Responses requested for NICE consultation

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has launched a consultation on new quality standards for the health and wellbeing of looked-after children and young people in England.  These will apply to all provision for looked-after children. This initiative follows the Health and Social Care Act (2012) which set out a new responsibility for NICE to develop quality standards and other guidance for social care in England.

The 13 draft quality standards include the following proposals:

Looked-after children and young people and those who are covered by leaving care arrangements

• are actively involved in decisions at every stage of their care
• are offered a choice of placements which meet their individual needs and preferences
• are offered continued access to and support from services when they need it to ensure that they move to independence at their own pace.
• Carers of looked-after children and young people receive ongoing high-quality training, support and supervision to enable them to promote the health and wellbeing of children and young people in their care.

The Fostering Network’s chief executive Robert Tapsfield, who chairs the NICE expert group advising on the standards, said of the consultation: “It is vitally important that we seek and receive the opinions of looked-after children and young people and all those involved in providing their care.” 

You can read the draft quality standards in full, and respond to the consultation up to 16 October, on the NICE website.

The Fostering Network will be consulting its members about the draft care standards through its Policy Consultation Group. To have a say, sign up to the Policy Consultation Group now.

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