#KeepCaringTo18

Support our campaign to make it law that every looked after child 
receives care until at least their 18th birthday – SIGN UP FORM BELOW

LATEST

24 February 2022 – please ask your MP to sign Early Day Motion (EDM) 1006.

8-9 February 2022 – Article 39’s legal challenge to discriminatory secondary legislation was heard in High Court (rescheduled from December 2021 in order to have a two-day hearing). Please help by making a small donation and/or circulating our fundraising appeal.

1 February 2022 – a delegation of care experienced people took the #KeepCaringTo18 petition to 10 Downing Street.

2-9 September 2021 – campaign held a WEEK OF ACTION to mark the discriminatory secondary legislation coming into force on 9 September. More here.

15 July 2021 – read our response to the latest Department for Education consultation (deadline 19 July 2021).

12 April 2021 – campaign petition launched by Together Trust charity. Link here.

22 March 2021 – House of Lords debates new secondary legislation which provides that looked after children aged 15 and under may only live in regulated settings where they receive care. (Hansard transcript here).

19 February 2021 – Department for Education announces that it will only ban unregulated accommodation for children in care aged 15 and under (to be brought into force in September 2021). It will consult on national standards for unregulated accommodation for 16 and 17 year-olds in care, intending for it to become regulated via an “Ofsted-led registration and inspection scheme”. These new national standards will deliberately omit care. This is because establishments which provide children with care and accommodation must register as children’s homes and be inspected by Ofsted.

Secondary legislation laid before Parliament today formally creates a two-tier care system, it legitimates the absence of care for 16 and 17 year-olds in care, and effectively reduces the leaving care age to 16. (The Department for Education consultation outcome document can be read here).

6 January 2021 – Children’s Commissioner for England repeats her call for unregulated accommodation to be banned for all children in care (Guardian piece here). Seventeen year-old Hakeem speaks about his experiences of living in unregulated accommodation, with his request to “please find me, someone, to live with who is going to college”. Hakeem further explained: “In my experiences in B&Bs, in hostels, including when I lived in a hostel with my family and my little brother when I was at school, we were all black” (Guardian piece here).

We are asking organisations and concerned individuals to join us in ensuring that all looked after children and young people receive care, wherever they are living.

Under domestic and international law, a child is a person under the age of 18. 

Children are ‘looked after’ when a family court has made an order giving parental responsibility to a local authority, or when they are ‘accommodated’ with permission from parents/carers or the child if they are aged 16 or over. 

The #KeepCaringTo18 steering group is seeking your support for the following guiding principles to be upheld:

  1. If a child is being looked after by the state, they should receive care – up to at least 18 years.
  2. All children need care for their well-being and development, and this can be provided alongside respect for growing autonomy.
  3. Children, young people and care leavers must be at the heart of policy development in this area. This includes those who are currently in secure settings and those who have had extremely difficult experiences in care. 
  4. All forms of accommodation for looked after children must be regulated and inspected. 
  5. We reject the creation of two tiers of children’s residential care. The regulation of supported accommodation for looked after children must include a guarantee of care. One obvious way forward is for these settings to follow the children’s homes regulations and standards, which already apply to children up to age 18 and beyond.
  6. The government must provide sufficient financial resources for local authorities to meet their statutory duties to all looked after children.

If you or your organisation support us in pressing for safe, caring and supportive homes for all children in care, please complete the following. Unless you opt-out (you can do this by ticking the box just above the submit button below), we will send you campaign updates by email.


Background
Early in February 2020, the Department for Education started a public consultation on regulating semi-independent and independent accommodation for children in care and care leavers. This followed widespread and serious concerns, which were taken up by BBC Newsnight whose first ‘Britain’s Hidden Children’s Homes’ programme was broadcast in May 2019 (see here).

The government’s consultation closed in early June 2020. On 19 February 2021, it announced that it will only ban unregulated accommodation for children in care aged 15 and younger (to be brought into force in September 2021 – see the regulatory changes here).

