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The government will create a national agency to provide oversight of child protection practice in England, the safeguarding minister has revealed.

The Child Protection Authority (CPA) will provide “national leadership and learning on child protection and safeguarding”, with work to establish it beginning this year, Jess Phillips told the House of Commons this week.

Creating a CPA in each of England and Wales was one of the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse’s (IICSA) final report, published in 2022.

Inquiry’s proposal for Child Protection Authority

IICSA said these should be independent statutory bodies that would be repositories of expertise on child protection and tasked with improving practice, advising governments on policy and, where necessary, inspecting institutions.

The inquiry said they would fill gaps in current arrangements by inspecting non-statutory or unregulated organisations where children spend time and multi-agency child protection arrangements.

However, the then Conservative government rejected the proposal – in relation to England – in 2023, on the grounds that many of its proposed functions were already being carried out by existing bodies. These included the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (“the national panel”), which reviews learning from serious child protection cases.

The Welsh Government has said that the country’s existing National Independent Safeguarding Board fulfilled IICSA’s proposed remit for a CPA.

Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel remit to be expanded

In her statement to the Commons, Phillips said the CPA would initially be set up within the national panel, with work starting immediately to expand the panel’s role.

This would involve giving the panel “the resources it needs to increase its analytical capacity and its capability to develop high-quality material for practitioners”, said an accompanying Home Office report on the government’s approach to IICSA’s recommendations.

Later this year, the government will consult on the make-up and remit of the CPA, including any aspects that would require legislation. The Home Office report did not commit itself to retaining the CPA within the national panel in future or setting it up as a separate body, meaning this may be consulted upon.

Phillips told the Commons that the consultation would “take time” and not involve “upending an entire system”.

Authority ‘must help make difference to children’

The panel welcomed the plan for it to “help create the foundations for a new Child Protection Authority across England” and said it was committed to working closely with the government on this.

Its chair, Annie Hudson, said: “The panel’s oversight and work to support learning from serious incidents where children have died or been seriously harmed, inside and outside their families, provides important insight about how children can be better safeguarded and protected from all forms of abuse.

“It is important that the powers and remit of a new Child Protection Authority will help make a difference to children.”

“We are committed to working closely with government and other stakeholders as plans develop and the detailed roadmap is progressed,” she added. “It is vital that all those who work with children participate in the forthcoming consultation so together we develop a child protection system that keeps children’s needs at the heart of all decision making.”

No inspection function for Child Protection Authority

While the department said that IICSA’s recommendations would be “core to the development of the consultation”, it ruled out giving the CPA any role in inspection.

This was to ensure that agencies were “transparent about failings” with the CPA to enable it to “provide expert advice on how to improve and change”, an approach that could be impeded by giving it inspection powers.

The Home Office also highlighted findings from IICSA and other organisations that inspectorates had “failed to identify abuse taking place in institutions”.

Joint inspection on CSA within families

In relation to inspection, it said it Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the police and probation inspectorates would carry out a joint targeted area inspection (JTAI) of agencies’ response to child sexual abuse in family settings in autumn 2025.

The Home Office also pledged to create a cross-government working group to look at improving single and joint inspection of child protection and post-inspection accountability arrangements, to ensure areas acted on recommendations.

IICSA also recommended that the government appoint a cabinet-level minister for children to provide a sharper focus across government on
issues affecting them.

The Home Office said the government would not be implementing this specific recommendation, with the education secretary – currently, Bridget Phillipson – remaining the cabinet minister responsible for children’s issues.

Cross-government child protection board

However, it said that a “keeping children safe” ministerial board, including all ministers with roles affecting children, would be set up to support cross-government working on safeguarding. Its role would include:

• Monitoring delivery of the CPA and taking advice from it, on government policy on child protection, once it had been established.
• Tracking progress on the implementation of national panel reports, including its 2024 review of intrafamilial child sexual abuse (CSA). This found that children were too often ignored or disbelieved by practitioners, who lacked the knowledge, skills and confidence to combat this form of abuse.
• Overseeing the work to strengthen multi-agency child protection inspection.

Plan for mandatory reporting of CSA

The government has already pledged to implement one of IICSA’s key recommendations, the introduction of mandatory reporting of CSA by those in position of trust over children where they have received a disclosure of, or witnessed, abuse.

This will be introduced through the Crime and Policing Bill. However, the government has departed from the inquiry’s recommendations in two key respects:

• There will be no criminal sanction for failing to report CSA in line with the duty. Instead, such a failure would constitute “relevant conduct” that would be liable to have the person being included on the Disclosure and Barring Service’s list of people barred from working with children.
• There will be no requirement to report CSA based on the reporter witnessing recognised signs of the abuse, such as sexually harmful behaviour, physical signs of abuse or consequences of sexual abuse, such as pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.

Specialist therapy for victims and survivors

IICSA also recommended that victims and survivors of CSA be given a guarantee of specialist therapeutic support.

In relation to this, the Home Office said it would “work on ambitious proposals for improving the therapeutic support offer”, setting out details in the forthcoming spending review, which will set government expenditure limits from 2026-29.

It also pledged to double annual funding this year for national services supporting adult survivors of CSA.

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Rachael Wardell’s year as president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) is a pivotal one for children’s social care in England.

In the next 12 months, the Department for Education (DfE) expects councils to “transform the whole system of help, support and protection, to ensure that every family can access the right help and support when they need it, with a strong emphasis on early intervention to prevent crisis”.

Under the DfE’s Families First Partnership programme, authorities and their partners are tasked with establishing family help services – to support families with multiple and complex needs to stay together where possible – and multi-agency child protection teams – to intervene decisively when children are at risk of significant harm.

These reforms are underpinned by the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which also heralds action to reshape placements for looked-after children, to boost sufficiency and quality, better support children with the most complex needs and curb excess profit-making by providers.

