, ending the “cliff edge” for care leavers, and many other areas. The Government’s National Implementation Board will lead the response to the Care Review’s recommendations, and will include people with experience of the care system.
As the number of children in care continues to rise, so do pressures on the staff who support them. The many recent policy announcements present an opportunity to reform the social care system to improve outcomes for all young people, but existing challenges persist: how can teams collaborate to provide joined-up and consistent support, how can professionals support young people to avoid criminal exploitation, and how can local authorities best support care leavers?
Key Speakers
Other Speakers
Agenda
- Following an introduction from the Chair we’ll be kicking off this live, face to face event with interactive icebreakers designed to encourage early introductions ahead of further networking throughout the day.
- Get to know fellow colleagues and participants and share your key learning objectives for the day.
- Expect lots of interactivity with this being a brilliant opportunity to interact, network and learn from your peers in a safe, face to face environment.
- Examining the findings of the Spotlight Inquiry, and sharing what children and young care leavers have highlighted as the key issues affecting them
- Highlighting the importance of communities and relationships for children in care and recent care leavers, and the impact of out of area placements and unregulated accommodation
- Discussing the recommendations from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care relating to community support
- Sharing key recommendations for how Local Authorities can develop the delivery of children’s services to improve outcomes for care experienced young people
This session will include time for audience Q&A.
- Outlining the key recommendations from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, and the impact they would have on young people
- Examining the results of evidence gathering and co-production processes during the Review
- Providing an update on the Government implementation of the Care Review’s recommendations, including the National Implementation Board, National Framework, and Digital and Data Solutions Fund
This session will include time for audience Q&A
- Examining why care experienced young people are particularly vulnerable to criminal exploitation, including the role of out of area placements
- Highlighting the early indicators that a young person in care might become involved in criminal activity
- Sharing best practice interventions to support care experienced young people to avoid criminal exploitation, including the role of multi-agency support and the Expert Child Protection Practitioner
- Discussing how community support and Child Community Safety Plans can help to improve child protection
- Examining trends in health outcomes for young people with experience of care
- Highlighting the updated NICE draft guidelines, and how you can achieve fairer outcomes for care experienced young people in your local authority
- Sharing best practice interventions for practitioners to improve outcomes for care experienced young people, as well as how statutory care can be best delivered
- Discussing how to develop a whole council approach to supporting children in care and care leavers
- Examining the principles of corporate parenting, and how to apply them across all areas of children’s services to create positive experiences for care experienced people
- Highlighting the importance of responding to and recognising the views of care experienced young people in service design and delivery
- Highlighting the role of effective multi-agency working in providing joined-up support for young people
- Examining the impact of “Family Help” and collocated services on collaboration between services
- Sharing best practice for effectively supporting young people who receive support from a variety of services
- Discussing how to improve data and information sharing across services to improve outcomes for young people
Derby City Council received an Outstanding rating following an Ofsted inspection in March 2022. Receiving an Outstanding rating in 3 out of 4 categories, including Overall Effectiveness, the report highlights progress since the last inspection in 2017, particularly around implementing a new model of social work.
This session will discuss:
- How a new model of social work was implemented across the workforce, and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on this process
- The role of senior leadership in driving organizational improvements to deliver outstanding support services
- How the Council is seeking to improve the experiences and progress of children in care and care leavers in line with the findings of the Ofsted report
These sessions will allow you to assess the challenges faced by your organisation over the course of the pandemic and share insights and solutions with other delegates.
*programme subject to change
Audience
This Forum is specifically designed for the Local Government, Health Sector, Education Sector and Voluntary Sector. Typical job titles will include:
- Virtual Head Teachers
- Social Workers
- Directors and Heads of Service
- Directors and Heads of Care Planning
- Councillors
- Operations Managers for Care Services
- Adoptions Services Managers
- Multi-agency Safeguarding Teams
