Spending-to-save?

The statistics above (presented by Ryan Robson this morning) are just two insights into the terrible disadvantages that children in care face:

• Exam results for children in care are five times worse than for other children. Only 11 per cent gain 5 A*-C GCSEs compared with 56 per cent of all children.
• Children in care are as much as five times more likely to suffer mental illness than their peers.
• Nearly a third of children in custody have previously been in care.
• One third of homeless people have been children in care.
• Four in ten foster parents think that the care system has deteriorated over the last 10 years.

The Couldn't Care Less report was launched this morning by the Centre for Social Justice.  The report was the work of a committee chaired by Mr Robson and it documented the scandalous failure of society to improve the care of 'looked-after children' - of which there are 60,000 today and another 300,000 children in serious need.  The report makes a wide number of recommendations, including:

• A right for looked after children to sue failing local authorities;
• More family fostering schemes;
• A national parenting education initiative;
• Specialist residential care for people suffering from addiction;
• A 'living wage' for foster parents in a bid to reduce the shortage;
• Housing improvement grants for foster carers;
• Better mental healthcare for looked after children;
• Increase post-care support services until the age of 25.

These costly initiatives always raise tricky ideological issues for small government conservatives.  These measures may be costly in the short-term but measures like them may be the only way of reducing the long-term demands on the state. The great shame is that they were not enacted by Labour during the last ten years of bounty.  Another generation of children have been failed by the state.

Click here for a full copy of the report and here for the other CSJ report launched this morning, on the importance of the early years.  The image on the right appears in the report (chaired by Samantha Callan).  The image is of a child's brain where development has been normal and the brain of a child where development has been severely neglected.

Comments

[Norm Brainer]

Isn't that still tinkering with the results rather than dealing with the problem at conception, as it were.

"A right for looked after children to sue failing local authorities;"
That just sounds awful.

[Henry Mayhew - ukipper]

A fascinating topic which does not surprise me in the least. Here you see the complete bankruptcy of socialism. What a dreadful ideology it is.

Sadly, the sticking plasters suggested by these worthy report writers get nowhere near the heart of the problem which is the infantilisation of 2m people force-fed inappropriate 'benefits'.

We need to really empower people by providing welfare through mutual societies competing with each other to attract members and government funding. I am sad that all the effort that has gone into this investigation has not led to a structurally sound conclusion. What a disappointment, but good marks for making the effort to tackle this appalling indictment of our 'society'.

[Too Chicken To Post Under Their Real Name]

These measures may be costly in the short-term but measures like them may be the only way of reducing the long-term demands on the state.

All children deserve love and care and neglect of this kind is inexcusable.

To be blunt though, it would be better if many of these children had never been born in the first place. This is not an argument for even more abortion of the unwanted. Rather, it is a suggestion that the welfare state encourages reckless reproduction on the assumption that the taxpayer will pick up the bill.

Thus the CSJ's view that its proposals are the 'only way' are not necessarily correct. A harsher approach to handouts may be another option.

[ACT]

So Ryan Robson believes in 'social justice'? Have we already been sucked into that Swiss black hole?

[Mark Fulford]

These costly initiatives always raise tricky ideological issues for small government conservatives.

Speak for yourself!

Nipping problems in the bud. A stitch in time. Spend £1 to save £10. There's nothing unconservative about spending wisely.

[James Maskell]

Thanks for posting the article above. Children in care is one of the least discussed of the great scandals in this country. It is a well known trend that criminality and poverty can often result from being in care. Not everyone going through the system is a failure but as educational statistics show, there arent a whole lot of winners. To add to the statistics above regarding GCSEs, the gap actually increased last year with all children increasing while children in care went down!

A lot of this does unfortunately sound a bit like tinkering with existing processes. Im a little concerned about the right to sue public authorities. I do accept the point about spending money to save money. This is a very serious issue and one that I believe isnt given the prominence it deserves.

I hope at Conference that Michael Gove might comment on the issue since so far he has failed to do so in the years he has been the Shadow DCSF Secretary.

[Letters From A Tory]

National parenting initiatives sound far too top-down for my liking - can't we deliver it locally instead?

[passing leftie]

I was surprised by Tory councillor Hugh Jackson's recent suggestion for children in care. He called for euthanasia. Is this now Tory policy?

[Sally Roberts]

Don't be silly Passing Leftie - you know it isn't!

[Saltmaker]

It's plain to see that Mr Jackson was attempting to be funny, albeit with a twisted sense of humour. Rightly it cost him his job.

But what about the far more "recent" comments of a genuinely "senior" Labour councillor Liam Smith? Where were Hazel Blears and Harriet Harman when he was arrested for calling a woman a f****** fat dyke? Did you hear them calling for him to be sacked? No. No, you didn't and he wasn't.

Your game is one we can play all day.

[passing leftie]

Don't be silly Passing Leftie - you know it isn't!

Posted by: Sally Roberts | September 09, 2008 at 10:14

Oh, Sally! I was joking. Just trying to lighten the tone with all these UKIPers around.

Posted by: Saltmaker | September 09, 2008 at 10:38
But what about the far more "recent" comments of a genuinely "senior" Labour councillor Liam Smith? Where were Hazel Blears and Harriet Harman when he was arrested for calling a woman a f****** fat dyke? Did you hear them calling for him to be sacked? No. No, you didn't and he wasn't.

My, we are a po-faced bunch today, aren't we?

I hadn't heard about this councillor, and I think the remarks are totally unacceptable. I call for him to be sacked. There. Feel better?

[johnC]

And talking of unacceptable behaviour, why on earth has Ivan Lewis not been sacked after forcing a civil servant to request a transfer due to his persistent harrassment ? If it was a Tory junior minister he would have been hounded from office by the left wing media immediately.

[Saltmaker]

There. Feel better?

Get Hazel Blears to say the same and I might.

[clive elliot]

I'm afraid that kids in care are often bred by irresponsible/criminal/stupid parents.

As we understand genetics better, we learn that more and more traits and conditions are inherited, so perhaps it's not at all surprising that such children, when they grow up, often fall short of the standards we expect from others. Maybe the statistics in this artkcle are exactly what we might expect from such a cohort?

Could it be that the efforts of carers, foster parents, childrens' homes and the like, though they look to have failed, have resulted in better outcomes for these kids than might have been anticipated statistically.

Let us not heap blame on folks who are doing their best in what I think are very difficult circumstances.

I'm not sure that throwing a lot of money at this problem will make much difference.

[Sally Roberts]

It's OK Saltmaker - I thought it MUST have been a joke! I'm not really that po faced...honestly! In fact every time I look at a UKIPPER I laugh even more... ;-)

[Sally Roberts]

Sorry - my post above is of course addressed to our friend P-L not our other friend Saltmaker!

[passing leftie]

Posted by: Sally Roberts | September 09, 2008 at 13:28
Sorry - my post above is of course addressed to our friend P-L not our other friend Saltmaker!

I must say, Sally, that you are easily confused to mistake me for Saltmaker.

[James Maskell]

Why would anyone think euthanasia of children in care is funny? Theres nothing funny about that idea at all and anyone who has that sort of view is sick in the head.