The Education Committee will launch an inquiry into children’s care homes, it announced today.
The Committee has decided to launch the investigation following ongoing concerns about the levels of care children inside England’s care homes receive and consistently poor outcomes for children in care.
In a tweet published today, the Committee said it would be “welcoming contributions from anyone with experience of working in children’s homes, and young people who live or who have lived in a children’s home.”
The press release offers the following statistics on children in care:
- Just 7% of looked-after children achieve a good pass in GCSE English and Maths compared with 40% of non-looked after children;
- Approximately a quarter of both homeless people and those in prison are care-leavers;
- Looked-after children are four times more likely to have a special educational need (SEN) than other children;
- Children aged 16-17 living in children’s homes are 15 times more likely to be criminalised than their peers of the same age.
The Committee will be looking into several areas incuding:
- The data on academic outcomes and progression to destinations such as employment, apprenticeships and higher education for children and young people living in children’s homes.
- What can be done to improve educational and longer-term outcomes for children and young people living in children’s homes.
- The disproportionately high rates of criminalisation of young people in children’s homes.
- What further support is needed to improve outcomes for children with special educational needs in children’s homes.
- The quality of care, support and safeguarding in children’s homes.
- The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the children’s residential care sector, and on the demand for children’s home places.
Announcing the inqiury, Robert Halfon MP, Chair of the Education Committee, said:
“With many children in care struggling to achieve good basic qualifications and leavers more likely to end up in prison or on the streets, those in the care system are falling behind every step of the way. As part of the Committee’s unerring focus on supporting disadvantaged groups, this inquiry will get to the bottom of why children and young people living in children’s homes are facing such an uphill struggle to get on in life.
There is also worrying evidence of the consequences of a lack of oversight in some homes. The most basic of rights for a child must be to have somewhere safe to live, where they are not at risk of abuse or preyed on by gangs. We will be examining whether more needs to be done to protect young people in unregulated provision.
Children coming into care will already have had a traumatic start to their lives. We therefore owe it to them to ensure that their homes are safe and secure and that they are given every helping hand to access the ladder of opportunity and succeed in education and beyond.”
Researching Reform 
I will sign it
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Is there any real point do they even intend to read and take on board what people have written?? I doubt it BUT FIRST YOU NEED TO STOP SOCIAL WORKERS STEALING OTHER PEOPLES CHILDREN ON THE PRETENCE OF IT MAY HAPPEN OR I CARNT WITH THIS YOUNG MUM SO HER BABY HAS BEEN FORCIBLE ADOPTED EVIL WICKED SOCIAL WORKER ELAINE [edited] SOCIAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT. S/WORKER QUALIFIES ONE YEAR THEN GETS PROMOTED TO SENIOR S/WORKER AFTER FORCED ADOPTION.MUM NO CRIMINAL RECORD MUM NO ALCOHOL ABUSE MUM NO CHILD NEGLECT. MUM NO DRUGS MUM BEAUTIFUL GORGEOUS LOVING HOME
FACT. D.V. IN PAST RELATIONSHIP BECAUSE MUM ALLOWED DAD OF WHO SHE LOVED BUT HAD LELF HIM AND HAD HIM JAILED FOR DV SO SHE HAD COMPLETELY BROKEN WITH HIM BECAUSE SHE ALLOWED HER EX TO SAY GOODBYE TO HIS SON BEFORE HE LELF AND MOVED A HUNDRED AND THIRTY MILES AWAY. HER EX THEN USED THIS MEETING TO SEE HIS ONLY SON TO BLACKMAIL HIS EX TAKE ME BACK OR I WILL TELL THE S/WORKER HIS NEW BEST FRIEND YOU LET ME SEE MY BABY SON AND TEXT ME TO ARRANGE IT. BANG CRASH SHE LOST HER ONE YEAR OLD CHILD AND HE WENT OFF AND TWO YEARS LATER DID A CARBON COPY OF THE SAME TWINS NOW TAKEN AND FORCIBLE ADOPTED A 2ND DEVASTATED MOTHER WHEN THERE HAS BEEN NO NEGLECT AND YOU HAVE YOUNG S/WORKERS EAGER AND GREEDY FOR PROMOTION YOU HAVE TO BE CAREFULL ONE DAY SHES GOING TO MAKE A MISTAKE AND GET CAUGHT OUT IN HER LIES. WHEN SHE CAN CONVINCE A PARENT TO STAND I N COURT TO ASK A JUDGE TO AGREE TO A FORCED ADOPTION ORDER AND HE AGREES WITH THE S/WORKER FOR SPITE THE SOCIAL WORKER NOW BECOMING DADS BEST FRIEND .SICK WICKED EVILS/WORKER NOT FIT TO HOLD HER JOB GOD NEVER PAYS HIS DEBTS IN KIND AND I PRAY WHEN JUSTICE CALLS ON [edited] IT FALLS HARD AND SHE FEELS THE PAIN DEVERSTATION AND IS SUICIDAL THE WAY THIS MUM HAS BEEN LELF AND STILL IS TODAY.
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I’m incredibly sorry to hear about your experience. I’m Natasha, Researching Reform’s founder. If you’d like to email me to see if we can help, you can get in touch at sobk13 at gmail dot com. The project assists parents and children in need.
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Natasha,
when you say you can assist children in need. do you mean children in foster care and on a SGO ?
also in what way can you assist them ?
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Hi Keith, as part of the RR project I help families (no charge) with cases in the family courts. That includes offering help with statements, evidence gathering, appeals and finding services families may want, including legal aid.
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Natasha, I am not sure what the objective is for this latest research, and whether it refers only to children’s homes of today. Having almost no contact with my parents ever, I was raised very successfully from the age of eleven months to age sixteen in a children’s home. I observe so many problems in today’s children’s homes, and I feel may be I can provide something constructive about the environment of my unusual childhood, and my successful life story, which I feel might help.
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Hi Molly, thank you for your comment. This inquiry is looking into care homes running today. If you’d like to write a guest post for Researching Reform about your experience, it would be a pleasure to discuss this further via email: sobk13 at gmail dot com.
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Halfon hasnt got a clue how the Care system works and who controls it.
he said
“There is also worrying evidence of the consequences of a lack of oversight in some homes. The most basic of rights for a child must be to have somewhere safe to live, where they are not at risk of abuse or preyed on by gangs. We will be examining whether more needs to be done to protect young people in unregulated provision.”
Why isnt he also including all the Children in long term foster care living with individual foster carers or Special Guardians. these kids have no voice and are literally being held like prisoners. we know that our two Sons now aged 13 and 7 are never allowed out of the house to play with other kids in the area. the rear garden has corrugated metal sheets 8 feet high with barbed wire going round so nobody can see in or climb over. not even the neighbors can see into the garden. its a Prison.
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