22/6/2007 | ‘”Virtual” head teachers to look after needs of children in care’ |
The Times, p38 |
Every local authority in England will have to appoint a head teacher to track academic progress of children in care under £305 million package of care reforms – a key part of Government’s new ‘Care Matters’ White Paper.
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22/6/2007 | Schools boost for care kids |
Daily Mirror |
White Paper launched by Education Secretary Alan Johnson sets out a £300 million plan over four years to help the 61,000 youngsters in care. David Holmes of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering said ‘This White Paper is of vital importance’.
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16/4/2007 | Pilot Court will support families with drink and drug problems |
Children Now, p5 |
The central London-based pilot Family Drug and Alcohol court aims to stop children being taken into care by putting families with drink and drug problems on rigorous support programmes
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16/4/2007 | Figures reveal a national scandal |
Children Now, p12 |
The educational achievement of looked after children is a ‘national scandal’ claims Kevin Williams, The Adolescent and Children’s Trust’s chief executive. The Government wanted the proportion of 16 year olds who get five GCSE’s at A* to C grades to rise by an average of four percentage points each year. But figures just released by the Government show that only eight per cent of children in care got five GCSE’s at grades A* to C in 2006, up just one per cent from 2005.
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16/4/2007 | 10,000 children in distant placements |
Children Now, p7 |
More than 10,000 looked after children are still living further than 20 miles from their homes according to Government figures. They show that in the year ending 31 March 2006 10,300 looked after children were living more than 29 miles from their homes with 8,100 living outside of their home council.
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16/4/2007 | Inspectors slam use of single place homes as secure settings |
Community Care, p15 |
Last week, a Commission for Social Care inspection report showed some councils were increasingly using single place children’s homes to meet demand arising from the growing number of children with behavioural problems and other complex needs. The study said that while some councils were using the homes in a genuine attempt to meet young people’s needs for others they were a quick solution in times of crisis.
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3/4/2007 | In brief: the top stories |
The Times (Public Agenda), p2 |
The number of children living in poverty jumped by 100,000 last year, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said, showing that the government is not on course to meet its target of having child poverty by 2010-11.
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28/3/2007 | Every child to be screened for rish of turning criminal under Blair justice |
The Guardian, p6-7 |
A new-style "11-plus" to assess the risk every child in Britain runs of turning to crime was among a battery of proposals unveiled in Tony Blair's crime plan yesterday.
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28/3/2007 | Children's single place homes can charge £6000 per week |
Times Online |
A growing number of children in care are being sent to “single-place” residential homes costing £6,000 a week with only staff for company.
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28/3/2007 | Rule of evidence |
The Society Guardian, p5 |
It will be a daunting task heading the Social Care Institute for Excellence and trying to improve preventive care services. But Julie Jones tells David Brindle of her belief in research and her hopes for sparking a national debate
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15/3/2007 | Teens' number one author talks to The Sun |
The Sun, p30-3 |
With a new book coming out, children's author Jacqueline Wilson talks about some of her other books including Tracy Beaker , she says: “The main problem is that people focus on the fact she is a stroppy teen rather than looking at the fact that she is a young girl in a care home with a lot of issues."
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13/3/2007 | Scottish children's homes in crisis |
The Scotsman, p13 |
Children's care homes are in crisis as thousands of staff working with young people do not have the qualifications for the job, a Scotsman investigation has revealed. Figures show that only 18 per cent of staff are fully qualified to work in residential care, more than a decade after inspectors called for urgent improvements. Insiders claim teenagers are left to "run amok" - allowed to leave the units and return in the early hours of the morning by staff who have neither the qualifications nor the training to do the job properly.
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13/3/2007 | I can't ever replace our dead mum but I'm more than a big sister now |
The Daily Mirror, p20-2 |
This will be an especially poignant Mother's Day for Aaron and Lester Drummond. On Sunday, instead of giving their mum cuddles and cards, they will be laying flowers on her grave.Tragically, seven weeks ago, 40-year-old care worker Caroline Drummond was struck by a car and killed instantly. But although Aaron, 13, and 11-year-old Lester are heartbroken following their terrible loss, at least they now have a surrogate mum in their lives - big sister Samantha Shanks. The selfless 20-year-old has given up a job she loved, her home and her friends to move 300 miles from Tenterden in Kent back to Newcastle upon Tyne to comfort the boys and become their legal guardian.
