Leading experts hope it could mean looked-after kids get access to free prescriptions after an amendment on ‘corporate parenting’ to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
The NHS, Ofsted and government departments will take on special parental responsibilities for children who are or were in care under a proposed change in the law.
Leading experts hope it could mean looked-after kids get access to free prescriptions or that doctors take better care when considering the difficulties a young person might have in providing their family’s medical history. And they hope in schools it could mean more care is taken when, for instance, doing activities like making Mother’s or Father’s Day cards.
The changes are included in an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which will now introduce new “corporate parenting” responsibilities to all government departments and relevant public bodies for children in care and care leavers. The duty is intended to force public bodies to consider if a service would be good enough for their own kids, in a bid to replace the support of parents for a child in care.
Local authorities already become the “corporate parent” of a child when they come into care. Some already offer measures such as free prescriptions or reduced travel costs for care leavers, those aged 18-25 who have left care.
READ MORE: Care leavers could get free prescriptions and bus fares as top ministers hold meeting
It is hoped that in the NHS bringing in the duty could mean the introduction of things like training for frontline professionals on care experiences or ring-fenced apprenticeship programmes for children in care to get into health professions such as nursing. For Ofsted, which regulates children’s services as well as schools, experts hope the duty could see the organisation better take into account care-experienced people when informing its inspection criteria.
Campaigners hope putting the duty on government departments will help to tackle siloed thinking across Whitehall and force officials to think about children in care’s unique experiences. Concerns have been raised within the care sector that the Treasury fails to understand the cost-effective investment in putting money into care experienced people earlier in life amid significantly worse outcomes for the cohort in later years.
According to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in 2022, children in care consistently perform less well than their peers across all key stages at school, are more likely to be suspended and twice as likely to be absent from school. Some 26% of the homeless population is care-experienced and around a quarter of the adult prison population have been in care as a child. And care leavers aged 19 to 21 are over three times more likely to not be in education, employment or training than their peers. More than 80,000 children are being looked after by a local authority, as of March last year.
The government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill passed its final stage in the Commons on Tuesday and is now progressing through the Lords, where it will undergo further scrutiny. Katharine Sacks-Jones, chief executive of care charity Become, said: “For children in care to thrive support can’t end with their local authority.
“Health, welfare, education and other services play a huge role in their lives and can shape their futures. We welcome this much needed step to ensure more public bodies take responsibility for supporting young people to live happy and healthy lives.”
Speaking about the amendment, Children and Families Minister Janet Daby said: “Outcomes for children in care and care leavers are simply not good enough. We refuse to allow these children to be held back in life any longer because of circumstances that are out of their control. This significant change will help to break down barriers to opportunity and level the playing field by ensuring public services rally around them as parents would.”
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