Children living away from home

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• Introduction
• Conclusions

Introduction

5.1. Many children are cared for in settings away from home. They need special attention to ensure that they are adequately safeguarded. Sir William Utting's report in 1997 People Like Us provided an influential and much-needed focus on children living away from home. Research suggests much has been done since the Utting report to improve safeguards for these children. They are now less marginalised than before, but the needs of some particularly vulnerable children still need to be addressed [refs.24, and 25].

5.2. Following the first Safeguarding Children report, inspection work has paid particular attention to children who live away from home. This chapter looks at how well agencies plan and deliver safeguards for children in a range of settings. In addition to inspection work, the findings are informed by the consultations of children looked after and in residential education carried out by the Children's Rights Director.

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Conclusions

5.63 Recognition of the safeguarding needs of children who live away from home has increased since 2002. Agencies are now giving more priority to developing services for, consulting and communicating with, and ensuring safeguards for these children. There is evidence of improvement at a national level, for example in the attention given to safeguarding children in prison custody. There are also examples of strong commitment at senior levels to safeguarding children looked after, for example by elected members.

5.64 However, there are some areas of policy and practice in relation to children who live away from home that are in need of significant improvement. There is still an assumption that because these children are already in care or under supervision, they must be safe, despite the fact that the extent to which children themselves feel safe varies considerably. This level of complacency militates against effective safeguarding. Key areas for improvement include:

• contact for all children with people to whom they can express their views or concerns. Social services do not consistently ensure that independent visitors are in place (subject to the child's wishes) when a child is not in contact with their family;
• practices in relation to the physical control in many settings where children are cared for. The use of strip-searching and single separation in young offender institutions, local authority secure children's homes and secure training centres also needs to be reviewed;
• ensuring that there are policies and procedures for child protection in all settings, especially in some education settings;
• priority to the safeguarding needs of all children, including vulnerable boys and girls inappropriately placed in young offender institutions and children with a mental health condition admitted to secure settings. There is a need for continuity of care and provision for children in transition between areas or institutions;
• consistent arrangements by councils to monitor placements adequately, especially those outside the home area;
• robust arrangements for sharing information to identify welfare issues and needs. This is particularly important where children are placed in a council area by another placing council;
• ensuring all agencies consistently and appropriately raise welfare or child protection concerns;
• effective notification from NHS organisations to local councils about children who spend more than three months in hospital so that their welfare needs can be assessed; and
• effective recruitment processes and staff checking procedures across all settings.

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