An eye-watering challenge for DCSs

It would be a daunting agenda at the best of times for directors of children’s services also facing severe challenges in relation to other areas, such as special educational needs and disability (SEND) services.

But against the backdrop of global economic turbulence, deepening child poverty and tight public finances, the challenge seems eye-watering.

However, Surrey council director Wardell, who succeeded Andy Smith on 1 April 2025, says she is excited to take the helm at ADCS.

Rachael Wardell (photo supplied by ADCS)

“It’s a really interesting time to be president. With a relatively new government with a big agenda, I think it’s a very exciting time to be working closely with the Department for Education and others.”

Her approach, she says, will be one of continuity with her predecessors, adding that it is important for the association not to be “chopping and changing in terms of what we’re seeking to do when we work with government”.

“What we’ve learned that if you work with central government, you can’t, in the life of one presidency, necessarily achieve change that you set out to achieve. It happens over years.”

Influence on agency social work policy

An example of this is policy on the use of agency social workers in children’s services.

Wardell’s predecessor but three, Charlotte Ramsden, spoke out on the issue in 2021, calling for national pay rates for locums to manage costs and enhance workforce stability.

Ramsden’s successor, Steve Crocker, went further the following year, in suggesting an outright ban on social work employment agencies to tackle the “profiteering” practices of some.

The DfE then proposed national rules to regulate councils’ use of agency staff, which were consulted upon under Crocker’s successor, John Pearce, and then started to be implemented under Wardell’s predecessor, Andy Smith. Both Pearce and Smith worked with, and sought to influence, the department on the rules’ content.

The rules’ implementation will conclude under Wardell, who has been involved in ADCS’s influencing effort throughout as chair of its workforce policy committee, until 2024, and then vice-president over the past year.

Fall in use of locums ‘influenced by rules’

The DfE’s latest children’s social work workforce data showed the first fall in agency numbers in seven years, in the year to September 2024. Though this was one month before the rules came into force, Wardell is clear that they were a factor in councils’ reduced use of locums.

“I’m pretty clear that it is a response to anticipating the changes coming in and lots of positive conversations between agency social workers and their local authorities about whether now is the right time for them to become permanent.”

With the rise in the number of permanently employed social workers exceeding the fall in the number of locum staff, Wardell says it is not a case of agency workers leaving the profession.

“Obviously, we have to wait and see if it continues to play out in that positive way,” she says. “But all of the anecdotes I hear, alongside the data that I see, says that we are having different kinds of conversations with our social workers about permanent employment, which is a positive thing.”

The current Labour government is going further than its Conservative predecessor on the agency rules by, firstly, putting them into law, and, secondly, applying them to council children’s social care staff generally.

Wardell welcomes this move, saying ADCS was concerned about bad practices, such as some agencies only supplying authorities with whole teams, not the individual locums they need, being applied to non-social work staff.

Recognising the value of non-social work staff

These staff – early help workers, family support practitioners – will play a critical part in the DfE’s social care reforms, as part of family help teams, holding cases as lead practitioners, including after they enter the statutory realm of a child being in need.

Wardell welcomes this acknowledgement of these practitioners’ skills and experience.

“A lot of times there was a failure to recognise the other qualifications that they had,” she says. “They are already tremendously skilled and experienced and we welcome that parity of esteem that the new framework provides for them.”

Concerns have been raised, including by Ofsted and the British Association of Social Workers, about the potential risks from not having social workers hold statutory cases.

However, Wardell says councils are already investing in the professional development of family support staff, and other non-social workers, and she expects this “to be strengthened under these arrangements”.

But what of the government’s wider agenda of rebalancing the social care system away from putting children on child protection plans or taking them into care towards supporting families to stay intact?

Councils have succeeded in boosting investment in family support since 2021 following several years of stagnation, but spending on it pales in comparison with expenditure on safeguarding and the care system.

Prospects for success for plan to ‘rebalance’ social care

Wardell says the prospects for rebalancing the system are “the best in a long time”. Most councils, she says, have practice models – such as family safeguarding – that are focused on supporting families to resolve their needs and stay together.

This is now being aided and abetted by policy, legislation and funding.

To help them engineer the shift, the DfE has provided authorities with a £270m children’s social care prevention grant in 2025-26, which they are expected to use in tandem with further just over £250m previously allocated to the now closed Supporting Families programme.

Wardell says this is “absolutely better than not having that funding there at all”, but is not sufficient on its own, being a small fraction of council spending on children’s social care (about £14bn).

“Some of our challenge is to bend the rest of our resources in the same direction – and to treat the funding like yeast, as a catalyst,” she adds.

Making this happen is no easy task, given the other pressures on children’s services.

Combating the high cost of placements

Not the least of these the high and rising cost of placements for children in care, as a result of an increasing care population, with more and more complex need, shortages of provision and alleged “profiteering” by providers.

The government is seeking to tackle this both through investment in children’s home capacity and foster care and reforms to the commissioning, regulation and provision of placements.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill would enable ministers to direct councils to set up so-called “regional care co-operatives” in order to commission care collectively, giving them greater power to shape provision to meet children’s needs.

It would also introduce DfE financial oversight over the most significant providers, to guard against them unexpectedly failing and leaving a gap in provision. In addition, it would provide ministers with a backstop power to cap provider profits, should other measures not curb excess profit-making.

Wardell is positive about this package of reforms.

However, whatever the merits of legislative reform and increased funding, councils’ success in rebalancing the system are also dependent on the demands on them generated by social needs and pressures.

‘More child poverty and social disadvantage’

“We’ve seen upwards pressure driven by child poverty and some of the impact on our communities of social disadvantage and also some of the other changes in society around extra-familial harms, exploitation and radicalisation, all of which are challenging to respond to,” she says.

