Polly Toynbee is wrong to defend Labour’s legacy of a broken society.
4,000 children were adopted last year – the highest since 1992. But the number languishing in the care system remains a scandal.
Cllr Jenny Whittle, the Cabinet Member for Specialist Children's Services on Kent County Council, says remembering the human factor can help more children in the care system have the chance of adoption The Government’s drive for councils to increase the number of adoptions, recruit more adopters, and eradicate delay in getting children adopted is absolutely […]
An Ofsted report has found Sandwell Council's Children's Services Department to be "inadequate." The trouble with the report is that it is concerned with process rather than outcomes. None of the warped ideological bigotry, which constitutes orthodox opinion in children's services departments, is really challenged. Instead we discover that the social workers are hopeless with […]
TheTimes reports (£) this morning that councils are increasing the number of children in care being offered for adoption and speeding up the process. However it adds that there has not been an equivalent effort to attract more couples to offer to adopt. The report says: More than 6,000 children are going through the adoption […]
There was an excellent piece (£) in the Sunday Times yesterday by Harriet Sergeant about the scandal of children in care. While there is much to be angry and depressed she also identifies a few slivers of hope. rather than simply wallowing in gloom also considering what could be – to an extent is being […]
I would hope and expect that the Children and Families Bill will come into law and help to reduce the number of children in care by increasing the number adopted. However it is a very modest, polite piece of legislation. It doesn't banish political correctness. But it means that social workers who apply a practical, […]
Reducing the number of children in care and securing a higher adoption rate partly involves preventing social workers from imposing ideological barriers. This is the controversial area, the battle against political correctness. But there are also plenty of cases where social workers are trying to get on with the task of placing children for adoption. […]
Last month The Sun reported on a scandal involving treatment of a four-year-old girl by Bristol City Council. She was left in foster care with a man accused of downloading child abuse pictures – the foster carer later committed suicide. The council delayed removing the girl despiite being alerted to the dangers. What compounds the […]
Some of the obstacles to adoption are controversial. Others are dull. The Government has made a usfeul start in attacking both kinds. They need to go much further. There is still acceptance of the lazy, defeatist assertion of the social work establishment that adoption must only be the destination for a minority of children in […]
Birmingham City Council have published a survey of adoption applicants. There are some sensible recommendations on some of the criticisms raised. So it is an interesting document and it is to the credit of the council that the research was undertaken and that it was published. Let's hope that action indicates a desire to change. […]
Dudley Council is holding a consultation with its residents on a range of Council Tax increases. Those who oppose a Council Tax increase are only allowed to have their views registered if they say they support cutting "key services." They are given a strong message that such an option would inflict terrible harm on residents. […]
An interesting paper from Policy Exchange calls for a big increase in the number of children in care attending boarding school. At present only 1% of "Looked After Children" attend boarding school. Most of those are with a disability in a specialist school (560 out of the 970 children.) There are 14 local authorities that […]
There has rightly been increasing focus on the dramatically better outcomes for children being adopted rather than kept in care. It has also become increasingly untenable for people to claim that it is "impossible" for most children in care to be adopted. Increasingly, the extent of the scandal is there for all to see. Children […]
First the good news. Most social workers are not members of Unison. Or the British Association of Social Workers. Or the College of Social Workers. Such groups engage in unseemly squabbling for money and power. Meanwhile most social workers find more sensible ways to spend their money than on subs to such outfits. This is […]