The Department for Education is going to consult during 2021 on national standards for unregulated accommodation for 16 and 17 year-olds in care, intending for it to become regulated via an “Ofsted-led registration and inspection scheme” (though it has not indicated what this may entail).

These new national standards will deliberately omit care. This is because establishments which provide children with care and accommodation must register as children’s homes and be inspected by Ofsted.

This is creating a two-tier care system, it legitimates the absence of care for 16 and 17 year-olds in care, and effectively reduces the leaving care age to 16. (The Department for Education consultation outcome document can be read here).

Only 1.5% of children living in semi-independent and independent accommodation are under the age of 16 (90 out of 6,190 children on 31 March 2019), meaning the government’s proposals would leave the vast majority of children in this kind of accommodation without care. This is because the law states that establishments providing care and accommodation to children must register and be inspected as children’s homes.

In September 2020, the Children’s Commissioner for England published a report about children in care living in unregulated accommodation. This report reiterated the concerns about very vulnerable children being exploited and abused in unregulated accommodation that were raised by BBC Newsnight.

The Children’s Commissioner recommended that the use of semi-independent and independent provision should be made unlawful for all children in care: “No child under the age of 18 should be placed in an unregulated setting. All children aged under 18 should receive care, rather than support. As such, there should be a requirement that any setting they are placed in is regulated as a children’s home”. 

CAMPAIGN SUPPORTERS (organisations)

  • The 4Front Project
  • AFRUCA-Safeguarding Children
  • The AIRE Centre – litigating the rights of children in care in England and Europe
  • Alliance for Youth Justice
  • Article 39
  • The Association of Child Protection Professionals
  • Association of Panel Members
  • Association of Professors of Social Work
  • Asylum Aid
  • Baker & Joy
  • Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile
  • Become
  • Black Lives Matter UK
  • British Association of Social Workers England
  • Care Experienced Conference
  • The Care Leavers’ Association
  • Changing Outcomes 
  • Children and Families Across Borders
  • Children England
  • Children’s Rights Alliance for England
  • Community Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (CARAS)
  • Coram Voice
  • Equal Education
  • Every Child Leaving Care Matters
  • ECPAT UK (Every Child Protected Against Trafficking)
  • Family Action
  • Family Rights Group
  • The Fostering Network
  • FosterSupport
  • G&S Caring for Children and Young People
  • HeadandHeart Therapeutic Services
  • Isabel’s Voice
  • Just for Kids Law
  • Leap Confronting Conflict
  • Leeds Lifelong Links
  • Lighthouse Fostering
  • More than Grandparents
  • Nagalro
  • National Association of Independent Reviewing Officers (NAIRO)
  • National Association for Youth Justice
  • National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care
  • National IRO Managers Partnership (NIROMP)
  • National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS)
  • National Youth Agency
  • Nexus Chambers
  • No Borders Training/The Adoption & Fostering Podcast
  • Noor Homes
  • Norman Galloway Homes
  • Pause
  • Phoenix Caring Ltd
  • The POTATO Group
  • Prospect Training and Consultancy
  • Reclaim Care
  • Rees Foundation
  • Refugee Council
  • Reshapers CIC
  • Roots of Connection
  • Siblings Together
  • Social Workers Union
  • Social Workers Without Borders
  • Stand up Speak up
  • TACT
  • Together with Migrant Children
  • Together Trust
  • XYP Childcare Ltd
  • Young Lives Foundation
  • Youth Legal & Resource Centre

#KeepCaringTo18 campaign steering group
– Ali Gunn, Together Trust
– Carolyne Willow, Article 39
– David Graham, The Care Leavers’ Association
– Eloïse Di Gianni, Just for Kids Law
– Jacki Rothwell, retired social worker and children’s rights campaigner
– Joy Bradley, independent consultant (children’s residential care)
– Dr Lynn Brady, independent advocate and independent person for Children Act complaints
– Mohamed Mohamed, care leaver and supported accommodation worker
– Pat Leeson, National Association of Independent Reviewing Officers (NAIRO)
– Sam Turner, Become
– Terry Galloway, Norman Galloway Homes