On Monday 3rd October 2022, Professor Ray Jones visited CiNI offices to engage with Members as part of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in Northern Ireland. This was an important opportunity for organisations across the Children’s Sector to help shape the review and hear about some of the recommendations that will be put forward to the Minister of Health and the Department. Our Policy Officer, Ernest Purvis, writes a brief summary of how the discussion went and what we can expect to happen as the Review progresses.
The Context
When we look at some of the statistics, the background to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care Services in Northern Ireland is particularly stark. We have the highest number of children in care since the introduction of the Children Order in 1995. The number of young people on the Child Protection Register is up. From 2017 to 2021, the main source of Children in Need referrals shifted considerably: Police referrals went up 10% (from 29% to 39% of total referrals); and Social Services referrals dropped 11% (from 20% to 9% of total referrals).
The Covid-19 pandemic, and the government response, brought a sharp focus to the importance of services and the fragility of the system. So the Health Minister commissioned an Independent Review to focus on: support for families; care of children away from families; structure of services; and support for staff. Amongst these key strands, we should not forget that the Southern and Western Trusts have a disproportionately higher rate of children on the Child Protection Register than other areas; and that one in five (20%) Children in Need are recorded as having a disability. Despite legal duties under the Children Order 1995, there is still no unified, robust system for collecting data on disabled children in NI, and research consistently highlights that parents do not get enough information and support.
Children in Northern Ireland (CiNI) have been commissioned to carry out an extensive programme of engagement with parents as part of the review and those workshops are testament to the professionalism and expertise of Professor Ray Jones and his team, who have approached this work with a genuine willingness to hear from families about what is not working and what needs to change. In order to support the Review further, and provide a platform for our members to engage with Professor Jones, we organised an open discussion at the beginning of October 2022. This was an excellent opportunity for a wide range of community and voluntary organisations across the Children’s Sector to feed into some of the thinking that is going on as part of the review and help shape future recommendations.
A crisis in Children’s Social Care
Prof Jones’ opening remarks highlighted the magnitude of the current situation. He said clearly that there is a crisis in Children’s Social Care in Northern Ireland that is both “endemic and systemic”. These terms, in his view, capture the reality that this crisis is rooted in localised factors and can be observed across the entire system. Simply put, it affects all services and is inherently linked to the way that they are organised. Prof Jones suggested that Northern Ireland is contending with its own specific version of the ‘toxic trio’: trauma as a result of the legacy of the past (and not just historic but current issues impacting that trauma; a political vacuum and void, with no one pulling the levers of government to drive improvement and transformation; and severe poverty, that is more prevalent and more intense than other regions in the UK. While this all might sound familiar, Prof Jones’ comments underlined the importance of looking at the major issues through this lens, in order to grasp the need for radical structural change.
Those in the room were asked some very pertinent, and possibly uncomfortable, questions by the lead reviewer – who said he often hears two things simultaneously, that “Northern Ireland is quite big” and that “Northern Ireland is quite small”. Questions centred around the need for operating services “times five” (in reference to the five Health and Social Care Trusts), “professional silos”, kinship-care arrangements, domestic abuse, staff vacancy rates, and high level Departmental and Trust priorities. Prof Jones’ view is that the Department are looking for consistency, and that Trusts are looking for the powers to get on with things. He suggested that we need a separate Children’s Organisation, that can grip the reality of frontline services and not be distracted by the higher level discussions.
Family Support
Someone from the floor asked whether we tend to see family distress as a child protection issue, and Prof Jones mentioned that sometimes we can “over-professionalise” things. He talked about meeting mothers who were having no respite from official visits, and yet none of the professionals were actually doing anything to help their families. Then when a multidisciplinary team was developed, the mothers said that it was the first time that they felt like there was somebody alongside them, helping to do practical things, someone who cared for them.
Funding
Quite a few people in the room raised concerns around funding and Prof Jones accepted that a lot of time and money is wasted on short funding cycles in Northern Ireland, reflecting the frustrations of members. He said that the challenge for the Community and Voluntary Sector is to move from competition to collaboration. He wants to see the sector work together and with statutory bodies to articulate and develop a baseline of what is needed when it comes to services. The case of funding being withdrawn from the Quaker Service for their family support programme was raised and there was widespread disappointment and some criticism of the approach taken by the Belfast Trust.
