Committee publishes damning report on the implementation of the Children and Families Act

A House of Lord’s Committee charged with reviewing the implementation of the Children and Families Act 2014 have released their report subtitled ‘A Failure of Implementation’. The cross-party team of peers concluded that “Insufficient data and inadequate implementation and monitoring of the Children and Families Act 2014 has made what should have been a landmark piece of legislation a largely missed opportunity to improve the lives of children and young people.” Echoing the recent letter from IPSEA to the Gillian Keegan MP, secretary of state for education, that the legislation is robust and that the accountability has not been implemented, they go on to state that the poor implementation has contributed to children and their families feeling let down by the system. It has led to further concern in the education sector that the system is ‘broken’, however this report would seem to suggest the structure of the system is adequate and if implemented correctly would make the difference for those families.

The key recommendations include:

• Addressing the unacceptable ethnic and racial disparities in the adoption system by establishing an outcome focussed task force, accountable to the Secretary of State.
• Reviewing the current approach to empowering the voice of the child in family law proceedings including recommending the Family Justice Council reviews the guidance setting out the approach to judges meeting with children.
• Building robust systems for monitoring and assessing the implementation of legislation, including data collection and sharing and requiring the Government to publish a post-legislative scrutiny plan once an Act receives Royal Assent setting out how the success of an Act will be measured.

Committee chair Baroness Tyler of Enfield added: “Throughout our inquiry, we have sought to hear directly from children, young people and their families and we are grateful for their time and insight, as they shared with us the challenges they face and how they feel let down by the very systems designed to support them. The welfare of children and young people should be the government's paramount concern when developing policies in this area. We urge them not to allow another eight years to pass before they make the improvements which are so demonstrably necessary.”