chapter three: tackling the problems

This chapter sets out:

•    the action that the Government is already taking;

•    the recommendations from the PIU report; and

•    the new changes the Government will make, in outline.

3.1    The Government has already taken action to tackle the problems identified. In August, the Prime Minister set out new arrangements to give vulnerable children and young people the stability and support they need, wherever they grow up. Across Government, there is a commitment to ending child poverty by 2020, and to investing in services which will help to meet this objective:

•    by 2004, Sure Start will be actively supporting the development of one third of children living in deprived neighbourhoods, before they start school;

•    from April 2001, £450m of additional investment from the new Children's Fund, will begin to support new partnerships which provide preventative services for five to 13 year olds in the most deprived communities;

•    from 2001, the new Connexions service will begin to provide teenage children with focused one-to-one personal support as they make the transition to adulthood;

•    the five year, £885m Quality Protects programme was launched in 1998 to improve services for all children in need.

3.2    Quality Protects is an unprecedented investment in the future of some of our most vulnerable children. Early evidence shows that the programme is beginning to deliver improved outcomes for children. For example, in its first year:

•    500 more looked after children were adopted than in the previous year³¹;

•    more young people were looked after until they were 18, rather than leaving care at 16³²;

•    children had fewer moves between placements ­ 17.8% of looked after children had three or more placements last year, compared to 18.6% the year before and 19.6% in 1997­98³³.

3.3    Quality Protects is raising expectations and improving practice. It is delivering the Government's objectives for children's social services ­ with better management information, a new and comprehensive assessment framework, and the greater involvement of front-line staff, families and children themselves in the planning of services. Listening to children and their active participation in day-to-day decisions about their lives and the delivery of services have been Quality Protects priorities.

3.4    From 2001­02, improvements in services for severely disabled children will be a further Quality Protects priority. This sustained programme of change, designed to transform the quality of services for and the life chances of vulnerable children, provides a solid platform for further modernisation of adoption.

3.5    Improved adoption services have also been a Quality Protects priority. The programme builds upon circular LAC(98)20, which set out how councils should manage and deliver adoption services. The Government has now published a report into the implementation of this circular³⁴. The results are promising, but do not go far enough:

•    in many councils adoption practice is good;

•    some councils have children in need of an adoptive family, who are not found one;

•    these councils need to bring about changes in policy, strategic planning and family placement practice to secure adoption as a mainstream service.

3.6    The PIU report made 84 wide-ranging recommendations for Government action to improve adoption and to deliver permanence for looked after children. The overarching recommendations are set out in the box below.

3.7    Over the summer the Government has consulted on the recommendations set out in the PIU report. Over 300 responses have been received from a wide range of organisations, groups and members of the public. The response to the report has been very positive. The direction it sets out has been welcomed and the great majority of specific recommendations have been supported. There is a great deal of support for a set of proposals that will improve adoption services, put the child's needs at the centre of the process and ensure that adoption plays its proper role as part of an integrated service for meeting the needs and improving the life chances of some of society's most vulnerable children.

3.8    This White Paper therefore sets out a plan to transform adoption services for looked after children ­ and more widely to secure permanent, safe and supportive homes for vulnerable children. To support improvements in adoption services, and in planning for children more generally, the Government will:

•    carry out the most radical overhaul of adoption law for 25 years (see chapter 4);

•    invest £66.5m over three years, to build on what councils are already spending on adoption services (see chapter 4);

•    set National Standards for Adoption (see chapter 4);

•    set adoption within a context of permanence, with a spectrum of options for finding families for looked after children who need them (see chapter 5);

•    improve planning and decision making by providing better training and guidance for social workers (see chapter 5);

•    transform the process of applying to adopt, to encourage more people to do so (see chapter 6);

•    help permanent placements to last, by providing proper support for would-be adopters, adoptive families, adopted adults and birth families (see chapter 6);

•    improve the organisation of council adoption services (see chapter 7);

•    identify good and bad council performance on adoption more quickly, and act to spread best practice and eliminate poor performance (see chapter 7);

•    improve the performance of the courts to eliminate delay and make them more child-friendly (see chapter 8);

•    set out a timetable for delivering these changes (see chapter 9).

3.9    Any issue on which the Government plans to take primary legislation, and issues relating to the courts, will apply to Wales as well as England. It will be for the National Assembly for Wales to determine policy in Wales on transferred issues.