This petition is to raise awareness of the need of reform in Englands childrens homes. The finished petition will be presented to local councils and social services departments to try and get children's homes improved. Children’s homes are designed to offer help and support to children who have suffered traumas or emotional problems and/or are left without a family to care for them due to bereavement or because of instances of neglect. Social services claim that the welfare of the child is paramount, but sadly this is not always the case. Children who have experienced neglect, bereavement or psychological issues that have resulted in them being placed in a childrens 'care' home are vulnerable and afraid, and are easily influenced. From personal experience, I know that there are several problems that need to be addressed: 1) Psychological help- children who have been placed in a children's home have left everything that they knew to be their life, qualified psychological support is needed for care home residents to help prevent any future problems and to help them on their way to a happy future. 2) Bullying- within childrens homes, this happens and can cause serious emotional and quite often physical harm. Staff of childrens homes do their best, but what happens behind closed doors cannot be seen and quite often, children are too scared to tell anyone. I propose that at least 2 members of staff per childrens home should be fully qualified in childcare, and courses on bullying and abuse should be available for all staff members.This would enable staff to detect problems between the children and help put a stop to a child being exposed to physical and emotional harm. 3)Regular checks- visits from the childrens social workers should be more frequent. Often a child that is in care feels closest to their social worker, and are more likely to confide in them than anyone else. This would help address any issues and problems that the child is suffering from. These may seem like few proposals, but each one of the three proposals above, branch out and touch on other issues. For example, if a child was being bullied by another child within the childrens home, and this was detected due to higher qualified staff, then vital psychologicla support would be there to help the victim child overcome their possible emotional harm. Please take a couple of minutes to sign this petition and help children in care to be able to live without fear of being hurt. Thanks