Coventry’s work on reunification and helping more children return home from care was highlighted at Parliament last week.
The Council was represented by Matt Clayton, Strategic Lead – Children in Care, Children with Disabilities and Care Leavers, at the Education Select Committee.
Matt gave evidence at the Committee and was joined by Mary Jackson, CEO, Frontline and Dr Lucille Allain, Co-Chair, Association of Professors of Social Work.
Children returning to their families is the leading exit route from care, but family reunification often fails, with children returning to the care system. Existing data shows that 35% of children who are reunited with their families return to care within six years.
Coventry has been leading the way on helping children to return home from care, and the Reunification Project has been praised by the NSPCC and Action for Children, who are calling for more to be done to help young people.
The Project went live in the city in the summer of 2021 and has so far seen over 30 children return home from long-term care.
It puts children and families at the heart of practice using a creative 'high support, high challenge' model of work to return children home, where it is safe to do so.
The Reunification Team has been shortlisted for two national awards and its work has been showcased to other local authorities who are considering bringing in a similar way of working to help young people in care to return home.
Matt said: “It was a real privilege to be able to share news about the great work going on in Coventry at a national level. I was able to talk about our culture of working with families and the importance of family group conferencing and Lifelong Links in addition to the work we are doing around reunification.
“The committee was really interested in the work we are doing and asked some great questions to understand more about how we are having positive impact of lives of children and families.
“It is testament to everyone across the service that work being done is being recognised in this way and can hopefully help influence policy and practice wider.”
The session is recorded and available online. It is the second hour of the recording