Beyond that, the government is now wrestling with the impact on the public finances of a less secure and more economically turbulent world. This heralds tight public finance settlements for services other than defence and the NHS in the forthcoming spending review, which will set expenditure limits from 2026-29.

Wardell’s message to ministers is to stay the course on children’s social care reform, based on an invest to save argument.

“We would say that we need a long-term financial settlement that provides us with security for children’s services and for local government more broadly, to go forward,” she says.

“I think that we would say that if you get things right for children, you are storing up positive financial impact for future years, because you have lower cost pressures when those young people reach adulthood.”

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The government has committed £25m to boosting foster care recruitment and support in England from 2026-28.

The money was announced in the government’s spring statement last month, when the Treasury said it would be used to recruit a further 400 fostering households.

Further details were provided last week by children’s minister Janet Daby, in response to a written parliamentary question from Liberal Democrat MP Tom Gordon.

Daby said the money would be available over two years – 2026-27 and 2027-28 – and was also designed to fund peer to peer support for foster carers, as well as bolster recruitment.

The funding builds on £36m allocated from 2023-25 by the previous government and £15m for 2025-26 provided by the current administration to tackle shortages in England’s fostering capacity. There was a 10% drop from 2021-24 in the number of mainstream foster carers – a category that excludes kinship carers approved to look after specific children.

Investment in regional fostering schemes

The investment to date has been designed to roll out regional fostering recruitment and retention programmes, set up by clusters of local authorities. These comprise three elements:

1. A fostering recruitment support hub, providing an information and support service to help prospective carers from their initial enquiry to making an application.
2. A communications campaign to drive interest in fostering across the region and increase the number of enquiries received by the hub.
3. Expanding the ‘Mockingbird model’, developed by the Fostering Network in the UK, under which “constellations” of fostering households provide mutual support to one another, led by an experienced carer who provides a ‘hub home’ for the others. A 2020 evaluation of the scheme for the DfE found that households who participated in Mockingbird were 82% less likely to deregister than households who did not.

In her answer to Gordon, Daby did not confirm whether the £25m for 2026-28 would provide further funding for these regional programmes or a different purpose.

Foster carers ‘lack authority to take decisions’

Alongside the increased investment, the DfE is also planning to enable foster carers to take more day-to-day decisions about children in their care.

Currently, a child’s placement plan must set out where authority to make decisions has been delegated from parents and councils, where they share parental responsibility, to carers, in relation to matters including healthcare, education, leisure, home life, faith and social media use.

Statutory guidance states that foster carers should have delegated authority in relation to day-to-day parenting decisions, but the Fostering Network has warned that this is not borne out in practice.

The charity worked with Green MP Ellie Chowns to table an amendment to the current Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to give foster carers delegated authority over these decisions by default.

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Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by filling in our nominations form with a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.

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Pledge to reform delegated authority rules

Though this was not accepted by the government, it has pledged to consult on amending the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010, which set out the current rules around delegated authority, to achieve the same result.

In her response to Gordon, Daby said: “The department has also begun conversations with the sector about proposed changes to delegated authority, ensuring that all foster carers have delegated authority by default in relation to day-to-day parenting of the child in their care.”

The minister added that the DfE was “committed to improving practice and guidance” in relation to the handling of allegations against foster carers, which she said was “a key contributor to high levels of…deregistration”, but did not set out further details.

Fostering body urges greater focus on retention

Daby’s statement came as fostering information service Foster Wiki released a report about carer recruitment and retention, based on analysis of data and its research with carers.

While praising the DfE’s investment in regional recruitment hubs as “a crucial and commendable step” in addressing fostering’s workforce challenges, it called for a sharper focus on retention to prevent experienced carers from leaving the sector.

This should include greater professional recognition of foster carers, backed by ongoing training and nationally recognised qualifications, a remuneration system based on skills, specialism and experience, and an independently managed allegations process, with representation and advocacy for carers.

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English councils have increased spending on family support services since the start of the decade following years of stagnation, an analysis has found.

Annual real-terms spending grew by 21% from 2020-21 to 2023-24, compared with 2% from 2014-15 to 2020-21, found research on early intervention funding carried out for the Children’s Charities Coalition (Action for Children, Barnardo’s, the Children’s Society, National Children’s Bureau and NSPCC).

The analysis, by research firm Pro Bono Economics, found that spending on early intervention services in general – Sure Start centres, youth services and family support – grew by 13% (just over £300m) in real-terms from 2020-21 to 2023-24.

Family support compared with statutory social care spending

This was driven by growth in family support spending specifically, which increased from £1.44bn in 2020-21 to £1.74bn in 2023-24, in real-terms.

Despite the increase, family support spending was well below councils’ net expenditure on safeguarding children (about £3.3bn) and looked-after children (£7.7bn) in 2023-24.

The government’s children’s social care reforms, which are being rolled out from this month, are designed to engineer a shift in the balance of spending towards early intervention by enabling more children to remain, safely, with their families, through improved support.

New model of working with families

Under the Families First Partnership programme, councils are expected to set up multidisciplinary family help teams with responsibility for families with multiple and complex needs who previously would have come under targeted early help, child in need or child protection services.

The model is designed to provide families with a consistent practitioner – a family help lead practitioner (FHLP) – to carry out direct work and co-ordinate other services, to enable the family to receive tailored support as early as possible.

While new multi-agency child protection teams will be responsible for carrying out enquiries under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 and other safeguarding functions, family help teams and FLHPs will remain involved and continue to provide support to the family in those circumstances.

Additional funding for prevention

The reforms are backed by a £270m children’s social care prevention grant, which councils are expected to combine with £253.5m previously spent on the Supporting Families programme to develop and rollout the new approach.

Around £13m of the £270m grant is designed to fund the expansion of family group decision making meetings, under which extended families come together to make decisions about how children should be safeguarded where statutory services have concerns.

