'Safeguarding Children', a report into the protection of children, was published last week by eight independent inspectorates.
The report brings together evidence from a number of recent inspections along with specific findings arising from a programme of joint inspections addressing the inter-agency arrangements for safeguarding children, in eight Area Child Protection Committee (ACPC) localities between December 2001 and March 2002.
Chief Inspector, Social Services Inspectorate, Denise Platt, said:
"Safeguarding the welfare of our children and young people is crucial to the future wellbeing of our society. This reports seeks to highlight issues of concern, examples of good practice and make recommendations, so that vulnerable children are protected in the best possible way."
Although there have been important recent developments in legislation and in national guidance for some agencies, the report finds that child protection was weakened because:
The priority given to safeguarding children had not been reflected firmly, coherently or consistently enough in service planning and resource allocation nationally or locally across all agencies;
Local agencies interpreted their safeguarding responsibilities in different ways or with different emphasis; and
Other priorities competing for attention had sometimes resulted in resources being diverted from key safeguarding activity;
The report also found that:
Many services were experiencing difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff and this had a major impact on safeguarding arrangements;
Most Area Child Protection Committees were not adequately resourced and did not have sufficient authority to promote effective interagency arrangements to safeguard children in their local communities;
The arrangements to address offenders who present a high risk of harm to the public, Multi Agency Protection Panels, were in place. However they did not approach the task consistently and were not linked effectively to Area Child Protection Committees; and
Insufficient attention was being given to protection of young offenders, particularly those in Young Offender Institutions.
However, the Inspectorates did highlight areas of good practice:
In the majority of cases children were protected from the risks of further harm;
In all councils, children on the child protection register were allocated to social worker staff, who were working well with professionals from other agencies;
Good working relationships between almost all local agencies at all levels in most areas;
Good inter-agency relationships in most areas were characterised by all agencies being willing to work together flexibly to safeguard children.
Safeguarding Children makes a number of recommendations to Government departments, national and local agencies. The following relate to all relevant government departments:
Ensuring the safeguarding of children is firmly and consistently reflected in national and local service planning;
Supporting and facilitating national and local agencies to recruit and retain sufficient levels of appropriately qualified staff; and
Establishing minimum expectations, standards and curriculum for child protection training as part of core professional training of all professionals working with children and young people.
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