Open letter to children’s home staff
Dear Children’s Homes Staff, My name is Josh MacAlister and 14 months ago the government asked me to lead an independent review of children’s social care. Last week I published the final report which includes a clear set of recommendations, alongside a plan and costings, that I am asking the government, public services and businesses […]
Why we need a reset for children’s advocacy
I was really pleased to be able to share the final report from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care last week. The messages and recommendations from the review are the culmination of thousands of conversations, hundreds of meetings and many months of work. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the review and shared […]
Speech to NSPCC ‘How safe are our children?’ conference 12th May 2022
A better future for every child: ensuring safety, stability and love for children growing up in England Introduction Thank you for the invitation to join you all today. Peter’s speech yesterday set out a really powerful challenge to the government and I’m grateful for the opportunity to join you today to set out some of […]
The CMA has issued the latest wake up call. We need to be ready to act
Yesterday saw the publication of the final report from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) market study into children’s social care. The use of the word ‘market’ itself is jarring and troublesome. We should use it begrudgingly. It’s one indication of just how far removed the care system has come from children and the people […]
Building recommendations
It’s been over a month since my last update and, as promised before Christmas, we are now fully focused on writing recommendations which means we are going to be necessarily quiet for the first few months of the year. Since my last update I’ve had the opportunity to meet with Annie Hudson chair of the […]
Call for Ideas – a thank you
I wasn’t really sure what to expect when we launched the Call for Ideas back in November. We decided to be really open in asking people to submit ideas. In part because we had started to receive unsolicited ideas and felt the fair thing would be to be really explicit that everyone was welcome to […]
Learning from tragedy to improve help and protection
In less than two week we’ve had two shocking, upsetting and incomprehensible reports of children being abused, humiliated and killed at the hands of people who should have loved and cared for them. My condolences and thoughts are with everyone who knew and loved Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson and especially for those who tried […]
Being big hearted about children’s social care is not enough
This piece first appeared in ‘Children and Young People Now’ on 26 November 2021 Leading the independent review of children’s social care is the privilege of my life. Speaking to thousands of care experienced people, families and those who work in children’s social care over the course of the review I’ve been honoured […]
Share your solutions through our Call for Ideas
At every stage of this review I have been keen to get input. In January 2021, as we started the review, I asked for people to share their advice with me and in March we asked the academic, research and policy community to respond to our Call for Evidence. This evidence and advice as well […]
Listening to care experienced children and young people
It’s National Care Leavers week and a good point to pause and reflect on the conversations we have had with care experienced children and young people through the review. Soon after we launched in March 2021 we held a number of online workshops with people keen to speak to the review. The events were themed […]