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7/3/2007 | Could have been a lot worse |
The Guardian, p7 |
The harshness of life in care homes is chronicled in Phil Frampton's moving memoir. So why does he believe it is better than being fostered?
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28/2/2007 | Mum keeps her 14st lad |
The Daily Express, p4 |
The mother of overweight Connor McCreaddie was yesterday allowed to keep her son after social workers decided not to put him into care. Social workers will work with the family on a programme of diet and exercise.
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28/2/2007 | The Children's champions |
The Guardian, p7 |
Youngsters raised in care could soon play a vital role in assessing the local services that have shaped their lives
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27/2/2007 | Portrait of the Artist |
The Guardian (G2), p27 |
Interview with Lemm Sissay, poet, who talks about growing up in a children's home
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14/11/2006 | Welsh hospice is one of the best in the UK |
Western Mail |
A Welsh hospice has been placed on a new list of the best children’s charities in the UK. The Ty Hafan project, which provides respite and palliative care fir children with life-limiting illnesses, has been named ahead of many more recognisable charities, including Children in Need, to make it onto the new Intelligent Giving top 15.
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18/10/2006 | Brown urged to commit £4bn to tackle child poverty |
The Guardian, p29 |
The government was today condemned for failing to tackle the "shocking" deprivation facing 3.4 million children in the UK, as charities urged ministers to commit extra investment to fighting child poverty.
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16/10/2006 | Care-worker redundancy plan 'could cost millions' |
Western Mail |
A plan to make up to 200 care workers redundant could prove hugely expensive for the biggest council in Wales, it was claimed yesterday. Since most of the workers concerned are women, the Cardiff County Council employees could be entitled to back pay for six years if they apply to an Employment Tribunal under equal pay legislation.
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9/10/2006 | BAAF response to Green Paper on Looked After Children |
Care and Health |
BAAF welcomes the Green Paper on children in care that is being published today.
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29/9/2006 | Raise the stakes for looked-after children |
TES, p22 |
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29/9/2006 | More help pledged for those in care |
TES, p2 |
One of Tony Blair’s former gurus has said that Labour’s target fixation makes it difficult for schools to deal with the country’s most vulnerable children, those in care.
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21/9/2006 | Care system 'in need of rethink' |
The Times, p22 |
Half of all girls in care end up pregnant or have had a baby within two years of leaving their local authority, according to a new survey by the Centre for Policy Studies think tank.
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20/9/2006 | In brief: Hope for the future |
The Guardian, p10 |
Despite facing serious disadvantages, children in care can achieve great results if given the right support, according to the Extraordinary Lives report from the Scottish Social Work inspection Agency. The report examines the lives of three people who went on to work in social care organisations to improve the experiences of children and young people. One of the individuals is part of the ministerial working group that hopes to improve educational outcomes for looked-after children.
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18/9/2006 | The forsaken children |
The Daily Mail, p26-2 |
Family breakdown on an unprecedented scale is leading to growing numbers of children in care. Writer Harriet Sargeant spent a year researching how Britain's social services deal with these forgotten children In a major three-part series, she reveals a cycle of failure that cruelly betrays vulnerable young people.
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14/9/2006 | Lead professional for children in care |
Children Now, (13-19 September, p2 |
Looked-after children want choice about what kind of care service they are placed in, says a Commission for Social Care inspection report
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14/9/2006 | Green Paper plans lead professionals |
Young People Now (13-19 Septem, p2 |
Looked-after young people are to be allocated budget-holding lead professionals to refer them on to services, under proposals to be contained in the looked-after children green paper.
