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The Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) has published an updated edition of its What is Care For? policy paper, calling for a more relational and flexible care system that better reflects the changing needs of children and young people in care.
The fourth edition of the report, published on 9 July, revisits questions first raised by ADCS in 2012 about the purpose of the care system and assesses the progress made over the past decade. It concludes that, while significant reforms have been introduced, further change is needed to ensure children experience safe, loving and stable homes, supported by enduring relationships that promote wellbeing, identity and belonging.
The report identifies three priorities for both the sector and government. These include developing a more flexible approach to care that strengthens family relationships, sibling connections and community ties through shared care arrangements; placing greater emphasis on permanence and stability, including enhanced support for kinship carers and families with Special Guardianship Orders; and improving services for adolescents, particularly those experiencing harm outside the family home or subject to Deprivation of Liberty orders.
According to ADCS, the care system must move beyond traditional binary approaches to care and instead respond more effectively to the diverse experiences of children and young people. The report argues that achieving this will require closer collaboration between children's social care, health, education and policing agencies.
Ann Graham, President of the Association of Directors of Children's Services, said England continues to have one of the safest child protection systems internationally, but acknowledged that longstanding questions about the suitability of the care system for modern challenges remain unresolved.
She said the updated report reflects the sector's continuing commitment to defining the purpose of care within a changing policy landscape and ensuring that practice evolves to meet the increasingly complex needs of vulnerable children and young people.
Graham observed that many of the same questions raised in 2012 remain relevant in 2026, particularly whether a care system designed before the digital age is equipped to support adolescents facing exploitation and other risks beyond the family home. While welcoming the range of reforms currently underway, she cautioned that there is a risk they could become a series of disconnected initiatives rather than forming part of a coherent long-term strategy.
The report concludes that current reforms present an opportunity to reshape the care system around children's relationships, stability and long-term wellbeing. ADCS said it will continue working with central government and partner organisations to ensure that children in care and care leavers remain at the centre of wider public service reform and that future policy delivers improved outcomes for some of the most vulnerable children and young people.
The full version of What is Care For? can be found here.
