Separating a baby from his or her mother at birth when there are safeguarding concerns is traumatic for birth parents and painful for professionals. This report presents findings from a study that analysed qualitative data from the lived experiences of parents and professionals where the state intervened at birth. The aim was to identify key challenges and to surface good practice examples with a view to developing a draft set of best practice guidelines for piloting with partner research sites in England and Wales.

Increased support for care leavers and new legislation to reduce out of area placements must also be introduced as part of a major reform of the children's social care system, according to a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for looked-after children and care leavers. The report, which reveals the results of a spotlight inquiry on the care system, will feed into the upcoming Care Review.

This APPG report puts a spotlight on what ‘community’ means to care-experienced people and explores what might be done to help strengthen important community relationships and connections for current and future generations of children in care. The report contains 15 practical recommendations for changes that could be made in the near future to improve the ways in which the care system supports young people to connect with their communities and highlights 5 broader areas where the authors feel serious reform is required that the Department for Education (and others) should consider in greater detail.

James and his wife said there was "no question" of their granddaughter moving in with them after the five-year-old's mum attempted to take her own life.

James is one of up to 300,000 people in the UK who cares for a young relative.

But people in Wales who look after a family member feel they are providing "care on the cheap" as the majority are paid less than unrelated foster carers.

Government plans for mental health support teams in a third of schools in England by 2022-23 lack ambition and need to be stepped up, UK MPs have heard.

Children in care are too often treated in society as criminals rather than victims, an independent body has said.

This CELSIS briefing builds on the 2019 briefing, Access to Care Records, which outlined the legislative and policy context in Scotland around care records. This briefing is for all practitioners involved in writing, managing and/or supporting access to care records, and draws on research, campaigning work, and knowledge from organisations and local authorities across Scotland including in social work and information governance teams.

Ashley John-Baptiste grew up in care believing he was an only child. Then, out of the blue, he received a message from a brother he never knew he had. He set out to explore what being split from siblings means to those who have been in the care system.

Published by the Commission on Young Lives at the end of last year, the report finds the current care system is actually handing over some children to criminals by moving them away from their families and placing them in accommodation that puts them at risk of harm.

This report highlights the changing characteristics of children in and on the ‘edge of care’, including unaccompanied minors, increasing numbers of young people with unmet complex needs and BAME young people.