Children’s Homes Association launches sector-led process to define purpose of residential care in response to DfE-commissioned review that CHA says risks being predetermined by government’s aim to reduce use.
A review of the children’s home workforce risks being skewed by the government’s aim of shrinking the sector, a provider body has warned
The Children’s Homes Association has launched its own sector-led process to define the purpose of residential care in response to the Department for Education review, which CHA said risked being predetermined by the DfE’s drive to reduce use.
The association also took aim at children’s minister Josh MacAlister’s reference to children’s homes as being “institutional”, describing his language as “stigmatising”.
DfE review of children’s home workforce
MacAlister announced the review last week, as part of an announcement on the DfE’s drive to make the promotion of enduring relationships for children and young people the core purpose of the social care system.
The review – led by Emmanuel Akpan-Inwang, founder and director of provider the Lighthouse Pedagogy Trust – is focused on the sector’s workforce, with a remit that includes examining the knowledge and skills required of both registered managers and staff and the effectiveness of current qualifications.
However, Akpan-Inwang has also been tasked with defining the role and purpose of children’s homes, and in announcing the review, MacAlister said: “Residential care should be used for far fewer children and only where it best meets their needs, with a focus on maintaining and restoring family connections.”
Review ‘cannot start with answer and work backwards’
In response, CHA said the government’s desire to reduce the use of residential care created an “obvious risk” that the review “starts with a preferred answer and then works backwards”.
Its chief executive, Mark Kerr, said: “The government is right to ask what skills the workforce needs. But workforce development must be guided by purpose. If the government defines the purpose incorrectly, it will train the workforce for the wrong mission.”
He added: “The purpose of residential care should be defined by children’s needs and rights, the evidence base, and the expertise of care-experienced people, residential practitioners, providers, commissioners, regulators and researchers. It should not be imposed by government alone.”
Kerr said CHA’s own work would bring together all of these groups to produce “a clear, authoritative statement on the purpose of residential care” that it would then submit to the DfE review.
MacAlister labels residential care as ‘institutional’
CHA also took aim at the language MacAlister has used to describe children’s homes in various statements.
In a foreword to the DfE’s children’s social care reform implementation plan, published last month, the minister said, that “whilst a very small number of children may benefit from residential care for a short period, we should not pursue institutional care for children, other than in the most exceptional circumstances”.
At last year’s Labour Party conference, shortly after becoming children’s minister, MacAlister criticised the fact that more children were “waking up in an institutional children’s home setting”.
Minister accused of ‘stigmatising’ children’s homes
In response, Kerr accused MacAlister of “stigmatising” children’s homes.
“That is not neutral language,” he said. “It stigmatises children’s homes, the children who live in them and the skilled professionals who care for them.”
“Children’s homes are not institutions. They are homes. Some children need residential care because it provides safety, stability, relationships, skilled care, belonging, and the chance to recover and grow. For some children, residential care is not a last resort. It is the right care at the right time.”
DfE references children’s home ‘failings’ on sexual abuse
The DfE was also heavily criticised by Jonathan Stanley, principal partner at the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care, for the language used in the introduction to its review’s terms of reference.
In relation to the need for children’s homes to have “knowledgeable and skillful workforce”, the DfE referenced criticisms of the residential sector in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse’s (IICSA) final report, published in 2022,
IICSA had concluded that there had been “failures by staff to identify and act upon clear signs that children were being sexually abused and exploited”, said the DfE.
The introduction also referenced Baroness (Louise) Casey’s national audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse, published last year, which, said the DfE, found that children in residential care had been targeted by CSE perpetrators.
In response, Stanley said: “The introduction is egregiously negative in its description of children’s homes. It should be immediately withdrawn, rewritten, and reissued presenting a balanced objective appraisal as befits a governmental ministry working for the implementation of evidenced based policy.”
Residential care ‘plays essential role’ – ADCS
In its response to the review, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) stressed that children’s homes played an “essential role for children and young people whose needs, which are becoming increasingly diverse and ever-changing, circumstances or wishes require a different approach” to family-based care.
Dheeraj Chibber, chair of the ADCS’s health, care & commissioning policy network, said the review should be “grounded in children’s needs, experiences, and outcomes, and ensure all care settings are nurturing, relational and centred on children’s best interests”.
He added that the review was an “important opportunity to build a shared understanding of the role of residential care and the workforce needed to deliver it”.
“This must include recognising the skill and expertise of the children’s residential workforce and addressing the challenges of a market in which most provision is delivered by independent providers, limiting local authorities’ ability to influence training, skills development, and workforce planning,” said Chibber.
