Update no 669 4th July 2025

Board Recruitment

We are currently recruiting for the following positions

• Chair of the Board
• Chair of Audit and Risk Committee
• Board Member
• Letter from our CEO to Board applicants

Please email your CV and covering letter (no longer than 2 A4 pages) detailing how your knowledge and experience meet the requirements in the role description. Alternatively, please feel free to get in touch for further information or to organise an informal discussion about this post, We welcome applications from all backgrounds, cultures, and identities.

Headlines

This report tells the stories of children who have been killed by a parent who is a perpetrator of domestic abuse through child contact (formally or informally arranged). Nearly a decade on from the publication of Nineteen Child Homicides, this report documents a further 19 children’s lives that have been lost as a result of unsafe contact arrangements. These findings illustrate the need for a culture shift at all levels to domestic abuse from professionals involved in child contact arrangements, whether informal and formal.  

Headlines

Findings highlight significant instability during key exam years (Years 10 to 13).

• 17% of children in care in Key Stage 4 moved school at least once during the 2023/24 academic year and
• 13% of children in care moved home during their GCSE exam period.

Headlines

SEND and EHCP data for Jan 2025, based on SEN2 returns show there is little or no sign of slow-down in demand for support for high needs.

The total number of children with an EHCP continues to grow, nearly 11% higher than in the previous year, and the number of new EHC needs assessment requests are also high: 12% higher than in the previous year.

The pressures on the the SEND system are also illustrated by a continued reduction (to 46%) of EHCPs issued within the 20 week period.  

Headlines

Reforming the law to improve the current complex landscape, making options for kinship care for children simpler and easier to navigate.

The project will consider the scope for reform to simplify and streamline the orders underpinning kinship care placements and how to better support the consideration of kinship care as an option for children who cannot remain with their parents. 

Headlines

The report reviews existing literature on why families choose to take up or refuse the offer of an FGC. Key findings include:

• some families may be unwilling to accept an FGC due to a lack of trust in the statutory services, their own family network, or the effectiveness of an FGC;
• there are sometimes misunderstandings amongst social workers about what the FGC model is and the situations where it is an appropriate intervention; and
• having control over the practical arrangements of the meeting and a sense of hope that the FGC can improve their situation encourages families to accept an FGC.  

Headlines

• Most local authorities in England now operate a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), but their structure and purpose vary widely.
• This study theorised that MASH can be classified into two main models: one focused on assessing risk, and another which also assesses needs and plans preventive early help services for children. MASH seem to exist on a spectrum, according to how far a needs assessment and service planning function is performed.
• This study suggests that for a MASH to work effectively, it should include strong practitioner relationships and a stable, skilled, and experienced workforce.
• Parental consent for information sharing was highlighted as often being a difficult and confusing issue for practitioners.
• When a MASH is working well, it should lead to:
  • Timely and relevant information sharing between practitioners
  • Multi-agency informed decision-making by children’s social care
  • A reduced likelihood of missing or underestimating risk to a child
  • Swift needs assessment
  • Enhanced practitioner confidence and wellbeing.

Headlines

The statistics are based on children in care on 31 March 2024. Key findings include: 10% of children had experienced three or more placements in the past year, a slight decrease from 11% in 2023; 8% of children experienced at least one mid-year school move; over a quarter of children had three or more social workers in the past year, with under-1-year-olds experiencing the highest social worker instability; and 1% of children experienced high instability in all three measures.

Janet Daby MP, Minister for Children and Families writes

After 13 years of delivery, the Supporting Families programme ended on 31 March 2025. In this time, 858,179 vulnerable families have been supported through whole family working to achieve positive and sustained outcomes.

Going forward, this government has committed over £500 million to support local authorities working with their safeguarding partners to invest in transformation and the expansion of preventative support in 2025-26 through the Families First Partnership (FFP) Programme. It is now time to ensure whole family working becomes standard practice across the whole system of support for children, young people and families. This approach of providing the right help, at the right time, by the right practitioner will support more children and families to stay together and thrive.

Who should join?

We are launching our follow up to the Big Listen research that was completed in 2023. Information for social workers and managers about the project is set out in a poster.

We would really value your help in promoting this project to your children’s social workforce (including AYSE, students, managers and agency staff).