Improvements for children in care - blocked by prejudice and routine neglect of human rights

Low expectations and aspirations for children looked after by local authorities are a continuing barrier to improvements in their care. Social service managers are also holding back change by giving a higher priority to costs and budgets than to their corporate role as parents.

These views emerge in a challenging report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation about the future of care services. While public attention has focused on a succession of abuse scandals in residential homes, it points to more routine ways in which the human rights of looked-after children are being neglected. Drawing on interviews with young people in residential and foster homes as well as staff, senior managers and national experts, it argues that:

• Even though there is widespread concern about child abuse and neglect, public opinion tends to be unsympathetic towards children in public care. They are commonly labelled either ‘mad or bad’.
• Local authorities do not generally apply the concept of ‘being a good parent’ to their relationship with looked after children. Services are too inflexible to listen and respond to the needs of individual children. Foster carers and residential care workers are the most undervalued part of the care system - receiving low pay and little training.
• Social workers are often unable to fulfil the role that children want from them. Many of the young people consulted said that staff did not have enough time for them and felt they were not listened to. Social workers tended to agree that heavy caseloads made it hard to give children the attention they required.
• Too little emphasis is put on the inter-personal and communication skills that child-care workers need to build good relationships with children.

The report calls for a new national strategy for residential care services to improve their status and ensure sufficient provision, including services for children with disabilities and other specialist support needs. It also makes the case for increasing the number of foster carers, with better pay, training and support for their work.

Jenny Morris, author of the specially-commissioned ‘think piece’ concludes that all future services should be measured against two criteria:

• Does this service promote and protect the human rights of children?
• Can this service be tailored to meet the needs of an individual child - even if these needs are different from the majority of the children who use the service?

She said: “Human rights are about recognising our common humanity and about aspiring to give all human beings access to what we would want for ourselves. A rights-based perspective needs to run through everything done by all those involved with looked-after children. Adults need to listen to children and social services departments need the proper resources to provide good quality care.”