Source: Ofsted Published 10 February 2022
This scoping study was commissioned by Ofsted and carried out by Susannah Bowyer from Research in Practice. It looks at early help and local multi-agency responsiveness to meeting the needs of children, young people and their families.
‘Even the best of services cannot neutralise the harm of poverty. It bothers me that the government draws attention to parental problems without seeing how poverty is such a big factor in those problems. It’s limiting the responsibility to parents instead of to how we function as a society… What worries me most is the [children’s services] system is totally underfunded, families are under huge strain, and wanting to make things better without guaranteeing any money – actually, explicitly saying you can’t assume there will be any more money – just seems to tie our hands around our backs.’
Eileen Munro, speaking in April 2021 with reference to The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care; P Butler, ‘Review of children’s social care in England ignores role of poverty, says expert’, in ‘The Guardian’, 26 April 2021
Ofsted have published the report as a contribution to discussion and debate. Read the full report: HERE
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