News

Councils name children’s services as biggest financial pressure | CYP Now

Children’s services and education top the list of immediate funding pressures faced by councils, according to a new report. Read full piece at source: Councils name children's services as biggest financial pressure

INDEPENDENT CARE REVIEW #KeepThePromise #ThePromise

Unprecedented review of Scottish care system demands radical overhaul Today the independent review into Scotland's care system published its final report. https://twitter.com/TheCareReview/status/1225020226540097536?s=20 We at NIROMP applaud all who contributed to Scotland Care Review, most especially the children and people with lived experience. Change is needed across Scotland as it is across England. We look forward … Continue reading INDEPENDENT CARE REVIEW #KeepThePromise #ThePromise

Flawed Placement Application #Adoption #HumanRights #fostering

This judgment should be an important reminder of why statutory regulation, guidance and caselaw exist. Achieving what’s right for individual children based on a holistic non-linear evaluation of the options must always govern decision making. This judgment by HHJ Lazarus contains powerful and important reminders of the stakes in which we are dealing when we … Continue reading Flawed Placement Application #Adoption #HumanRights #fostering

Local authorities told to focus on adoption for children in care

Cathy Ashley, the chief executive of Family Rights Group: ā€œAdoption is the right solution for some children. However, far more children who cannot live with their parents flourish in the care of wider family, yet the latter receives negligible recognition, support or finance.ā€ NIROMP view is that there should be no hierarchy - adoption should … Continue reading Local authorities told to focus on adoption for children in care

Court of Appeal upholds the right to roam of Romany and Travellers

The Court of Appeal, inĀ The Mayor and Burgessesof the London Borough of Bromley v Persons UnknownĀ [2020] EWCA Civ 12, has delivered a unanimous judgment reaffirming the rights of the Romany (ā€˜Gypsy’) and Traveller community to live in accordance with their traditional, nomadic way of life. Read full piece at source: Court of Appeal upholds the … Continue reading Court of Appeal upholds the right to roam of Romany and Travellers

EU Settlement Scheme

Last summer Coram Children’s Legal Centre gave a very helpful presentation on the EU Settlement Scheme to members of NIROMP's London IROs Group. The presentation covered what Social Workers and IROs needed to do with children and young people in local authority care to apply for settled status post-Brexit. Government funding for Coram and other … Continue reading EU Settlement Scheme

Ofsted’s Annual Report: highlighting some of the big issues for social care

Yvette Stanley, Ofsted’s National Director for Social Care, discusses the latest Ofsted Annual Report It’s really pleasing to mark another Annual Report – my second since joining Ofsted – with some positive news. Our latest annual overview reports an increasingly effective response to the most vulnerable children. Almost half of local authorities inspected last year … Continue reading Ofsted’s Annual Report: highlighting some of the big issues for social care

Adoption | Prof Brid Featherstone

Prof Brid FeatherstoneĀ andĀ Prof Anna GuptaĀ believe adoption is too stark in its severance of the legal relationship between those adopted and their birth family, and out of line with the emotional realities for most involved. Commentary: Community Care piece: Children’s minister’s call for directors to prioritise adoption lambasted by sector heads Important piece reported by the … Continue reading Adoption | Prof Brid Featherstone

10 Year Challenge | @johnPDurham ADCS

What does the 10 year challenge for children's services look like? There is a challenge for us all as the new government takes shape to make the case for the prioritisation of children’s services both in terms of resourcing and new policy direction. Can the silos that exist in Whitehall be broken down with ministers … Continue reading 10 Year Challenge | @johnPDurham ADCS

Joint Call for a Full, Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in England

Deadline:Ā Tuesday 21st January 2020 Hundreds of individuals with personal and/or professional experience of children's social care have already signed an open letter to the Secretary of State for Education calling for a full, independent review of children's social care in England. Please consider joining them. To read the letter, see those who have already signed … Continue reading Joint Call for a Full, Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in England