Mark Drakeford AM
An influential AM has called for a radical change in policy after figures showed that the number of children in care was increasing in Wales at nearly five times the rate in England
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Cardiff West Labour AM Mark Drakeford, who chairs the National Assembly’s health and social care committee, said attitudes needed to change and more help should be given to keeping families together.
Before being elected an AM last year, Mr Drakeford was a professor in social policy at Cardiff University. He was also the Welsh Government’s senior special adviser when Rhodri Morgan was First Minister.
Research undertaken by Mr Drakeford has established that between 2003 and 2011 there was a 34.4% increase in the number of children looked after by local authorities in Wales, against an increase over the same period of 7.3% in England.
In an article for the Institute of Welsh Affairs’ online magazine clickonwales,org, Mr Drakeford states: “A deep and enduring dispute characterises public policy towards children and families who come to the attention of the welfare services.
“On the one hand there are the ‘rescuers’, those who believe that children from flawed families are best removed from them, early and decisively, in order to be offered a fresh and better start in life elsewhere.
“On the other hand are the ‘repairers’, those who believe that families are best placed to care for their own and that state support ought to be directed towards keeping families together, rather than splitting them apart.”
Mr Drakeford makes the point that since 1997 the “rescuers” have been in charge – and that the rate of increase in the numbers of children in care has been significantly higher in Wales than in England.
A child in Wales is now almost one and a half times as likely to be taken into local authority care than a child in England.
Other statistics cited by Mr Drakeford show there are considerable variations by local authority area within Wales in relation to the proportion of looked after children.
The rates of looked after children per 10,000 individuals aged 0 to 17 ranged from 42 in Monmouthshire to 146 in Torfaen. But even the Monmouthshire rate is twice the lowest rate in England.
In his article the AM states: “The evidence firmly demonstrates that Welsh children are being removed from their families at an accelerating rate, and at a rate which has diverged sharply from that in England.
“Moreover, such children are not drawn at random from the Welsh population. The risk of being taken into local authority care is strongly correlated with poverty and deprivation.”
Mr Drakeford told the Western Mail: “Obviously there are children who are at serious risk within families and who are better off removed. But in my view there is little doubt that too many children are currently being removed from their parents’ care in Wales.
“There is plenty of evidence to show that looked after children don’t do as well educationally as children living with their families, and that the job prospects of looked after children are worse.
“I strongly believe that families should be helped to stay together, and that this would be in the interests of the children concerned and of society as a whole.”
Mr Drakeford said what was needed was fresh investment in children’s services, enabling social workers to give families the support they needed to stay together.
“At a time of public sector spending cuts, we need to find new ways of financing such an initiative,” he said.
“One idea is that local authorities should offer ‘social impact bonds’, where organisations and individuals would essentially lend money to councils for them to invest in greater support for families so not as many children have to be taken into care.
“The loans would be repaid out of the large sums that could be saved by not taking children into care.”
Read more: Wales Online http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2012/11/16/children-in-care-numbers-in-wales-rising-five-times-faster-than-in-england-91466-32242184/#ixzz2COkHHd1B
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