Newsletters
Our Regional Improvement Plan can be found here
Our Impact Report published in March 2023 can be found here
If you would like to apply to be a SESLIP consultant, please follow this link to Kent Business Portal – KentBusinessPortal and after registering on the portal, search for Ref – SC240046 – SESLIP – DPS
Updates
National Safeguarding Partner Multi-agency Facilitator
On 3 April DfE advertised for a National Safeguarding Partner Multi-agency Facilitator (LA Lead)
Enquiry deadline: 14 April 2025, 12:00pm
Tender submission deadline: 2 May 2025, 12:00pm
All submissions must be made via https://education.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html
Headlines
DfE is looking for an individual who understands and has experience of working in local government at a senior level, in particular multi-agency safeguarding for children and local safeguarding partnerships.
DfE expect the work to be a maximum of 10 days per month.
12 month contract – with an option to extend for a further 12 months
Estimated value: £78,000 excluding VAT
Safe podcast: Episode 1 – Carlene Firmin on Contextual Safeguarding
On 13 March Youth Endowment Fund published the Safe podcast
Episode 1 – Carlene Firmin on Contextual Safeguarding (YouTube 43 minutes)
Episode 2 – The Music Mentoring Bus Tackling Territorial Violence (YouTube 46 minutes)
Headlines
Carlene Firmin shares how shop workers can be community guardians, why we are all responsible for keeping young people safe, and what her journey from charity worker to renowned professor has taught her about preventing violence.
To find out more about Contextual Safeguarding and Carlene’s work visit: www.contextualsafeguarding.org.uk
Denial of Liberty applications decline despite ongoing shortage of secure children’s homes
On 7 April MoJ published Family Court Statistics Quarterly: October to December 2024
Applications for deprivation of liberty (DoL) orders for children fell more than 6% last year, latest analysis shows – the first annual decline this decade.
Headlines
During 2024, there were 1,280 DoL order applications via the courts to detain children compared with 1,368 made in 2023, latest government figures for England and Wales show.The figures have been revealed in the government’s final quarterly family court statistics of 2024. It shows that there were 321 applications – relating to 321 individual children – for DoL orders in the high court between October and December 2024.
Raised by Relatives: the experiences of Black and Asian kinship carers
On 27 March Kinship published Raised by Relatives: the experiences of Black and Asian kinship carers
The full report is here (pdf, 110 pages)
A summary report is here (pdf, 9 pages)
Details
Kinship’s research with Professor Julie Selwyn and Dr Priya Tah from The Rees Centre at Oxford University, supported by the KPMG Foundation, explores the experiences of kinship carers from Black and Asian communities.
Current evidence suggests that 1 in every 5 children living in kinship care in England are being raised by minority ethnic kinship carers. However, there isn’t a lot of research about the experiences of people from Black and Asian families who are raising the child of a relative or friend, which means that organisations don’t know what support and services would be helpful for kinship carers and children from these communities. This research enables us to make recommendations about how Black and Asian families can be better supported in the future.
Reminders From Previous Weeks
Academic year 2023/24: Pupil absence in schools in England
On 20 March DfE published Pupil absence in schools in England data for academic year 2023/24
Headlines
Validated attendance data for the year 2023-24 includes some positive trends: overall attendance shows a small increase and the proportion of pupils who are persistently absent, a small reduction to 20%. However there are concerns regarding those missing most school: an increase in the proportion who are severely absent and of those, an increase in those who have SEND (both an EHCP and at SEN support) and those from a disadvantaged background.
Improving educational
outcomes for
disadvantaged children
On 7 March the HoC Committee of Public Accounts published Improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children
Recommendations
- DfE to publish targets for reducing the disadvantaged gap and other success measures within six months
- DfE should re–assess the evidence base for funding decisions and set out its funding priorities for 2025–26, including where pupil premium falls within this.
- DfE should expand its evidence of early years interventions, including the role of Family Hubs, and in 12 months update the Committee on the impact of its decisions to increase Early Years Pupil Premium in 2025–26
- DfE should introduce stronger and clearer mechanisms to understand how schools spend funding.
- DfE should provide greater clarity on how it supports schools, early years providers, local authorities and academy trusts to make effective evidence–based decisions.
- DfE should set out how it will use the opportunities mission to further join–up data and performance information
Young Champions’ film on growing up in kinship care premiered in London
On 18 March Kinship premiered a A powerful short film revealing what growing up in kinship care is like.
The Kinship Young Champions’ film project funded by BBC Children in Need highlights the 141,000 children in kinship care in England and Wales – that’s double the number in foster care – and describes the highs and lows they face as they adjust to their new lives.
Headlines
Young Londoners with firsthand experience of kinship care used their voices and experience to co-create the striking animation which explains what it means to be raised by a relative or family friend when their parents are unable to care for them. They hope it will increase awareness and reassure children in kinship care that they are not alone.
Tools & Templates
We have produced a Regional Improvement Plan (June 2024)
On 7 April MoJ published Family Court Statistics Quarterly: October to December 2024
On 3 April DfE advertised for a National Safeguarding Partner Multi-agency Facilitator (LA Lead)
On 27 March Kinship published Raised by Relatives: the experiences of Black and Asian kinship carers
On 26 March Mutual Ventures published a range of case studies and a good practice guide in relation to the DfJ Reducing Time to Family Court programme
On 20 March the DfE published The Families First Partnership (FFP) programme guide
On 20 March DfE published Pupil absence in schools in England data for academic year 2023/24
On 18 March Kinship premiered a A powerful short film revealing what growing up in kinship care is like.
On 13 March Youth Endowment Fund published the Safe podcast
On 11 March the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel published It’s Silent: Race, racism, and safeguarding children
On 7 March the HoC Committee of Public Accounts published Improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children
On 7 March NSPCC published ‘Disguised compliance’: learning from case reviews
On 6 March TASO published Pathways into and through higher education for young people with experience of children’s social care
On 27 February ONS published Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), UK: February 2025
On 27 February the Children’s Commissioner published The educational journeys of children in secure settings
On 27 February DfE published Children’s social work workforce data for 2024
On 25 February Oftsed published Good decisions: supporting children aged 16 and 17 who need help when they are homeless
On 20 February the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman published Fostering better services: Helping to improve council services for foster carers and their children
On 13 February DfE published A level and other 16 to 18 results for academic year 2023-2024
On 7 February Foundations (previously the What Works Centre for Families and Children) published Parenting through adversity, the second in a series of practice guides commissioned by the DfE to support the roll-out of the children’s social care national framework
On 4 February Pause and Listen published In a Mother’s Mind: Birth mothers’ experiences of domestic abuse
On 3 February IJPDS published Estimated cumulative incidence of intervention by children’s social care services to age 18: a whole-of-England administrative data cohort study using the child in need census
On 1 February Centrepoint published Hidden In Plain Sight: Understanding Youth Homelessness in the UK
On 1 February The Fostering Network published State of the Nations’ Foster Care – Full Report 2024
On 28 January the Children’s Commissioner published Children’s involvement in the 2024 riots
On 28 January the APPG for Households in Temporary Accommodation published Child Mortality in Temporary Accommodation 2025
On 15 January ADCS published Safeguarding Pressures Phase 9. The full report (pdf 91 pages) is here. The summary briefing (pdf 2 pages) is here