NAO Report on Children in Care Slams Department for Education
The National Audit Office has released a report stating, “The Department for Education is not meeting its objectives to improve the quality of care and the stability of placements for children in care.”
The NAO, which holds local authorities to account for delivery of these services, does not have indicators by which it measures the effectiveness of the care system. In addition, there is a lack of understanding of what factors contribute towards the cost of care.
Late last month, the head of the National Audit Office, Amyas Morse, said, “Most children are taken into care because of abuse and neglect. But too many of them are not getting the right placements the first time. If their complex and challenging learning and development needs are not being correctly assessed and tackled, the result is likely to be significant long-term detriment to the children themselves as well as cost to society.”
The needs of children in care also include mental health support. The most recent data, collected in 2003 by Meltzer, showed that among young people in care aged 5-17 years, 45% were assessed as having a mental disorder, 37% had clinically significant conduct disorders; 12% were assessed as having emotional disorders like anxiety and depression; and 7% were rated as hyperactive. The prevalence of disorders rose to two-thirds of young people in residential care.
Although that was 11 years ago, the lack of progress was underscored by Morse’s comments: “No progress has been made in the last four years. If the Department is to break this pattern, then it needs to use its new Innovation Programme to understand what works, especially in terms of early intervention.”
The failure of successive Secretaries of State for Education to make a real effort to understand what is really happening to children in public care has been disappointing. It is also a source of major cost to mental health services both for children and in later life. The NAO are to be commended for shining a light on this.
By Danielle Deavens in conversation with David Goodban, Mental Health Foundation Interim Head of Children & Young People’s Programs
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