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6/9/2006 |
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The Guardian (Society), p1-2 |
Mixed race is the UK's fastest growing ethnic minority group, idealised by the media as the exotic, 'acceptable face' of diversity. But the reality, says Laura Smith, is rather different. Smith looks at the over-representation of mixed children in care. Last year, mixed children accounted for 8% of looked-after children, although only 3% of under-16s are mixed. One adoption worker I spoke to said more needed to be done to support white parents with mixed children. "As a white person you don't have to think about being white," she said. "It's the norm. But once you have a mixed child you are no longer white. Suddenly the privilege you have simply by being white is taken away. It's a hard lesson to learn."
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1/9/2006 |
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The TES |
Children in care should be given £20 per month to pay for after school clubs other pupils take for granted, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research. The report came after Lord Adonis, schools minister, confirmed that the government is planning to send children in care to boarding schools to improve thoer results.
An asset account for looked-after children, is available from www.ippr.org.uk/publicationsandreports
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1/9/2006 | Letters: children should have equality |
Children Now (16-29 August),, p12 |
David Holmes discusses the governments decision to set national minimum allowances for foster carers at a higher level than originally proposed.
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23/8/2006 | Exam failures mean bleak future for children in care |
Times, p22 |
If it were possible to get a GCSE in moving home, the 65,000 children in local authority care in England and Wales would all pass with A* grades.
As it is, only about 6 per cent can expect to achieve the benchmark of five GCSEs at grades A* to C that will provide them with a gateway to further education when they get their results tomorrow. This compares with 56 per cent for all other children.
As in previous years, only 1 per cent of children in care can expect to go to university this year, compared with 37 per cent of all young people.
The shortage of foster and adoptive families to provide a stable home to young people in care, referred to in official circles as “looked-after children”, means that some have to move home up to 35 times and switch schools more than 10 times.
The damage this does to their education and their emotional wellbeing is highlighted today in a report from the children’s charity Barnardo’s, which reveals the challenges faced by these children, many of whom will struggle to gain even a single qualification this week.
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23/8/2006 | It's time the state learned about love |
Society Guardian |
Society Guardian Editor, Patrick Butler, comments on the Barnardo’s report.
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22/8/2006 | 7 |
Home inspection plans provoke |
Residential care experts have hit out at Government plans to reduce the frequency of children’s home inspections. David Holmes said: “Making inspections proportionate is probably alright if it means inspectors can concentrate on services that are failing. But the annual inspection is a safeguard. The risk of less frequent inspections is that standards will slip.”
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22/8/2006 | Paper to coincide with major report |
Children Now, p3 |
Speculation is mounting that the forthcoming Green paper on looked after children will be launched at the same time as a major report by the social exclusion unit minister Hilary Armstrong. Sources said the move would emphasise that looked after children are a key group if excluded people in our society.
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14/8/2006 | Toni-Ann inquiry call |
New Nation, p2 |
The mother of murdered seven-year-old Toni Ann Byfield is calling for a public inquest into why her daughter was failed by social services. Toni-Ann's mother, Roselyn Richard has written to health Secretary Patricia Hewitt demanding a full inquiry.
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8/8/2006 | In the professional press |
The Times (Public Agenda), p3 |
Round-up of specialist publications, including an article in Community Care (August 3rd) about The Children (Leaving Care) Act of 2000, which is designed to ensure that young people do not leave care until they are ready. An interview with Lucy Bradley reveals her experience of the care system, leaving care at the age of 16 with nowhere else to go.
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1/8/2006 | Leaving care divide between sectors |
Community Care, (27 July - 2 A, p9 |
Looked after children placed with independent providers are leaving care at a far younger age than those cared for directly by local authorities, new figures suggest. Almost half of the young people in placements with Foster Care Associates left care aged 16 in the year ending March 2006.
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25/7/2006 | Legislation update |
The Times (Public Agenda) |
Stephen Cragg discusses one case affected by the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000, which involved a Court of Appeal case, and the implications that this may have.
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14/7/2006 | Time to care: Care leavers' higher dream |
TES, p8 |
Iain Hepburn talks about Newham council's calls to ministers to give more support to care leavers who want to go on to further or higher education.
