'Children’s social care reform is being kicked into the long grass'

The professor who led a review into fixing “systemic and endemic” failings in Northern Ireland’s children’s services fears reform is being “lost in the long grass”.

The warning comes as a charity for children and young people with care experience today claimed Northern Ireland's care sysrtem is in "crisis" and called for urgent action.

Prof Ray Jones said he had “hit the buffers” and “run out of track” after seeing little progress on his key 2023 recommendations.

And he expressed concern that without attention from Stormont's power sharing Executive, legislation needed to implement the reform was unlikely to see the light of day this decade.

Prof Jones said: “There is the danger that this review, which with the following consultation has cost over £1 million will, like so many other reviews and inquiries in Northern Ireland, as I have been told so often, just get lost in the long grass and disappear into the sand. 

“As the independent reviewer I have not run out of steam but I have hit the buffers and run out of track. What happens next is within the responsibility and remit of the political leadership of Northern Ireland.”

Without action, Prof Jones said there was the “danger that services will continue to be in crisis, many children and families will still be left without the help they need, and more and more children will be in costly care away from their families”.

And he added: “The workforce will continue to be under increasing pressure and less stable and less experienced.”

Prof Jones was appointed to lead the independent review in 2021 amid concerns of more children taken into care, long waits for assessments and workforce pressures.

A key recommendation of his final report published two years later was to take management of children and families services out of the five regional health and social care trusts.

In his report, Prof Jones argued children's social care would always play second fiddle located in "very busy and pressurised health organisations" and not get "the dedicated and concerted attention needed".

For this reason, the review concluded, statutory children’s social care needed to be located within an arms-length body “where this is the primary focus of the organisation”. 

But in a statement released today to coincide with concerns raised at Stormont by children's charity VOYPIC, Prof Jones warned things were moving in the “wrong direction”.

He highlighted a 21 per cent increase in children coming into care since the review was commissioned. The number of unallocated and unassessed cases has risen 70 per cent and private sector “colonising” of Northern Ireland’s children’s care services was taking place, with several private children’s homes opening.

Prof Jones expressed concern that legislation needed for his reforms will be further stalled until well after the Stormont elections 18 months away.

"At best this is likely to mean it be well beyond 2028-2029 and into the next decade before there is any possibility of a regional children and families authority being in place. Even that timescale is probably over optimistic." 

He added: “I cannot see what more I can do to attract the political attention and commitment of the Executive to take the key decision to create a consistent region-wide children and families authority to provide the platform to address the long-standing crisis within children’s social care and for children and families.”

VOYPIC today outlined 12 "urgent priorities" for children's social care, including calling for action on Prof Jones' recommendation for a single agency to manage services. The charity also called for an end to profit in care, protecting sibling relationships and guaranteed independent advocacy and better education and mental health support for children in care.

The Department of Health said most of Prof Jones' 53 recommendations had been accepted by the Executive, but implementation was being hampered by "considerable resource pressures".

It said creatinga new arms length body to run children and families services is "complex" and requires "signficant service change".

A spokesperson said reforms would focus on "a small number of strategic priorities", adding the department is "engaged in an extensive programme of social work workforce reform, including significant investment in additional social work training places as well as investment in a range of actions to ensure the workforce is supported".

See UTV's news report and podcast with Prof Jones