Under the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, councils must offer families an FGDM meeting whenever they are considering issuing care proceedings, to provide family networks with the opportunity to identify alternatives to the child going into care.

The Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) will continue in 2025-26, with £50m available to fund therapies and specialist assessments for children formerly in the care system.

Children’s minister Janet Daby made the announcement today after being called to the House of Commons to confirm whether the ASGSF had a future, one day after it expired.

The announcement ends months of speculation about the ASGSF’s future, during which Daby – and on one occasion, Keir Starmer – have repeatedly failed to confirm whether the fund had a future beyond 31 March 2025.

Significant uncertainty for children and families

The situation had created significant uncertainty for thousands of children and families, led to some having their therapy brought to an abrupt end and delayed applications for support for those whose needs had been newly assessed by councils or regional adoption agencies (RAA).

Campaigners and therapy providers warned that this had exacerbated the trauma experienced by the children concerned, all of whom were formerly in care and, in most cases, were now in adoptive or special guardianship placements.

When funding ended yesterday, the Department for Education maintained the line ministers had kept to for two months – that it would set out details on the ASGSF “as soon as possible”.

Liberal Democrat spokesperson for education, children and families Munira Wilson then tabled an urgent question in Parliament today asking the government to confirm whether the ASGSF had a future.

Surprise announcement of £50m for 2025-26

To her surprise, Daby responded by saying: “I’m very happy to confirm today that £50m has been allocated for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund for this year. I’ll be sharing further details with the House in the next few days and opening applications.”

The funding is broadly in line with levels over the past three years, during which £144m was allocated to the ASGSF.

Funding beyond 2026 is subject to the government’s spending review, which will report this summer.

However, Daby said that ministers had “no plans” to end the ASGSF in March 2026, pointing to councils’ duties under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 to assess needs for adoption support and then decide whether to provide services.

Minister ‘appreciates’ impact of delay on children and families

Daby added: “I very much appreciate that the delay conforming continuation has bene a very difficult time for many. I’m especially concerned for children and families as many of those who the ASGSF supports are in great need of continued help.”

She said she also recognised the impact on therapy providers, some of whom have had to seek other sources of work, prompting warnings from adoption leaders of reduced capacity for ASGSF-funded services.

In response, Wilson said: “I welcome the announcement we’ve just heard form the minister, which none of us were accepting as many of us on all sides of the chamber have spent the last few months asking question after question and being batted away and told that an answer was forthcoming.”

Children ‘left in limbo’

She said the fund was for children who had suffered the “deepest trauma”, but they had been “left hanging and in limbo”.

Wilson and several other MPs shared stories of the anxiety experienced by constituents because of the delay in confirming the fund’s future.

Concerns were also raised about the significant backlog of ASGSF cases that will need to be considered by consultancy Mott MacDonald – which administers the fund on behalf of the DfE – when applications reopen.

Conservative MP Julia Lopez asked if there would be resource put into clearing the backlog, but Daby did not answer the point.

No commitment to putting funding on longer-term basis

Though Daby suggested funding would continue beyond 2026, MPs also asked for it to be placed on a longer-term basis.

Currently, funding for therapy is only provided for 12 months – or until £5,000 has been exhausted – meaning councils and RAAs must reapply on behalf of children and families who need longer-term support. However, Daby did not respond to this point.

At one point during the debate, Daby appeared to imply that the fund would be extended to those kinship families who are currently not covered by it, but she later said its remit would not be expanded.

‘What has happened has been really unforgivable’

Sector bodies welcomed the continuation of the fund but heavily criticised the delay in making the announcement.

For Adoption UK, chief executive Emily Frith said: “The fund has transformed the lives of tens of thousands of children and it’s a huge relief to have this commitment for a further year of specialist support.

“Unfortunately the delay has caused great distress for families and has risked further harm to children. There will now be a backlog of applications, and further waits for people in desperate need of support. What has happened has been really unforgivable. The government must open applications immediately, and then announce a permanent Fund so they avoid ever causing such distress again.”

Families face ‘dangerous gap in therapy’

Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies (CVAA) chief executive, Satwinder Sandhu said it was “enormously relieved and pleased that the funding has been confirmed”.

However, he warned: “We now have to redirect our concerns to the thousands of families facing a dangerous gap in therapy, of unknown length, while the fund is flooded with applications (once they re-open the application portal that is).

“It’s a dire situation which needs an emergency strategy from the DfE to identify and fast-track families in most need. There also needs to be consideration of emergency funding to plug the gap or at least reimburse services which have to use their reserves to keep children safe these next few months.”

He added: “What’s clear is that in recent months we have witnessed a shortsighted approach from government towards adoptive families. They recognise the urgent need for more prospective adopters, yet they undermine this by failing to provide adopters with assurances of support which is essential for all children being placed.”

Kinship, which advocates for kinship families, issued a similarly qualified message.

Delay ‘has led to immense worry and stress’

“This news will come as welcome relief to all of those kinship families who were deeply concerned about their children losing access to vital therapeutic support,” said its director of policy and communications, Rhiannon Clapperton.

“However, we remain deeply frustrated that this clarity has only come after the fund had expired and after a lengthy period of unnecessary uncertainty.

“The absence of any information about the future of the fund has led to immense worry and stress amongst the kinship families we support and campaign alongside.”

She added: “It is vital the government now works at pace to mitigate against the negative impacts of the delay and ensure that applications for therapeutic assessments and support can proceed as quickly as possible.”

Call to extend fund to more kinship families

Family Rights Group’s chief executive, Cathy Ashley, said the government had “extended a vital lifeline for families to access therapeutic support for adopted children and some in kinship care arrangements”, but urged ministers to extend the ASGSF’s remit.

“Family Rights Group has long urged the government to remove the requirement for kinship children to have been in the care system to be eligible, and to include those in informal arrangements.

“Longer-term funding security and improving the application process would be a boost to families too.”

Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Kinship Care made a similar point in response to the news, saying: “The minister was unclear on whether further children in kinship care could become eligible for this support. Our group, alongside families and the sector, has been calling for this to ensure all children in kinship care who need this are able to access it.

“We are encouraged by the extension but will scrutinise the details including any expansion when they are available.”

After this article was published, the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund was confirmed for another year, with £50m in funding. Get the latest on the ASGSF here.

Keir Starmer has failed to confirm the future of the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), with the scheme to provide therapy for children and families just days from ending.

He was questioned about the ASGSF – worth £50m a year – at prime minister’s questions (PMQs) this week by LLiberal Democrat spokesperson for education, children and families Munira Wilson.

She said the adopted daughter of one of her constituents had been receiving “much-needed therapy” through the fund to help her recover from “immense trauma”, but was now among “thousands” who did not know whether they would get more help, with the ASGSF due to expire on 31 March.

Starmer fails to confirm fund’s future

Wilson said ministers had “repeatedly refused to confirm” whether the fund would continue and asked Starmer: “Can the prime minister give a cast-iron guarantee to vulnerable children, adoptive parents and kinship carers that he will not cut that fund?”

However, in response, the prime minister merely said the government would “set out the details just as soon as we can”, an answer that has been given repeatedly by children’s minister Janet Daby in response to multiple parliamentary questions.

The ASGSF funds specialist assessments and therapy for adopted children, those placed for adoption, former looked-after children cared for under special guardianship or child arrangements orders, and those whose permanence placements had broken down.

Prime minister links ASGSF and welfare reform

However, Starmer appeared to characterise it as part of the welfare system and link its future to the government’s reforms to disability and incapacity benefits.

“The welfare scheme overall is not defendable on terms, but it must be one that supports those who need it,” he told Wilson, adding that this should be on the “basis of the principles that I set out earlier”.

The “principles” appeared to be those Starmer gave in response to an earlier question from the SNP’s Stephen Flynn related to the government’s plans to tighten eligibility for the main working-age disability benefit, personal independence payment, and cut the level of incapacity benefits.

“We need to give support to those who need it, we need to help those who want to work into work, and we need to be clear that those who can work should work,” the prime minister replied.

In a post on X following PMQs, Wilson described Starmer’s failure to confirm the fund’s continuation as “very disappointing”.

The fund’s rules stipulate that therapy can be provided for up to 12 months – or until a £5,000 annual limit has been exhausted – after which the relevant council or regional adoption agency (RAA) must reapply on behalf of the relevant child or family.

‘Small proportion’ will therapy services beyond 31 March

In her responses to parliamentary questions, Daby has repeatedly pointed to a provision that enables families whose ASGSF funding was agreed in the latter part of 2024-25 to be able to continue therapy into 2025-26, meaning their services would not end on 31 March.

However, this applies to a very small proportion of recipients, said Jay Vaughan, chief executive of Family Futures, a voluntary adoption agency and therapy provider.

“What [Daby] is referring to is that, for about 2% of families, if they got funding in the latter part of the financial year, they can get split funding [carried over into the next financial year],” she said. “But that’s not allowed for 98% of families. Their contract and their work ends on 31 March.”

It is not known how many are affected, but 16,970 applicants were awarded therapy in 2023-24.

A similar point to Vaughan’s was made by sector charity Adoption UK, whose chief executive, Emily Frith, said: “The promise of funds for therapy being rolled over into the next financial year was welcome, but in reality applications have been backing up for some time and this does nothing for those who didn’t get their applications extended in time, or for many making new applications in the run up to March.”

‘The most traumatised children in society’

Family Futures, Adoption UK and several other organisations have been raising increasing concerns in recent weeks about the impact on children with significant trauma, and their families, of uncertainty over their ongoing therapy or services abruptly coming to an end.

Vaughan said there were the “most traumatised children in society”, and a withdrawal of services risked placements being disrupted and young people re-entering the care system.

“Some of those families are in a terrible state, really close to the edge of disruption. We’re talking pre-order, where they’re not even sure if they can proceed with the adoption.

“Some of them we’ve got have a high level of violence, where the parent doesn’t know if they can keep going. Some are children who are suicidal, who are self-harming, who somehow don’t meet the criteria for Camhs. All of those have nothing [come 31 March].”

She said the situation had been exacerbated by therapists not being able to prepare children and families for sessions coming to an end, because providers had repeatedly been given assurances over the past few months that an announcement confirming the fund’s continuation into 2025-26 was imminent.

Level of uncertainty ‘unacceptable’

Frith issued a similar message, saying that the situation was “creating additional anxiety and distress for children and families dealing with complex trauma”.

“This level of uncertainty is unacceptable when we are talking about children who have already experienced so much disruption in their lives,” she added.

Should the fund continue, councils and RAAs have pre-loaded applications onto the ASGSF’s portal, which could then be considered, said Adoption England, the national support body for RAAs.

However, Vaughan said there would be a “huge backlog” of applications for the fund – delivered by consultancy Mott MacDonald, on behalf of the Department for Education – to go through.

Therapists taking on other work, leaving potential gap in provision

Meanwhile, therapy providers who have historically delivered support through the fund are taking on other work, potentially leaving a gap in provision should the ASGSF continue.

“RAAs do have providers who are moving to take alternative work and reduce the capacity they hold for ASGSF, and therefore we are at risk of losing sufficiency in the local market that RAAs have worked hard to achieve,” said Adoption England.

“RAAs are undertaking work, funded by the DfE, to look at regional sufficiency and commissioning arrangements, and providers are clear that the delay in decision making regarding ongoing funding of the ASGSF does risk being able to achieve this.”

Vaughan added: “I’m aware of other agencies making mass redundancies. I’m aware of lone providers, who have mortgages and children, who are thinking, ‘I have no work’, because we’re all dependent on one funding stream.”