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28/6/2006 | Comment: If children are retreating into a simple, violent, two-dimensional |
The Independent, p29 |
When the British Medical Association published a report into adolescent mental health last week, and pronounced that psychiatric disorders in children were one in 10 and rising, it prompted a flurry of responses. Christine Odone also discusses the higher prevalence of mental health problems with looked after children.
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28/6/2006 | Warming to the task |
The Guardian (Society), p7 |
'Seven pillars of parenting' form the base of a care home's new approach for looked-after children
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21/6/2006 | Cash boost for children's trust funds |
The Western Mail, p4 |
Councils will be required to contribute to trust funds for children in their care under new powers announced by the Welsh Assembly yesterday. According to Children's Minister, Jane Hutt, about 460 children - 10% of the looked after children in Wales - will be eligible for the money from September.
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13/6/2006 | No home to go to |
Guardian Education, p12 |
Very few children leaving care manage to get to university. Those who do face special difficulties
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2/6/2006 | Time To Care campaign; 5,000 at risk of abuse |
The TES, p8 |
Up to 5,000 young people are at risk of abuse through prostitution, and children in care are particularly vulnerable, official figures from the Home Office suggest.
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2/6/2006 | How do we stop children from being looked after? |
Community Care 1-7 June, p16 |
Interview with David Holmes.
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2/6/2006 | A model for better care |
Children Now 31 May - 6 June ( |
Article about switching to an outcomes model of care, featuring comments from Barbara Hutchinson.
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26/5/2006 | Johnson vows ‘continuous reform’ in schools |
Independent, p19 |
Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, warned yesterday that Labour faced losing the next election if it failed to improve standards in schools. Article talks about looked after children.
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18/5/2006 | Care case decision-making in the spotlight as trends point to regional inco |
Community Care, p18-1 |
What lies behind the recent sharp rise in applications for care orders in some parts of England? Article quotes Barbara Hutchinson, who warns against reading too much into the figures because percentage increases would be amplified if the initial figure was small and that as the figures are regional, they could be skewed by changes in one large authority.
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18/5/2006 | Care case decision-making in the spotlight as trends point to regional inco |
Community Care,, p18-1 |
What lies behind the recent sharp rise in applications for care orders in some parts of England? Article quotes Barbara Hutchinson, who warns against reading too much into the figures because percentage increases would be amplified if the initial figure was small and that as the figures are regional, they could be skewed by changes in one large authority.
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10/5/2006 | Children of ‘slow’ couples are snatched by the state |
Daily Mail, p10 |
Thousands of parents have their children taken away from them merely because social workers have judged them to be intellectually slow, a damning study found yesterday. It showed half of all parents with learning difficulties are taken into care. The report found the key reason is prejudice against parents by social workers.
The article goes on to say the report highlights concern over the way ‘families are regularly ripped apart by social services and the courts for no reason other than that the parents are regarded as not clever enough’. It mentions the Daily Mail campaign last year and the Essex case. The article is followed by a half page comment piece by Eric Pickles MP, who says of the Essex case, “I witnessed an appalling crusade against my constituents by social services, as the officials at Essex County Council sought to prove their point’.
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10/4/2006 | Funding threat to academies that limit intake of looked-after children |
Community Care |
Academy schools that fail to take their share of looked-after children may have their government funding withdrawn under plans being drawn up by the Department for Education and Skills. Children's charities believe the proposal, revealed by junior education minister Lord Adonis in evidence to parliament's education and skills select committee, is a sign that the government wants to ensure that academies do not shun children who are more likely to have poor educational outcomes. Features quotes from Barbara Hutchinson.
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6/4/2006 | News in brief: Care home caged young rebels |
The Times,, p42 |
Rebellious young Swiss teenagers sent by thier parents to an unlicensed home for troubled youths in Spain were kept in cages as punishment, denied food and pysically abused, police said yesterday.
