Children's Social Care National Framework - information for practitioners who work in or with Children's Social Care
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The Children’s Social Care National Framework is written for those who work in and with local authority children’s social care and contains information that may be useful to children, young people and families who receive support from children’s social care.
Notably, it encompasses details applicable to all safeguarding partners and agencies involved in children’s social care activity.
The framework is complemented by the following guidance;
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Improving practice with children, young people and families which offers advice to local authority senior leaders, practice supervisors, and practitioners on effectively integrating the framework into their daily practices.
The six principles of children's social care.
People working in children’s social care should follow six principles when they are working with children, young people, and their families.
- Children’s welfare is paramount
Decisions about help, protection and care for children must always be made in their best interests
- Children’s wishes and feelings are sought, heard, and responded to.
Children and young people’s views should be sought and heard at every stage of support, and they should contribute to decisions made about their lives, wherever possible. Advocacy, advice, and assistance must be available to assist them in any representations they may wish to make to the authority.
- Children’s social care works in partnership with whole families
Children, young people and families are heard, and practitioners build strong relationships with families based on respect. They acknowledge strengths within families and recognise that families, and family networks, will often have solutions to their own challenges, and that holding a focus on the whole family is often the best way of improving outcomes for children and young people.
- Children are raised by their families, with their family networks, or in family environments wherever possible.
Children’s social care recognise that the best place for most children to grow up is in their families, or with kinship carers. Sometimes this will not be safe or possible, and in these situations, efforts are made to support relationships between children and young people with their siblings, family, and friends. When children and young people need care to be provided by the local authority, such care is safe and prioritises consistency, stability, and lifelong loving relationships with those who are important to children and young people, so that they are supported to thrive.
- Local authorities work with other agencies to effectively identify and meet the needs of children, young people, and families.
Local authorities foster strong supportive relationships with other safeguarding partners and relevant agencies, including education settings, to coordinate their services and to respond to the needs of children, young people, and families in the round. From strategic and operational leadership to practitioners supporting individual families, safeguarding partners and relevant agencies are proactive in seeking and sharing information, knowledge, and skills with other agencies
- Local authorities consider the economic and social circumstances which may impact children, young people and families.
Leaders and practice supervisors foster a culture of practice where the individual and protected characteristics of families are respected, and the diversity of individual needs and experiences are addressed through the support provided. Practitioners recognise the differences between, and are confident to respond to, circumstances where children experience adversity due to poverty and acute family stress, and situations where children face harm due to parental abuse and neglect. Leaders, practice supervisors, and practitioners use reflective discussions so that practice is inclusive and engages all families, whatever their background and context.
The three enablers
- Enabler: Multi-agency working is prioritised and effective
- Enabler: Leaders drive conditions for effective practice
- Enabler: The workforce is equipped and effective
The four national framework outcomes.
These are the areas of children’s lives that children’s social care is there to help with the most. The system is designed so that the focus is on family because families can often provide the best support for their children. However, it is not always the case that children can stay with their own family. When this happens, children’s social care is there to find them a loving home somewhere else. In all cases, the safety of children is the most important thing.
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- Outcome 1: children, young people and families stay together and get the help they need
Children’s social care helps children and young people by supporting whole families and their networks. They work in partnership with parents and carers to address difficulties that families face and are committed to keeping children and young people within their family, wherever it is safe to do so.
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- Outcome 2: children and young people are supported by their family network
Children’s social care supports children and young people by building relationships so that key people in the lives of children and young people, who form their family network, can help to provide safety, stability, and love. Involving family networks needs to happen at every stage, when children and young people are supported by children’s social care, including if they are going to, or have, entered care. When children are being raised by someone in their family network, we refer to this as kinship care.
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- Outcome 3: children and young people are safe in and outside of their homes
Children’s social care acts swiftly to protect children and young people from harm, whether that is at home, where they live, or outside in their wider neighbourhood, community and online. Children’s social care manages the uncertainty and nuances of the complex circumstances in which harm takes place, working in partnership with other agencies to increase safety.
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- Outcome 4: children in care and care leavers have stable, loving homes
Children’s social care provide homes that offer love, care, protection, and stability for children and young people who are cared for by the local authority, or who are care leavers. The care that children and young people receive helps to address experiences of adversity and trauma and gives them the foundations for a healthy, happy, life
See also
Children Social Care National Framework
An Illustrated Guide – Children Social Care National Framework
Children's Social Care National Framework (easy read)
| Keeping children safe, helping families thrive was published in November 2024, by the Department for Education, the new Children’s Social Care policy statement. This is the biggest overhaul in a generation to children’s social care. This is an important new statement summarising government’s vision for a decade of reform and a legislative agenda to reset the children’s social care system. It covers how national government will collaborate with local government and take a whole system approach. It outlines the government’s commitment to keeping families together and children safe. It also outlines a commitment to support children to live in family settings where children cannot remain at home, including through kinship or foster care, rather than residential care. Alongside this, the statement sets out ambitions to fix the broken care market, and ensure the system is working effectively for vulnerable children and families. |
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See also
Briefing note for child protection professionals across England - “I wanted them all to notice” Protecting children and responding to child sexual abuse within the family environment November 2024
Summary of the National review into child sexual abuse within the family environment
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The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill aims to change the law to better protect children and raise standards in education and on Wednesday 8 January 2025 it passed its second reading in the House of Commons.. This link provides a policy summary which contains information on the measures within the bill.
It sets out:
- what the government aims to achieve through each measure
- why we need the legislation
- effects of the legislation
- how the legislation will work in practice
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The bill will be subject to debate in Parliament and will no doubt be amended during its passage. It is likely to become law sometime in spring 2025. Some provisions will come into force the day the act is passed (such as the powers to make regulations and orders), others will come into force two months later (such as the duty to publish information for kinship carers and children in kinship arrangements, and the extension of the ill-treatment or wilful neglect offences. Some provisions will be implemented over a longer period of time. For example, the new multi-agency child protection teams will not be implemented until 2027.
Please also see a link to the Department of Education blog regarding what parents need to know about the bill.