Corporate parenting duty to be expanded to government departments

The Government has tabled an amendment to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill to widen corporate parenting responsibilities to government departments and other public bodies.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson proposed the changes which would expand the support provided to care-experienced young people beyond local authorities to all Government departments and some public sector bodies ¬– including schools, Ofsted, NHS Trusts, the Youth Justice Board, and others.

The amendment to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill will see a duty placed on public bodies to take care-experienced young people into consideration when designing policies and delivering services, to be alert to their needs, and to take action to improve outcomes.

Last year, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Care-experienced Children and Young People carried out an inquiry into initial Government proposals to expand corporate parenting responsibilities. The inquiry heard from 200 organisations and individuals, including 160 care-experienced young people, and highlighted the positive impact that expanding support would have on the lives of children in care and care leavers.

Many of the inquiry's recommendations are adopted in the Government's new proposals.

Become, the children’s charity which co-ordinates the APPG, said it believes the Government could still do more to “improve the scaffolding of support around care-experienced young people,” saying they “will be studying the details to see how the proposals could be strengthened as the legislation progresses.”

Katharine Sacks-Jones, CEO of Become, said support can't end with local authorities if children in care are to thrive.

“Health, welfare, education and other services play a huge role in their lives and can shape their futures. We welcome this much needed step to ensure more public bodies take responsibility for supporting young people to live happy and healthy lives."