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5/4/2006 | Road to nowhere |
The Guardian (Society) |
In the first of a three-part series on the care system, David meets Steve, whose drifting life of homelessness, alcoholism and prison stands as a testament to institutional failures. Steve was taken into care at the age of eight, grew up in children's homes in the late 1960s and early 70s, then left for 18 dire, alcoholic years on the streets, punctuated by the odd stretch of prison.
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27/3/2006 | Comment: Shaping a better future for children who need a family |
The Herald |
Tomorrow a little-heralded piece of legislation seems likely to revolutionise the Scottish approach to the adoption and fostering of what we now call "looked-after children". There are 6500 of them, more than half with foster carers, 1500 in some kind of residential institution and the same number with friends or relatives.
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27/3/2006 | Minister acts to end wait for hotline in fight against child abuse |
The Scotsman |
A national 24-hour hotline is to be set up by the Scottish Executive for people to blow the whistle on parents they fear are abusing or neglecting their children. Peter Peacock, Scotland's minister for education and young people, has given the go-ahead for the creation of a single, country-wide hotline for people to report concerns about a child's safety.
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27/3/2006 | Education chief defends council's record |
The Birmingham Post |
The head of Birmingham's education service has defended councils after they were condemned for failing to stop children in care committing crimes or getting pregnant
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31/1/2006 | Consider boarding with care |
Public Agenda in The Times, p20 |
At The Who Cares? Trust we look at ways to increase educational opportunities for children from care. The opportunities offered at some boarding schools may look tempting in contrast to the bleak outcomes statistics indicate for this vulnerable group (Boarding is no cure for kids in care, Jan 24). There may be cases when such a move would be beneficial but not at the expense of the young person’s need for a supportive home environment, somewhere which could provide a link with family and friends. Done carefully it could work; done carelessly it could turn out to be the worst of authority placement options. Susanna Cheal, chief executive,The Who Cares? Trust
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25/1/2006 | Babies face year in care due to court delays |
The Sunday Telegraph |
Babies are remaining in care for more than a year before it is decided whether they should be returned to their parents or put up for adoption. Features quotes from Barbara Hutchinson.
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23/1/2006 | Despair of a girl thrown on to the streets |
The Yorkshire Post |
When Tracey was 12 both her parents, who were heroin addicts, committed suicide within a few months of each other.
After being taken into care a couple of years later her life developed a fragile semblance of normality in a local authority home surrounded by familiar faces, both children and staff. But two years on, aged just 16, Tracey – not her real name – was abruptly discharged from care with no proper arrangements about where she would live or how she would survive. Within two weeks, tired, broke and desperate, she was living with a 47-year-old drug dealer just out of prison.
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12/12/2005 | When care rather than court is best for young offenders |
Guardian, p12 |
Too many children being criminalised, says former head of family courts, Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss.
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12/12/2005 | Job with £115,000 salary still not filled |
icCoventry |
A second attempt to fill a £115,000-a-year job overseeing the education and welfare of all Coventry's children has failed. Bosses at Coventry City Council have twice tried to find someone for the job of director of children's services - they even drafted in a panel of pupils to help them find someone who related well to young people's issues.
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12/12/2005 | Government database to ID every child |
Guardian |
The government is to spend £224m on a database to record the details of every child in the UK. The database, which will cost £41m per year to operate, would enable social services and doctors to share information about children's health, education and addresses. Children's minister Beverley Hughes is pushing the project for the Department for Education and Skills (DfES).
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1/12/2005 | 'Mixed progress' for social care |
BBC News |
Social care is improving in England, but there are still worrying gaps in the service, inspectors say. Three quarters of the 142 council social services departments were rated in the top two categories, compared to just over two thirds in 2004. But the Commission for Social Care Inspection also warned children receiving care struggled at school. And the watchdog said unpaid carers - friends and family - were not getting enough help from councils.
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1/12/2005 | Social services hindered by lack of cash, says inspector |
The Guardian |
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1/12/2005 | Homeless group launches guide |
Evening Times |
A practical guide for foster carers and residential workers on what happens when young people leave care has been launched.
