Children in care
Children Missing from Care and from Home: Guidance for Local
Authorities (2002)
For full details and to download guidance, go to the Young
Runaways page.
Personal Education Allowances for Looked After Children: Statutory
Guidance for Local Authorities (launched 28 May 2008)
For full details and to download the guidance, go to the Educational
achievement of looked-after children page.
Trust Fund Account Top- Up Payments for Looked After Children:
Statutory Guidance on Local Authority Practice in England
(launched 28 May)
For full details and to download the guidance, go to the Child
Trust Fund page.
Care Matters: Time to deliver for children in care (launched 26 March
2008)
For full details, download the implementation
plan from the Publications page and read the press
release in conjunction with the information provided below.
Care
Matters: action log
This paper supplements the implementation plan Care Matters: Time to deliver
for children in care. It aims to provide a detailed log of each of the
commitments set out in the Care Matters White Paper, published in June 2007,
with a date for implementation and a description of how each action is being
taken forward. The log frequently refers to parts of the statutory and
regulatory framework.
Children in the care of local authorities are one of the most vulnerable groups in society. The majority of children who remain in care are there because they have suffered abuse or neglect. At any one time around 60,000 children are looked after in England, although some 90,000 pass through the care system in any year.
Care Matters: Time to deliver for children in care
Our aspirations for children in care are no less than each parent has for their own children. We want every child in care to grow up safe, happy, healthy, secure and loved. This is the only way they will be able to fulfil their very real potential.
The Care Matters implementation plan, Care Matters: Time to deliver for children in care, published jointly with the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS), the Local Government Association (LGA) and others, on 26 March 2008, is the culmination of a rich and powerful dialogue that began with the Care Matters Green Paper and was subsequently taken forward in the White Paper.
Care Matters: Time to deliver for children in care is not a traditional implementation plan in that it does not provide an exhaustive list of all the work being taken forward at national level to deliver on the Care Matters agenda. Instead it is intended to act as a guide for local partners to help promote delivery of that agenda at local level.
Alongside the Children and Young Persons Bill, the Care Matters implementation plan provides a strong framework for improvement. The plan describes how we can best deliver better outcomes for children in care, and help local partners achieve the ambitious goal of ensuring every child in care grows up safe, happy, secure and loved.
The plan is clear about the shared vision about what we all want to achieve for children in care and how this will be supported by performance management and legislation. It is also clear about the challenge for local partners; encouraging systematic planning for service improvement, and listing the tools, resources and support available to assist delivery. Finally, to ensure we all keep up the very positive momentum that has developed over the last year or so, it explains how we will collectively monitor and evaluate progress, including through an annual national stocktake.
N.B. The term children in care includes: all children being looked after by a local authority; those subject to a care order under section 31 of the Children Act 1989, and those looked after on a voluntary basis through an agreement with their parents under section 20 of that Act.
To assist partners in delivery, updated information and guidance will be made available over the coming months for each key area. At present, this includes:
-
Adoption
-
Foster
care
-
Family
and friends carers
-
Educational
achievement of looked-after children
-
Placement
stability of looked-after children
-
Children
leaving care
-
Special
guardianship
-
Healthy
Care
-
Looked-after
children: research and statistics
- Child Trust Fund
This page will be updated on a regular basis as more information becomes available.
This page was last updated on 25 June 2008