A Single Agency?
Prof Jones argued that a new Arms-Length Body (ALB) of the Department of Health could be established in order to improve the structure of services, but that it was important to avoid getting distracted or this may take longer than needed. He suggested a number of reasons for establishing a single agency for Children’s Services, including: the need for leadership with “grip and gravitas”; an organisation that is able to “hold the space”; to have authority and accountability; and being able to say “the buck stops with you…you have to make it happen”. Members largely welcomed this idea and it clearly sparked some further thinking.
What about Education and the Informal Youth Sector?
Members were keen to stress the contribution of the Youth Sector and others asked about the role that Education can play. Prof Jones said that he has been meeting with schools, SureStarts, Family Centres and will be exploring whether we should be expanding this sort of provision to older age groups. He has been really impressed with some school’s pastoral care, especially their work around poverty. Prof Jones mentioned that the Independent Review of Education is looking at social development and asked why Children’s Homes are mostly staffed by fully qualified social workers (while acknowledging historical factors e.g. past abuse cases) when other professionals have skills and experience to offer.
Raising the age of criminal responsibility? Competitive funding framework? Housing provision? How to ensure the Review has a tangible impact?
Overall, Prof Jones acknowledged a wide range of issues raised by Members and the importance of reflecting these in the Review. He said that we need to focus, and drill down into the issues affecting Children’s Social Care, because there is an urgent need to make something happen now. Arguably, he is already doing that. On Tuesday 18th October, Health Minister Robin Swann announced that his Department would be working on two key recommendations based on the Review’s interim findings: dealing with staffing issues and exploring options for a new ALB. There is more to come. Prof Jones talked about the need to reshape the system and transform the approach from an over-emphasis on child protection to more focus on family help. He recognised that the Community and Voluntary Sector adds value, knowledge and the experience of people using services to inform improvements. We are looking forward to having a further discussion with Prof Jones and our Members in February 2023.
On Monday 3rd October 2022, Professor Ray Jones visited CiNI offices to engage with Members as part of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in Northern Ireland. This was an important opportunity for organisations across the Children’s Sector to help shape the review and hear about some of the recommendations that will be put forward to the Minister of Health and the Department. Our Policy Officer, Ernest Purvis, writes a brief summary of how the discussion went and what we can expect to happen as the Review progresses.
The Context
When we look at some of the statistics, the background to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care Services in Northern Ireland is particularly stark. We have the highest number of children in care since the introduction of the Children Order in 1995. The number of young people on the Child Protection Register is up. From 2017 to 2021, the main source of Children in Need referrals shifted considerably: Police referrals went up 10% (from 29% to 39% of total referrals); and Social Services referrals dropped 11% (from 20% to 9% of total referrals).
The Covid-19 pandemic, and the government response, brought a sharp focus to the importance of services and the fragility of the system. So the Health Minister commissioned an Independent Review to focus on: support for families; care of children away from families; structure of services; and support for staff. Amongst these key strands, we should not forget that the Southern and Western Trusts have a disproportionately higher rate of children on the Child Protection Register than other areas; and that one in five (20%) Children in Need are recorded as having a disability. Despite legal duties under the Children Order 1995, there is still no unified, robust system for collecting data on disabled children in NI, and research consistently highlights that parents do not get enough information and support.
Children in Northern Ireland (CiNI) have been commissioned to carry out an extensive programme of engagement with parents as part of the review and those workshops are testament to the professionalism and expertise of Professor Ray Jones and his team, who have approached this work with a genuine willingness to hear from families about what is not working and what needs to change. In order to support the Review further, and provide a platform for our members to engage with Professor Jones, we organised an open discussion at the beginning of October 2022. This was an excellent opportunity for a wide range of community and voluntary organisations across the Children’s Sector to feed into some of the thinking that is going on as part of the review and help shape future recommendations.
