Four in 10 adoptive families are facing severe challenges or are at crisis point, according to a poll, leading campaigners to call for a legal right to lifelong adoption support. Read more.
Analysis by economic think-tank PBE, commissioned by the alliance of children’s charities the Children’s Services Funding Alliance, finds local authorities spent £8.4billion on supporting looked-after...
Early findings from Adoption UK’s forthcoming Adoption Barometer 2026 report show that more than half of respondents said they had been negatively affected by a 40% reduction to the Adoption and Special...
The Welsh government has launched a consultation around plans to “eliminate profit from the care of looked-after children”. The proposals, which form part of a co-operation agreement between the Labour administration...
Ministers should officially apologise to tens of thousands of unmarried mothers in England and Wales who had their babies taken for adoptionthrough a “brutal and cruel” process, MPs and peers have said. Read the full...
The statistics show that 32 per cent of all older teenagers in care live in independent or semi-independent accommodation which does not provide care. Of these 5,890 16- and 17-year-olds, 37 per cent moved into a semi...
The president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) has called on government to “regulate or preferably ban” social work agencies in a bid to “save millions from the public purse immediately”...
Charities are warning that more than 1,000 looked-after children are moved on from their placement every week. Between 2018 and 2021 there were 220,210 changes to care placements, the equivalent of 1,059 changes each...
In his final recommendations to the government, review chair Josh MacAlister suggests the creation of an independent child advocacy service which would see IRO roles and regulation 44 visitors for children in...
The Department for Education (DfE) has issued a report, commissioned as part of the independent children’s social care review, looking at the differences by ethnicity in the representation, experiences and outcomes of...
Like a protective sibling, I am the first to both criticise and defend the care system. It failed and saved me in equal measure. In adult life, I returned to it as a social worker. I know its flaws and its potential to...
In recent months, we have been working with three of our care experienced young people on a national project which aims to improve welfare support for care leavers. Led by Learning and Work Institute, this project is...
A national audit of the needs of children in care must be launched to properly deal with issues around the sufficiency of social care placements, Ofsted has said. New research by the inspectorate found that just over...
