Children’s Social Care National Framework Statutory guidance on the purpose, principles for practice and expected outcomes of children’s social care December 2023 2 Contents Introduction 3 About this guidance 3 The Children’s Social Care Dashboard 4 Support to embed the National Framework 4 Review date 5 What is the status of this guidance? 5 Who is this guidance for? 6 National Framework: Key Concepts 10 Enabler 10 Outcome 10 Senior Leaders 10 Practice Supervisors 11 Practitioners 11 Children in care 11 Children and young people 12 National Framework – one page summary 13 Purpose and Principles of Children’s Social Care 14 Purpose of children’s social care 14 Principles of children’s social care 14 Enabler: Multi-agency working is prioritised and effective 16 Enabler: leaders drive conditions for effective practice 20 Enabler: the workforce is equipped and effective 25 Outcome 1: children, young people and families stay together and get the help they need 29 Outcome 2: children and young people are supported by their family network 36 Outcome 3: children and young people are safe in and outside of their homes 41 Outcome 4: children in care and care leavers have stable, loving homes 50 Glossary of terms 60 3 Introduction About this guidance Children’s social care has the power to transform lives; wrapping support around children, young people and families can bring about profound and positive changes that help them to flourish. Every day, local authority children’s social care supports around 400,000 children1, and in the last 8 years, on average, around 5 children in every classroom in England were supported by a social worker2. These children, young people and families deserve the highest standards of practice, from compassionate and skilled practitioners, who can sup