New research from the NSPCC and Action for Children reveals that more children in care could be reunited with their families if there was better support available.
The survey of local authorities in England found that 78% of the 75 who responded want to provide more support to help children in care return to their families but face several barriers.
Local authorities are battling against funding constraints and difficulties with the recruitment and retention of social care staff, and these challenges are preventing children in care from getting the extra support they need to be able to reunite with their families.
If these struggles could be overcome, many local authorities said they would like to work with a larger number of families, or work with families at an earlier stage and over a longer period.
New national guidance needed to support children in care
The NSPCC is now working with Action for Children to urge the government to develop new national guidance and invest in support services for returning children in care to their families.
The process of returning children in care to their families is known as reunification. It is the leading exit route from care, but if children and their families don’t receive the right support at the right time, reunification can fail and this means that children have to return to the care system.
Sadly, current data reveals that over a third of children (35%) who are returned to their families end up back in care within 6 years.
The majority of local authorities surveyed by the NSPCC (63%) said they would like to offer more post-reunification support to ensure success and prevent children from being forced back into care. Most said that funding constraints currently prevented this from happening.
Survey respondents were asked about the principles that guide their reunification practice, how they identify prospective cases and how support is planned and delivered, both pre and post reunification.
The results show that most local authorities simply lack clear strategies to help children in care to leave and return home. They say that this is largely because of a lack of national direction, guidance or focus.
Respondents also highlighted the high costs of homes for children in care. They said that a greater focus on and investment in reunification support could help reduce spending on these homes, and benefit council budgets.
Number of children in care could rise sharply
These findings align with the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, commissioned by the government, which revealed that, without urgent action, the number of children in care in England could rise from 80,000 in a decade. This will lead costs to spiral from £10 billion a year to £15 billion.
The NSPCC and Action for Children have joined forces to call on the government to provide more investment and better guidance to local authorities.
They say that current government plans to improve the children’s social care system do not yet give enough focus to reunification.
The charities point to the example of Coventry City Council, which launched a reunification project to help more families who are ready to reunite.
In January 2023, they began working with a mother and son who were looking for support to bring the boy out of residential care and back into the family home. They received reunification support from a Therapeutic Practitioner, Adolescent Support Worker and Advanced Social Worker.
The boy’s mother commented: “With the help I received from Coventry City Council, I feel equipped to manage our relationship independently – knowing that support is always a phone call away.”
Calls to prioritise reunification for children in care
The charities want this kind of support to become the norm, instead of the exception. They are urging policymakers to prioritise reunification and help all local authorities in England to deliver sufficient, high-quality support to help reunite children in care with their families.
The NSPCC’s Associate Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Abigail Gill, said it was “disheartening” that local authorities were unable to offer the level of support needed to help families reunite safely and successfully. She added:
“We urgently need to invest in an effective, joined-up system which has the tools to accurately assess what a family needs and the capacity to prioritise solutions that work in the best interest of the child.
“This, in turn, would encourage earlier family-based support that would help remove the pressure and costs local authorities tell us they are feeling. More importantly, it would mean that more families are able to be reunited and fewer children will remain in the care system.”
Meanwhile, the Head of Policy and Research at Action for Children, Joe Lane, said that “too many reunified children end up back in care.”
He added:
“If we’re serious about reducing the number of children in care across the country, we need to give local authorities the help they need to improve support for reunifying families. It’s the right thing to do for children, and it’s the right thing to do for cash-strapped councils, struggling with the high costs of homing children in care.
“As a nation, we should give as many children in care as possible the chance to thrive at home with their families, in a well-supported and sustainable way.”
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