A crisis in Children’s Social Care
Prof Jones’ opening remarks highlighted the magnitude of the current situation. He said clearly that there is a crisis in Children’s Social Care in Northern Ireland that is both “endemic and systemic”. These terms, in his view, capture the reality that this crisis is rooted in localised factors and can be observed across the entire system. Simply put, it affects all services and is inherently linked to the way that they are organised. Prof Jones suggested that Northern Ireland is contending with its own specific version of the ‘toxic trio’: trauma as a result of the legacy of the past (and not just historic but current issues impacting that trauma; a political vacuum and void, with no one pulling the levers of government to drive improvement and transformation; and severe poverty, that is more prevalent and more intense than other regions in the UK. While this all might sound familiar, Prof Jones’ comments underlined the importance of looking at the major issues through this lens, in order to grasp the need for radical structural change.
Those in the room were asked some very pertinent, and possibly uncomfortable, questions by the lead reviewer – who said he often hears two things simultaneously, that “Northern Ireland is quite big” and that “Northern Ireland is quite small”. Questions centred around the need for operating services “times five” (in reference to the five Health and Social Care Trusts), “professional silos”, kinship-care arrangements, domestic abuse, staff vacancy rates, and high level Departmental and Trust priorities. Prof Jones’ view is that the Department are looking for consistency, and that Trusts are looking for the powers to get on with things. He suggested that we need a separate Children’s Organisation, that can grip the reality of frontline services and not be distracted by the higher level discussions.
Family Support
Someone from the floor asked whether we tend to see family distress as a child protection issue, and Prof Jones mentioned that sometimes we can “over-professionalise” things. He talked about meeting mothers who were having no respite from official visits, and yet none of the professionals were actually doing anything to help their families. Then when a multidisciplinary team was developed, the mothers said that it was the first time that they felt like there was somebody alongside them, helping to do practical things, someone who cared for them.
Funding
Quite a few people in the room raised concerns around funding and Prof Jones accepted that a lot of time and money is wasted on short funding cycles in Northern Ireland, reflecting the frustrations of members. He said that the challenge for the Community and Voluntary Sector is to move from competition to collaboration. He wants to see the sector work together and with statutory bodies to articulate and develop a baseline of what is needed when it comes to services. The case of funding being withdrawn from the Quaker Service for their family support programme was raised and there was widespread disappointment and some criticism of the approach taken by the Belfast Trust.
A Single Agency?
Prof Jones argued that a new Arms-Length Body (ALB) of the Department of Health could be established in order to improve the structure of services, but that it was important to avoid getting distracted or this may take longer than needed. He suggested a number of reasons for establishing a single agency for Children’s Services, including: the need for leadership with “grip and gravitas”; an organisation that is able to “hold the space”; to have authority and accountability; and being able to say “the buck stops with you…you have to make it happen”. Members largely welcomed this idea and it clearly sparked some further thinking.
What about Education and the Informal Youth Sector?
Members were keen to stress the contribution of the Youth Sector and others asked about the role that Education can play. Prof Jones said that he has been meeting with schools, SureStarts, Family Centres and will be exploring whether we should be expanding this sort of provision to older age groups. He has been really impressed with some school’s pastoral care, especially their work around poverty. Prof Jones mentioned that the Independent Review of Education is looking at social development and asked why Children’s Homes are mostly staffed by fully qualified social workers (while acknowledging historical factors e.g. past abuse cases) when other professionals have skills and experience to offer.
Raising the age of criminal responsibility? Competitive funding framework? Housing provision? How to ensure the Review has a tangible impact?
Overall, Prof Jones acknowledged a wide range of issues raised by Members and the importance of reflecting these in the Review. He said that we need to focus, and drill down into the issues affecting Children’s Social Care, because there is an urgent need to make something happen now. Arguably, he is already doing that. On Tuesday 18th October, Health Minister Robin Swann announced that his Department would be working on two key recommendations based on the Review’s interim findings: dealing with staffing issues and exploring options for a new ALB. There is more to come. Prof Jones talked about the need to reshape the system and transform the approach from an over-emphasis on child protection to more focus on family help. He recognised that the Community and Voluntary Sector adds value, knowledge and the experience of people using services to inform improvements. We are looking forward to having a further discussion with Prof Jones and our Members in February 2023.