The Scottish Council for Single Homeless launched Moving Towards Independence - The Carers Guide at a conference in Crieff today.
The booklet has housing information and details the process of moving on from care, which research shows presents huge challenges to young people.
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29/11/2005 | An alternative to child jails is proposed |
The Guardian, p4 |
A network of secure children's homes should be set up to house a significant minority of the 3,000 juvenile offenders locked in child jails in England and Wales, the youth Justice Board said yesterday
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18/11/2005 | 'Huge shortage' of foster carers |
BBC News Online |
Article about the launch of NAW and the billboard campaign.
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16/11/2005 | A start in life |
The Guardian |
The British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) celebrates its 25th anniversary this week. Its chief executive Felicity Collier looks back on the journey.
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10/11/2005 | What a way to treat our children |
The Times |
Camilla Cavendish wrote her column about the number of moves children in care experience and talks about BAAF’s billboard campaign.
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7/11/2005 | Children moved up to 20 times in wait for adoption |
The Times |
A one-page feature on the billboard campaign as above quoting Felicity and Samantha Block.
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31/10/2005 | Worry over education of care teens |
The Scotsman |
More than half of all 16 and 17-year-olds leaving care fail to get any educational qualifications, new figures have revealed. Official figures for last year showed that approximately 45% managed to pass one or more standard grades.
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17/3/6 | Council must pay £500,000 for wrongly taking girl into care |
The Guardian |
A couple had their family life torn apart when social workers wrongly took their nine-year-old daughter into emergency care without good reason and kept her from her parents for 14 months, a high court judge said yesterday.
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17/3/6 | Letters to the editor - children in boarding care |
The Times |
Paul Bolas writes to support Sir Cyril Taylor's view that more children in care should be placed in boarding schools (report, Mar 15).
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17/3/6 | More children spending longer in care |
South Wales Evening Post |
More children are spending longer in care in Swansea, it has emerged. Over 400 youngsters are currently in care in the city, an increase of 36.5 per cent since figures were last published in 2002.
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16/3/6 | Send children in care to boarding school |
The Times, p8 |
Children in care should be given a legal right to go to boarding school, the head of the Government’s city academies programme said yesterday. Sir Cyril Taylor, chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, said that the State should pay the fees for children in care who chose to board. He told The Times that the first state-funded city academy to offer boarding would open next year.
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5/7/5 | Ministers warned over 'dumped children' |
The Guardian |
The government will tomorrow face a stark warning that hundreds of vulnerable children in care are being sent away from their inner-city home areas to deprived seaside communities, creating an "explosive mixture" that could lead to tragedy.
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1/6/5 | Dame Denise Platt: 'The life chances of looked-after children have not impr |
The Guardian |
Extracts from a speech by the chair of the Commission for Social Care Inspection to the National Making Research Count conference at University College, London
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23/3/5 | Sector divided over plan to scrap CSCI for single inspection body |
Children Now, p2 |
Children's sector leaders are divided over plans to scrap the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) and set up a single inspectorate for children's services.
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10/3/5 | Care for your Career - On the Move |
Community Care |
Haringey has also appointed DAVID HOLMES as its new deputy director: service delivery and performance. He is currently divisional head for looked-after children at the Department for Education and Skills.
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9/3/5 | The talking gets tough |
Children Now, p11 |
An interview with Lord Filkin, Parliamentary under secretary of state for children and families.
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8/3/5 | Out-of-authority Placements - Leaders deny failing children in care |
Children Now, p22 |
Social care leaders have denied there is evidence of local authorities breaking the law and failing to support looked-after children placed outside council boundaries.
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1/3/5 | Opening doors for children - finding new families for disabled children |
Flying Start Parenting Magazin, p62 |
Disabled children, like all children, need loving families around them in order to grow and develop.
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3/32006/0 | My surprise baby at 13 |
Daily Mirror, p4-5 |
Interview with Charlotte Maddox, 13, who recently gave birth. She fell pregnant whilst in a foster home. Her parents are now considering taking legal action against the local authority.
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