Alternative sources of funding and provision

Adoption England said there were “no other streams of funding for therapeutic support, other than the local NHS provision that is available for all children”, though RAAs were “continually developing their adoption support provision” and some had multi-disciplinary teams who deliver ASGSF-funded work.

Vaughan said that Family Futures had been given a donation to help continue services for children and families post-31 March 2025, while one RAA had offered the agency interim funding.

However, she added: “But that’s one out of the country.”

For Adoption UK, Frith said: “We would like to see the Department for Education communicate clearly with families about the support they are entitled to and to issue clear guidance to therapists and agency staff so that they can effectively advise parents and carers on the best course of action.”

ASGSF ‘must be extended’ – directors’ body 

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services, meanwhile, joined the calls for the fund to be renewed.

Nigel Minns, chair of the association’s health, care and additional needs policy committee, said the ASGSF provided “essential therapy” and “must be extended to provide longer term certainty for all those involved, including children, families, providers and local authorities”.

“Alongside this, the fund needs to be made more accessible and widened out, to avoid breaks in therapy and ensure more children and families get the help and support they need when it is needed,” he added.

Children’s social workers are to be measured against a new set of post-qualifying standards (PQS), under Department for Education (DfE) proposals.

The proposed standards would replace the existing PQS, which largely date back to 2015, and are designed to set out what a practitioner working in local authority children’s services should know and be able to do after two years in practice.

Published for consultation last week, the suggested PQS are designed to work in tandem with the proposed social work induction programme (SWIP). Under the SWIP, the DfE would fund learning and support to newly qualified social workers (NQSWs) for two years, at the end of which they would be assessed against the new standards.

However, the SWIP, which would replace the children’s assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE), at least in local authorities, is not certain to go ahead as it is dependent on the Treasury providing sufficient funding in the forthcoming government spending review.

‘More clarity and depth’ than existing standards

In a foreword to the consultation on the proposed standards, children’s minister Janet Daby said they were designed to provide “greater clarity and depth” than the existing PQS, “enabling more detailed and consistent induction support”. They were also aligned to the DfE’s children’s social care national framework, published in 2023, which councils are expected to follow.

The framework sets four overarching outcomes for the system, designed to ensure children stay with their families where possible, are supported by their family networks and are safe inside and outside of home, and that those in care and care leavers have stable and loving homes.

These are underpinned by three “enablers”, including that the workforce, social workers included, is equipped and effective.

‘Systemic, restorative and strengths-based’

The proposed PQS were developed by a “writing group” comprising five social work leaders, an expert by experience, a specialist in curriculum design and a representative from Social Work England, in consultation with eight councils or children’s trusts and sector bodies.

The DfE said the standards were based on “the key theories which underpin the best evidence of the most effective social work practice” and the “most effective whole-system approaches” to children’s social care, which it specified were systemic practice, restorative practice and strengths-based practice.

As such, they recognised that children and families were “embedded in their social context”, were “relational in their approach” and were “based on a belief that families [were] experts in their own lives”.

Fewer standards, with much more detail

At 33 pages, the proposed standards are significantly more detailed than the existing five-page PQS.

The current standards cover 10 areas: relationships and effective direct work; communication; child development; adult mental health, substance misuse, domestic abuse, physical ill health and disability; abuse and neglect of children; child and family assessment; analysis, decision making, planning and review; the law and the family and youth justice systems; the role of supervision, and organisational context. Under each, it sets out what is expected of the social worker in a few paragraphs.

The proposed PQS has fewer overarching standards – six – but breaks these down into 26 outcomes statements, setting out what the social worker should be able to do. Under each outcome sits a list of ‘know’ statements, setting out what the social worker should be able to understand to achieve the outcome, and a set of ‘does’ statements, providing examples of what this might look like in practice.

Respond to the consultation

You can respond to the consultation on the PQS, which also covers the proposed social work induction programme, by answering this online survey.

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The Department for Education (DfE) has proposed a two-year support scheme for statutory children’s social workers, to replace the assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE) from September 2027.

The planned social work induction programme (SWIP) would give new practitioners “the best possible start to their careers”, said chief social worker for children and families Isabelle Trowler, in a video message to launch a consultation on the proposals.

However, the SWIP will only be implemented if the Treasury provides the DfE with sufficient cash in the forthcoming spending review, which will set public expenditure limits from 2026-29.

Under the plan, newly qualified social workers would receive two years of support – funded by the DfE – on joining local authority children’s services, at the end of which they would be assessed by employers against new post-qualifying standards (PQS).

The standards, also published yesterday for consultation, would replace the existing PQS (formerly the knowledge and skills statements) for children’s practitioners, which largely date back to 2015.

Proposed early career framework dropped

The plan for the SWIP replaces the previous government’s proposal for a five-year early career framework (ECF), under which the initial two years of support would be followed by a further three designed to enable children’s social workers gain specialist expertise.

The ambition to support advanced practice knowledge remains under the Labour plans, with the DfE saying it planned to “build on” the PQS by considering the knowledge and skills required to practise at higher levels, with an initial focus on child protection.

However, this would differ from the planned ECF, said Jim Magee, assistant director, social work workforce, at the DfE, in a session on the plans yesterday for Social Work Week, Social Work England’s annual programme of online events.

Magee said the department was not proposing a “continuous five-year programme”; instead, experienced practitioners would be able to develop specialist skills at any point in their careers, “not just in years three, four and five”.

Improving early career retention

As with the ECF, which was originally proposed by the 2021-22 Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, the purposes of the SWIP are to improve skills and knowledge and boost retention among practitioners joining the workforce.

“A lot of social workers leave in the first three, four, five years of their career,” Magee told the Social Work Seek session. “We don’t want that to happen; we want to keep people in the workforce and invest in their careers.”

