Children’s Commissioner Report on Families part 2

The Children’s Commissioner has published part 2 of the independent family review entitled ‘A positive approach to parenting’. Part 1 titled Beyond the labels – a SEND system that works for every child every time, is also available. The report focuses on families as a potential for good, as identified in part one of the project. The report has parent voice running throughout and makes 23 recommendations on the areas that will improve outcomes for children and families.
 
For those families with children with SEND the challenges are acknowledged though not necessarily addressed directly. Some of the recommendations do directly link and are below:

Recommendation 5: Families with children should be given greater priority within tax and benefit policy to address the fact that families with children are the group of the population most likely to be in poverty. In doing this, the Children’s Commissioner would like to see the Government: 

• clearly distinguish between families with children and other types of households within economic and social security policy 
• establish a clear plan to ensure no child is growing up in destitution

Government statistics show that young people with SEND are more likely to be in the Free School Meal and Pupil Premium categories at school. Statistics also show that there are strong links between SEND and poverty. Improving the living standards for these groups will support better life chances and address the outcomes identified in the graphic above.

Recommendation 6: The Children’s Commissioner recommends that The Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care work together to increase the range of materials available on the Start for Life website and extend the age-range covered.

nasen agrees that having more information for the earliest years is beneficial and it would also be useful if the website integrated support for those with children with disabilities or differences.

Recommendation 8: The Children’s Commissioner wants to see a Family Hub within each neighbourhood so that all children and families benefit from the support they offer.

nasen agree and are pleased that these hubs are supporting children and young people from 0 to 25 years. However, the best place for support is in the early years and these hubs will now have a much bigger remit which may reduce the capacity to have impact.

Recommendation 15: In implementing the SEND reforms, social care reforms and Integrated Care Systems, the Children’s Commissioner recommends ensuring that: 

• children and families reaching the threshold for support in one element of the system also get support from other services (e.g. if a child is on a child protection plan because of mother’s mental health, the mother should be receiving NHS care) 
• children and families can expect to receive the same access to support in every area without a postcode lottery of access

This is the only SEND focused recommendation within the 23 recommendations and echoes what has been recommended from the social care enquiry and the green paper though without as much detail as we would have perhaps liked. We are awaiting the publication of the improvement plan early 2023, with hope that it addresses the concerns from the sector.