The Independent Care Review for England launches today (15 January) which promises to listen to the views of care-experienced children, young people and families. We look forward to empowering care-experienced children and young people to shape its work. This is a significant opportunity to improve children’s social care to make sure that every care-experienced child or young person has the best chance to lead a fulfilling life and reach their potential.
The review is intended to be truly independent, open and outward facing, to listen deeply and think boldly. It will include an Experts by Experience group, so that care-experienced children and young people can guide the review.
We welcome this approach and urge the review to also set out to protect children’s rights in line with our obligations under the Children Act 1989 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
We will be submitting evidence from our work across England but also urging the review to consider how rights are upheld and children are safeguarded in other countries. We will place particular emphasis on Scotland, following their recent care review and in Wales where NYAS also work to improve the lives of children and young people.
Rita Waters, NYAS Chief Executive, said “This is a once in a generation opportunity to take a serious look at the whole system, and we have always called for care-experienced children and young people to be at the heart of those efforts. I thank the chair, Josh MacAlister, for reaching out this morning with his pledge to create an Experts by Experience group, which we hope will involve the children and young people we work with. In our contributions to this review, as in all of our work, NYAS will always be on the side of the child.”
