Government(s)
Care Matters – a commitment to RCC and investing in
research (Social Pedagogy)
House of Commons Children, Schools and Families
Committee
high quality stable placements for a minority of young
people is too often dismissed …., not last resort, …
planned,… enforcement of higher standards, greater
investment in skills and a reconsideration of the
theoretical basis.
Meanwhile in Scotland
Scottish Government Minister for Children and Early Years, Adam
Ingram launching the National Residential Child Care Initiative
observed ‘the cost of failing to invest in high quality care is one we
can’t afford for our young people or society as a whole’ and the
desire to ‘make RCC ‘first and best placement of choice for those
children whose needs it serves.
A collation of statistics – DCSF
and Ofsted
• 92% of providers - satisfactory and compliant with the
NMS up from 58% in 2003 – 2 factors NMS, and
enormous investment professionally and financially of
providers
• Between 11-13% of Children in Care
• Children’s Rights Director reports tell us that young
people can prefer RCC
• CAFCASS statistics - April to December 2009 is 46.1%
higher than the same period in 2008, 37.6% higher than
the same period in 2007, 25.9% higher than the same
period in 2006 and 31.2% higher than the same period in
2005.
A collation of statistics – DCSF
and Ofsted (contd)
• The LGA estimates the extra children in the care system
will cost a further £187m.
• At 31 03 09 6,200, other RCC 720, and RSS 1K
• 9,850 placed annually
• Size now about right stabilising at approx 2,000 settings
which allows for 80-85% occupancy (not 100%)
• 25% leave care from RCC
• Most children’s homes now have less than 5 children
• 65% is private and increasing, 30% is LA and
decreasing, 5% is voluntary and decreasing.
CWDC
2 important developments
• LMCS – Group Living component for RCC managers
• Professional Standards for RCCWs welcomed by sector
Learning culture and organisations
Developing the evidencebase for the future
What Works in Residential Child Care
Note a different emphasis DCSF Targeted Mental Health
in Schools Project ‘focusing on interventions which
already have a track record of success …’ rather than
‘hunches, assumptions or precedent’.
bridge the gap consider research-based evidence
alongside practice-based evidence
So how can the RCC sector
respond?
1. Tell the story of RCC
• Explaining requires knowledge and understanding.
• Facts are remembered in relation.
• A social activity within a relationship rather than a solely
a delivery of one aspect of care.
So how can the RCC sector
respond?
2. Parenting and Child-focussed
Crucial difference of a social to a medical model - a task
that is done for and with young people. .
‘What matters is that ‘daily life within the home is built
from an attempt to produce systems that best match
residents’ wants and needs.’
So how can the RCC sector
respond?
3. Communicate in ways others can understand
• Commissioners were sensing and thinking types
• Providers were more intuitive and feeling types.
• Providers need to creatively communicate in ways others
can understand and use.
There is urgent need for wellconstructed, robust, rigorous
research which is reflective of
the current RCC
No substitute for a placement strategy based on
research data and trend forecasting.
What might be the emerging
messages?
• No loss of provision/decommissioning without an impact
assessment.
• Universalist/generalist community-based services AND
capacity to recognise and meet higher level needs.
• Spot purchasing or tendering? No one provider can meet
all needs, need diversity and thus need consortium?
Better still co-production and co-activity.
• National contracts – in need of saving – for sake of a few
clauses much good work could be discarded. NCERCC
Reg 34 template soon.
• Cost Calculator to be used by all – level playing field
3 areas needing urgent attention
1. Education
• Ofsted Annual report - a valid observation
• Quality Protects - There is a clear link between a young
person’s association with the quality of care and their
satisfaction with schooling and general happiness.
• DCSF National Strategies analysing data. We are promised
an analysis of Children in Care’s overall underachievement
but deconstructing the figures to the various needs groups.
• Establish the measure of ‘value-addedness’ for RCC in
general and apply a comparator for individual placements
and young people.
• SMART education planning, attendance matters, school
and home distinct, full or modified curriculum, support
integration
3 areas needing urgent attention
2. Outcomes – 2 aspects
• Ofsted – the new inspection framework should have
descriptors of each grading, be made public. This would
unite Govt, regulator, provider, commissioner and young
people.
• Each provider should have a diagnostic assessment that
directly constructs the Placement Planning
3 areas needing urgent attention
Mental Health
• NICE/SCIE guidance mid-February – need to engage
Contact Details:
National Centre for Excellence in
Residential Child Care (NCERCC)
National Children’s Bureau
8 Wakley Street
London EC1V 7QE
E-mail: jstanley@ ncb.org.uk
www.ncb.org.uk/ncercc
Tel: 020 7843 1168 Fax: 020 7278 8340
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