The State as a Parent

There is much debate currently about changes in the law to allow (some might say encourage) unregulated placements for children who are in the care of the local authority past the age of 16. Quite rightly many people are opposed to this, including a huge number of those from the care experienced community. This forms part of a wider issue about how the state treats those to whom it is a corporate parent (I really don’t like that phrase, and find it dehumanising) once they reach their majority. Many of these young people, I deliberately am not referring to them as adults here, are left to sink or swim, and negotiate that cliff edge without support.

For those of us whose childhood and early adult life was not characterised by these kinds of experiences, think about how emotionally mature we were at 16, 18 or older. I can speak only for myself, and I can honestly say I chose my A levels, then drifted into my degree, and it was only during my final year of that course that I knew what career I wanted to pursue. Having taken a year between A levels and degree, I was 22 years old by the time I had this epiphany. I know a key factor in me being able to drift so casually was the security my home life provided. I did not need to think about rent or ensuring I was accessing the appropriate benefits, beyond the usual student living stuff. I cannot imagine how it must feel, managing lectures, coursework, and exams, and then also having to worry about how my rent was being paid during that time in my life.

We know that is not the situation for many of the children who are looked after by the state. I am emphasising the state’s role as a parent here, since this is also applicable to children who remain in long term foster care to the age of 16/18. Removing children permanently from their birth family is amongst the most serious and life changing decisions any local authority and court can make. When I provide training to social work colleagues, I am totally clear, if we make a decision to remove a child, what we ie the state has to offer must be at least better than the home situation. Huge amounts of research, and the work of those who have shared their experiences of being cared for by the state, need to be borne in mind when considering these decisions.

Set within the context of unregulated placements, variable availability of staying put/staying close provision, the well evidenced body of research regarding long term outcomes for children who have been looked after, and the concerns around the current review of children’s social care having no budget for any recommended changes, the figures released by the DfE on November 18th 2021 can only be of concern. These showed the total number of children looked after in England in the year ending March 2021 was 80,850, 1% higher than 2020, and an ‘all time high’. During the same period, there were 28,440 new children brought into the care of the state, and 28, 010 left such care – an increase of 8% and decrease of 6% respectively. Adoptions had also reduced by 18%. The DfE offers some reasoning for this as being linked to the Covid pandemic – court proceedings progressed more slowly or were paused.

Clearly all of the numbers need to be unpacked more, and that detail can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions/2021

For me, what is so worrying is what research tells us about the longer-term lives of so many of these children. Of course, there will always be exceptions to the rule, and one would hope many of these children are assisted to overcome the challenges placed before them and go on to fulfil their potential. In my experience this is often as more mature adults, and with little support from the state. Sadly, we see examples everyday of those who have been failed; I will not name them here, but in the past two weeks we have seen the premature death of a man who had been looked after and whose complex needs were never truly met, and we have also seen another man who had previously been looked after and is now in need of mental health support, be offered, what is at best, inhumane provision.

Looking more closely at some particular areas, Louise Roberts (2021), “The Children of Looked After Children” gives significant insight into the experiences of children in Wales who became parents whilst in or after leaving care, and brings together key messages from research undertaken between 2014 and 2019. Figures from an earlier part of the research in particular have always stayed with me. When looking at the 374 children placed for adoption by all of the Welsh LAs from July 1st 2014 to July 31st 2015, the care status of 356 birth mothers and 240 birth fathers was recorded. Of these, 27 per cent of birth mothers, and 19 per cent of birth fathers were recorded as care leavers, and for 6 per cent of the children adopted, both mother and father were care leavers. For 30 per cent of these mothers this represented their first child being taken into care at birth. When looking at the characteristics of care experienced parents and non-care experienced parents whose children had been placed for adoption, the key differences related to areas of childhood exposure to abuse, domestic violence, and neglect. Both sets of parents were recorded as having relatively high levels of difficulties in relation to substance misuse and criminal behaviour, their educational achievements were similar, as were figures for those in receipt of welfare benefits. Bringing children into the care of the state is designed to make them safe, and give them the skills and emotional resources to navigate life. More than one quarter of the mothers, and nearly one fifth of the fathers in this cohort had been looked after, so just how effectively this is being done has to be questioned.

Writing in The Observer, (24/05/2020) Mark Townsend discussed research undertaken by University College London, looking at data covering the period from 1971 to 2013 which found adults who had spent time in care as children were almost twice as likely to have a premature death compared to those who were not in care. The majority of deaths were linked to self-harm, accidents, or mental illness. The challenges of accessing good mental health support for children in the care system are well documented. If such mental health problems are not addressed whilst the most vulnerable children are still in the care of the state, and they are then left to take care of themselves, can we be surprised so many care experienced people experience mental ill health?

I have chosen to highlight two areas regarding those who have been cared for by the state within this blog – it would be far too unwieldy had I covered them all. I’ll return now to my opening comment regarding unregulated placements. In February 2021, following a period of consultation, the government confirmed unregulated placements would only be illegal for children in care aged 15 and under, coming into force with effect from September 2021. This basically means, having brought children into their care in order to keep them safe and give them more opportunities in life, the government is now washing their hands of them at the age of 16. Various campaigns are underway, most notably #KeepCaringTo18 by Article 39 https://article39.org.uk/keepcaringforchildrenupto18/ How much impact will be had remains to be seen. The proposed new inspection regime for unregulated care provision intentionally omits the concept of “care” – this would necessitate registration and Ofsted inspection. Many are active in the #KeepCaringTo18 campaign, and many of them have first-hand and painful experience of being parented by the state.

Without wishing to be defeatist, I think there is little hope of changing the government’s decision.

As ever, I don’t have all the answers, just a plea to all social work colleagues to look as far ahead as is possible when planning for children, and doing all we can to ensure opportunities for support are available way beyond their legal majority. I appreciate that may result in social workers being labelled as awkward or challenging. As advocates for children, I think those are labels we can be proud of.

References

Roberts, L. (2021) The Children of Looked After Children. Policy Press, Bristol

Townsend, M. “Childhood in UK care system makes you twice as likely to die earlier, study shows”. The Observer, 24/05/2020