As with the ASYE, the SWIP would be a work-based programme, delivered by employers, with participants given protected time for learning, which Magee said should be accompanied by protected caseloads.

The DfE said it planned to “produce high-quality, standardised curriculum and training materials, based on the PQS,” to support employers in delivering the SWIP and promote national consistency. This would likely be accompanied by support for practice supervisors, given their critical role in helping new social workers make a success of the programme, the department added.

‘More consistent’ assessment

Social workers would be assessed by employers against the new PQS at the end of their two years and, as with the ASYE, there would not be a nationally prescribed assessment system, said the DfE.

Also in line with the ASYE, practitioners’ progress would be evaluated by an assessor, which the department said would be based on activities such as observations of direct practice, case notes, feedback from families and peers and reflective practice.

However, the DfE said it wanted to ensure greater national consistency of assessment than was currently the case with the ASYE, and planned to produce guidance for employers on how to evidence whether practitioners had met PQS expectations.

It added that it wanted to minimise the burdens on participants, assessors, supervisors and employers, a point picked up by Magee in the Social Work Week session.

“There’s currently a lot of writing [involved in the ASYE], so we want to see if we can make it lighter-touch so people can show what they know,” he added.

Focus on statutory children’s social work

The ASYE for children is currently open to children’s practitioners in statutory, voluntary and private organisations, including locums. However, the SWIP would be geared towards statutory local authority social work because that is what the proposed PQS are designed to apply to.

As such, the DfE said it did not believe that the SWIP would be “appropriate for, or deliverable to, social workers in other areas of the profession, eg in non-statutory child and family social work or social workers who do not support children and families”.

However, it said wanted to test the eligibility criteria for the SWIP to see if it could be applicable to staff in other settings, particularly Cafcass, independent fostering agencies and charities delivering services on behalf of councils.

“We are keen to understand whether these organisations could deliver the new induction and if there may be challenges covering the new PQS,” the department said. “Should there be challenges, an option might be for those organisations to work with local authorities to enable their new social workers to experience the full range of the PQS.”

There are currently no plans from the Department of Health and Social Care to replicate the SWIP in adults’ services in England, despite calls from Social Work England for a consistent approach to supporting newly qualified social workers, regardless of sector.

‘Investment in early career support pivotal to retention’

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) welcomed the proposals, with its workforce policy committee chair, Nicola Curley, saying: “Investing in early career support is essential to building a more experienced, confident, and sustainable workforce. It can play a pivotal role in improving retention by ensuring social workers feel valued, supported and are equipped to navigating the challenges that come with this line of work.

“ADCS will respond fully to this important consultation to help shape a system that is practical, effective and properly resourced – ultimately benefiting both social workers and the children and families they support.”

Have your say

You can respond to the consultation by answering this online survey by 28 May 2025.

Government departments and public bodies are to be placed under a duty to promote life chances for children in care and care leavers in England, the Department for Education (DfE) has revealed.

They would be placed under a “corporate parenting duty”, through government amendments to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, ministers’ legislative vehicle for reforming children’s social care.

What corporate parenting duty involves

The duty, tabled by education secretary Bridget Phillipson, would require agencies, when exercising their functions, to

• be alert to matters which adversely affect, or might adversely  affect, the wellbeing of looked-after children and care leavers (aged up to 25);
• assess what services or support they provide are or may be available for looked-after children and care leavers;
• seek to provide opportunities for looked-after children and care leavers to participate in activities designed to promote their wellbeing or enhance their employment prospects;
• take such action as they consider appropriate to help looked-after children and care leavers make use of services and access support, that they provide and access opportunities to promote their wellbeing or enhance their employment prospects.

Scope of duty

The duty would apply to all government departments, generally in relation to their functions in England, Ofsted, English schools and colleges, NHS bodies in England, the Youth Justice Board and the Care Quality Commission.

The relevant departments and agencies would be required to co-operate with each other, and with local authorities, in exercising the duty where they considered that doing so would safeguard or promote the wellbeing of looked-after children or care leavers.

They would also have to have regard to any guidance published by the DfE on the corporate parenting duty, while the department would have to publish a report every three years on its own exercise of the duty.

The provision would not apply to the government’s immigration and asylum functions, while departments and agencies would only have to exercise the duty to the extent that it was consistent with the proper exercise of its functions and was reasonably practicable.

The amendments will be debated when the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill returns to the House of Commons next week, but are certain to be passed because of the government’s large majority.

Existing council corporate parenting responsibilities

The new duty would complement the existing corporate parenting duty on councils, under section 1 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017. This requires them, in the exercise of their functions in relation to looked-after children and care leavers, to have regard to the need:

• to act in their best interests, and promote their physical and mental health and wellbeing;
• to encourage them to express their views, wishes and feelings;
• to take into account their views, wishes and feelings;
• to help them gain access to, and make the best use of, services provided by authorities and their relevant partners;
• to promote high aspirations, and seek to secure the best outcomes, for the children and young people;
• for children and young people to be safe, and for stability in their home lives, relationships and education or work;
• to prepare those children and young people for adulthood and independent living.

The plan to introduce the duty was referenced in a children’s social care policy paper, published in November 2024, but not included in the original text of the bill.

This prompted criticism from organisations including the Association of Directors of Children’s Services and children’s charity Become.

Support for children in care ‘can’t end with local authority’

Become welcomed the proposed duty, with chief executive Katharine Sacks-Jones saying: “For children in care to thrive support can’t end with their local authority.

“Health, welfare, education and other services play a huge role in their lives and can shape their futures. We welcome this much needed step to ensure more public bodies take responsibility for supporting young people to live happy and healthy lives.”

However, the charity said it would be studying the proposals to see how they could be strengthened.

Record numbers of children’s social workers are in post in England but there has been a fall in the number holding cases, Department for Education (DfE) figures have revealed.

