Kevin's speech at the Local Government Chronicle

I’m very pleased to be here today to talk about the Care Matters vision, and how we can improve our service to children in the care system.

There is much debate in politics these days about how far the state should be involved in family life, whether it should provide help and assistance to people when it comes to running their families. That’s a perfectly legitimate debate, but there is one area where it is abundantly clear that the state should do more. That area is children in care.

A long time ago, back in 1910 George Bernard Shaw wrote a Treatise on Parents and Children about the ‘collective responsibility’ society should take in caring for its children.

He wrote about how children in care’s needs were addressed at the time.

He said:

Thank goodness we’ve moved on a long way from 1910!

A hundred years later so much has improved. But we have to all acknowledge that children in the care of the community are still being failed by the state.

Children in care are 5 times less likely to get 5 good GCSEs, 6 times less likely to progress into higher education, 9 times more likely to be excluded from school. And they are more likely to end up in prison as a result of what Bernard Shaw would have termed ‘vice’ and ‘crime’.

The consequences when we fail to care adequately for children in our care can be tragic.

Victoria Climbie was firstly failed by her family, and then she was fatally failed by the system.

We instituted an important enquiry, and that’s why the post of Minister for Children, Young People and Families was created. In a way, that is why our new department has been created, with a focus specifically on children and families.

To make sure services wrap together around a child, and communicate with each other while they’re doing so. That’s what the new department is all about, and the Children’s Plan that we are currently developing.

To make sure that, where birth parents cannot look after their child, the state steps in to provide appropriate parenting.

And to make sure that all children have the opportunity to reach their potential.

Victoria Climbie was a very extreme case.

But in the case of children in care, in the care, that is, of us, the state, we should be passionate in our desire to protect, support, and enrich their lives.

I want to thank everyone here who works with children in care for the passion and support they put into that work.

Parents are the most important influence in children’s lives, and research tells us time and again that the more involved a parent is in their education – and indeed in their life and development more generally – the more likely it is that a child will succeed.

That is true whether we are talking about a birth parent, an adoptive parent, grandparent, or other carer.

The most important thing about a family relationship the quality of that relationship. We have to aim to ensure that the quality of parenting received by children in care is of the highest standard.

For any child, conflict at home, instability, a lack of interest or attention is going to have a detrimental impact on their progress and development.

When the previous Secretary of State in the department Alan Johnson launched the Care Matters white paper back in June – which has led on to the legislation we have just introduced into parliament – he set out four basic areas where we need to improve our service to children in care, four basic themes.

Those are: stability in the lives of children in care, uncompromising ambition for them, listening to their voice, and the theme I opened up with – parenting.

So let me discuss those themes in turn.

We can’t overestimate the importance of a sense of stability around any child, so that child can feel valued, supported, and safe. So they can feel that they belong.

In the absence of birth parents being there all the time in a child’s life, children do need significant adults in their lives, people who are there for them, people who care for them and not just about them.

That’s why it’s so important that those figures don’t frequently change. Because families flourish with stability. So we have to provide as much stability as we can for children in care. In fact, it’s even more important to create stability around those children for whom instability has been the dominant theme of their young lives.

So all of us have a duty to increase the sense of permanence and belonging, by doing everything possible to keep familiar people around the child, and try to minimise upheaval.

When drawing up a child’s care plan, wider family and friends – people familiar to the child – should be involved as much as possible.

Decisions about placements should be taken with a view to maximising the possibility of a permanent solution for a child.

As I said, we are legislating as we speak, in the Bill, to extend the opportunity for all children in care to have an Independent Visitor – a trained volunteer who comes to see them regularly to talk about their ambitions, achievements and their problems.

Sometimes paying attention to what children say can seem tokenistic – a means of ticking a box.

But not only is it important to making a child feel secure, it is essential to serving their needs.

In particular, when we think about children coming out of care, they are sometimes dropped off the cliff edge and left to cope wherever they land. We will make that transition smoother through the Right 2 B Cared 4 pilot, and a pilot to enable children in care to stay with their foster carers beyond the age of 18.

When we think about it, in many home settings, the child’s voice is prominent all the time. They are always able to express a view.

But a good parent is always there. A good parent’s ear is always open, whether it’s to problems, criticism, or general conversation; and the good parent will ask their child for their views, opinions, and feelings.

Looked after children don’t always have someone around all the time. And if they do, they may not be the people in charge of making the decisions about their future.

We need to the extra mile for those children, that’s the message.

But we need to make sure that what we do has real value for children in care. That it actually makes a difference to them.

I accept, and we all have to accept, that the rhetoric around our reforms needs to be translated into results for children in care.

Where local services are not just caring for a child, but caring about them.

In other words, all the legislation in the world, all the green papers, white papers, strategies, guidance and regulations – and even the extra £300 million we are investing in Care Matters – all of that will amount to nothing unless we have a genuine culture of parenting for children in care , from government ministers to elected members and designated teachers, from social workers to foster carers, from Directors of Children’s Services to care home managers.

What, in practice, would that look like? Sometimes not that much. But little things can make a huge difference.

Who’s celebrating the everyday achievements like a good test result, or a great performance in a football team?

Who’s giving them the occasional metaphorical ‘tenner’ to reward them for their hard work, whatever it is?

Every child must be seen as an individual, not just another case.

And many local authorities are doing these things brilliantly. I’ve seen that myself around the country. And sometimes in conjunction with the private sector. I visited Caerphilly recently, where the local authority was working with BT to provide services to children in care that other children have easy access to – computers, broadband internet connections and so on.

One authority, for example, gives children in care money for the significant religious festivals that they or their carers celebrate, so that they can be involved too.

And some local authorities host Achievement Days to celebrate the exam results and other educational achievements of their children in care.

I want to see more of that emulated up and down the country.

But there are places these things don’t happen, and where they do we could often do so much more.

As always, it depends on those of us in positions of responsibility to give the lead, to be creative and committed to these children.

To that end, I have asked my department to look at ourselves to see what more we can do to give more opportunities to children in care, including work experience in our offices.

I’m very passionate about the Children and Young Person’s Bill, and the whole Care Matters vision, and I have a real confidence that we can use it to achieve better outcomes for these children and young people.

But without the care, creativity and commitment of everyone with anything to do with children in care, the Care Matters vision will remain a vision, rather than a reality. So thank you for all the work you will do, and for your passion and commitment.