CRC concluding observations 2023, paragraph 38
Plain English recommendation
Government should: (a) Do more to reduce the number of children in care, including by funding early intervention and prevention services, training more social workers and ensuring different agencies work together effectively; (b) Provide funding so that the recommendations of the independent review of children’s social care can be put into practice; make advocacy services available to all children in care unless they opt out; ensure these children get advocacy services and any specialised support they need; and ensure they can stay in contact with their families and communities, including by using independent visitor services in Wales; (c) Stop children from being transferred between care settings frequently and unnecessarily, support them with personal care plans and a social worker, and fully review care placements regularly; (d) Introduce laws to ensure that children are only placed in care far away from their home as a last resort, and that their rights are treated as a priority when this does happen; (e) Ban the use of secure care, residential care homes without safeguards, and unregulated settings like hotels and bed-and-breakfasts as places for housing children in care; (f) Fund family- and community-based care options for children who cannot stay with their families and help children to re-join their families and communities whenever possible; (g) Ensure that children in care have a say in decisions made about them, and that organisations and workers involved in these decisions can guarantee children’s views will be respected; (h) Do more to provide education, skills, housing and opportunities for independent living for children leaving care.
Original UN recommendation
Noting with appreciation the various childcare services provided by the State, the Committee recommends that the State party: Drawing the State party’s attention to the global study on children deprived of liberty and the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, the Committee urges the State party to: (a) Invest in measures to prevent and reduce the number of children placed in alternative care, including by allocating sufficient resources for early intervention and preventive services, including for infants and toddlers, increasing and strengthening the number of trained social workers, and improving multiagency coordination; (b) Allocate sufficient resources for the implementation of the recommendations of the independent review of children’s social care, including the provision of advocacy services for all children as an “opt-out”, rather than an “opt-in”, service, with a view to ensuring that all children in alternative care: (i) have access to independent, well-resourced child-friendly advocacy services and specialised support, including mental health and therapeutic services; and (ii) are able to maintain contact with their family members and communities, including by ensuring their access to independent visitor services in Wales; (c) Prevent frequent or unnecessary transfers of children in alternative care settings, ensure that children are consistently supported through individualized care plans and by a social worker throughout their time in care, and conduct regular and substantive reviews of placements in care; (d) Develop a legislative framework for ensuring a child rights-based approach to the support of children who are placed in alternative care far from their place of residence, including children from Jersey who are placed in alternative care off-island, and ensure that such placements take place only as a measure of last resort; (e) Prohibit and prevent the placement of children in secure care, residential care homes without appropriate safeguards or unregulated alternative care, including hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation; (f) Allocate sufficient funds for family- and community-based care options for children who cannot stay with their families, and facilitate the reintegration of children into their families and communities whenever possible; (g) Ensure that children are heard in decisions affecting them in alternative care placement throughout their stay, and that relevant authorities and professionals have the technical capacities required to guarantee respect for children’s views in alternative care; (h) Strengthen measures, including through increased funding, aimed at providing education, skills, housing and opportunities for independent living for children leaving alternative care.
Date of UN examination
18/05/2023
UN article number
5, 9–11, 18 (1) and (2), 20, 21, 25, 27 (4)
Original UN document
Download the original CRC concluding observations 2023 on the UN website.