There was an increase of about 1,200 full-time equivalent (FTE) social workers employed in council children’s services in the year to September 2024, with numbers rising by 3.7% to 34,328.2, the highest figure in a data series that started in 2017.

However, the data, which covers registered social workers apart from the director of children’s services, revealed that there had been a fall in the number of practitioners holding cases in 2023-24, with four in ten now not being case holders.

At the same time, the FTE vacancy rate – which hit a high of September 20% in 2022 – fell from 18.9% to 17.3%, with the number of full-time equivalent vacancies dropping by just over 500 (6.9%), to 7,188.6.

The proportion of FTE agency social workers in the workforce also fell, from 17.9% to 16.2%, with their number dropping by over 650 (9.2%), to 6,520.7, a trend attributed in part to authorities preparing for the introduction of rules restricting their use in local authority children’s services.

Improvement in retention

Fewer FTE social workers left their posts in the year to September 2024 (5,254.6) than over the previous 12 months (4,728.7), bringing the turnover rate down from 15.9% to 13.8%, the lowest proportion since 2019-20.

Provisional DfE data suggests that 61% of these leavers – about 2,868.1 FTE staff or 8.4% of the workforce – left local authority children’s social work altogether in 2023-24. In 2022-23, 3,028.3 staff (9.1% of the then workforce) left the sector.

Of other leavers in 2023-24, 27% (1,275.1 FTE staff) moved between children’s services authorities and 12% (585.5) took up an agency post in the sector.

As in previous years, staff with less than two years’ service in their current local authority made up the largest group by time spent with their employer, with their percentage increasing from 30.9% to 31.4% (10,786.7).

The proportion of those with between two and five years’ service fell, from 26.8% to 25%.

Recruitment levels

The number of new starters dropped by just over 400 FTE staff from 2022-23 to 2023-24, reflecting the fact that no one graduated from the biennial Step Up to Social Work programme during the latter period.

However, at 5,613.4 FTE posts, the number of starters was higher than in any previous non-Step Up year, which the DfE suggested reflected the fact that record numbers of people (650) qualified through social work apprenticeships in 2023-24.

The figures also revealed that the average FTE children’s social worker was off sick for 3.4% of their working time in 2023-24, up from 3.2% in 2022-23.

Workforce demographics 

The number of FTE social workers grew in every age group, with the largest increase (of about 550 staff) being in the 40-49 segment. Staff aged 30-39 continued to be the largest group, accounting for 30.1% of the workforce, followed by the 40-49 group, which constituted 26.3% of the total.

The proportion of female staff was similar to that in 2023 (87.5%, compared with 87.4%), while the percentage of FTE social workers from ethnic minority groups (excluding white minorities) grew from 25.3% to 26.9%.

This was driven, chiefly, by the growth in the proportion of black staff, from 14.7% to 15.7%, between 2023 and 2024.

Caseload average hits record low 

According to the DfE’s measure of average caseloads, these hit a record low of 15.4 in September 2024, down from 16.0 a year earlier.

The rate is calculated by dividing the number of children or young people allocated to FTE children’s social workers by the number of FTE practitioners.

In previous years, the caseload rate has fallen due to an increase in the number of FTE children’s social workers holding cases, amid a relatively stable number of cases. However, in 2023-24, the key factor was a drop in the number of cases held by social workers.

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Do you have a colleague, mentor, or social work figure you can’t help but gush about?

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Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by filling in our nominations form with a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.

*Please note that, despite the need to provide your name and role, you or the nominee can be anonymous in the published entry*

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

Fall in number of case-holding practitioners

From September 2023 to September 2024, the number of case-holding social workers fell by 1.5%, from about 21,111.4 to 20,803.5 FTE staff.

This means the proportion of case holders in the workforce (60.6%) is at its lowest level since records began in 2017.

The data showed small increases in the number of social work-registered senior managers and middle managers, who accounted for 2.1% and 5% of the workforce, respectively, in September 2024.

The number of first-line managers grew by just over 400 FTE staff, to 5,449.7, 15.9% of the workforce, up from 15.2% a year earlier.

Growing number of qualified staff not holding cases

The group that saw the biggest rise was qualified practitioners who were not holding cases, whose number increased by 1,700, to 6,373.1 – 18.6% of the workforce, up from 14.1% in 2023.

The DfE said this was caused in part by a new rule, under which practitioners previously categorised as case holders were reclassified as non-case holders if they did not hold any cases at the time of the data collection.

Social workers who do not hold cases, and are also not managers, include practice development, workforce development and quality assurance staff. Given that the DfE data is taken on 30 September each year, it may also include staff just starting their assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE) programme who have not yet been allocated a caseload.

Social workers ‘have faced impossible workloads for too long’

Janet Daby (credit: Richard Townsend Photography)

In response to the figures, children and families minister Janet Daby – herself a former social worker – said that practitioners had struggled for “too long” with “impossible workloads and an over-reliance on agency staff”.

Consequently, she said it was “encouraging” to see “average caseloads reducing, fewer agency workers and fewer people leaving the profession”.

However, she added: “I know that social workers still face significant challenges, which is why I’m determined to see this trend continue.”

She said that the profession was “at the heart” of the government’s plans to reform children’s social care.

‘Progress and ongoing challenges’ for workforce – ADCS

Echoing some of Daby’s message, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services said that the workforce data highlighted “both progress and ongoing challenges”.

Nicola Curley, chair of the ADCS’s workforce policy committee, said it was “encouraging” to see growth in the number of social workers and reduction in the use of agency staff.

However, she added: “Despite these positive trends, the high vacancy rate in some areas continues to be a concern.  Many local areas are facing their own pressures, and we need to ensure that national statistics don’t mask this.

“ADCS will continue to work with the Department for Education and others on implementing reforms to ensure they impact positively on children and families and result in the sustainable workforce they both need and deserve.”