The Joint Committee on Human Rights has announced an inquiry into the human rights of children in the social care system. It will have a particular focus on children in care but wider aspects of the system will also be relevant, for example in regard to kinship care, to the availability of additional support to families with disabled children, or to the efficacy of early intervention measures.
The Joint Committee has launched a call for written evidence asking questions on issues such as the adequacy of the legal framework and the availability of complaints mechanisms.
The Committee has also launched an online survey to better understand the views of those who have experience of the children’s social care system in England.
More information and how to respond can all be found here.
Unsurprisingly, the Committee is interested in how Article 5 rights are being upheld. Rather pointedly given the apparently endless trailing of changes to EHCPs, the Committee is also expressly interested in understanding:
To what extent is there a clear understanding by organisations, individuals, and public authorities, about statutory duties owed to children in the social care system, as well as the individual entitlements of these children? Do social workers, as well as others involved in providing support to children in care, receive adequate human rights training?
