New statutory guidance means children in care, children in need and care leavers should now be offered an advocate without having to ask, and not only when they want to complain. In my latest piece for Children and Young People Now I set out what has changed. The guidance replaces Get it Sorted, which since […]
Category: Child Protection
Changes to regulated activity with children from 1 September 2026
The Charity Commission updated its safeguarding guidance for trustees on 8 October 2026. The biggest change for charities working with children is that the supervision exemption has gone. Since 1 September 2026, anyone who teaches, trains, instructs, cares for or supervises children more than three days in any 30, or overnight, is in regulated activity […]
Ofsted’s changes to inspecting children’s services
Ofsted removed the overall effectiveness judgement from inspections of local authority children’s services from 1 April 2026. Four judgements remain: help and protection, children in care, care leavers, and the impact of leaders. How often an authority is inspected now depends on those four. Ofsted has also consulted, until 28 September 2026, on a renewed […]
This month marks a milestone you will almost certainly not have seen reported.
Twenty years ago the regulations behind the statutory children’s social care complaints procedure came into force, and the guidance beneath them has not been revised since. Few people outside children’s services know the procedure exists, and fewer still know what it gives a child, the right to have someone independent read the records and say […]
Complaints must be part of the Child Protection Authority
Resolution Ready has submitted a response to the Department for Education’s consultation on the proposed Child Protection Authority for England. Our response focuses on a gap we see consistently in practice: statutory children’s social care complaints are not yet recognised as a source of national learning, and they should be. Complaints are a formal mechanism […]
Evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights on children in the care system
Our submission focused on the statutory complaints process. We highlighted how it is often characterised by delay, confusion and lack of clarity, with some cases taking years from start to finish. This undermines the rights of children, particularly care-experienced young people and families already facing disadvantage. At its best, the complaints procedure gives children and […]