The Department of Health and other Government Departments have welcomed the publication of the Joint Chief Inspectors' report Safeguarding Children (published on our site yesterday). The report identifies good practice and contains a number of recommendations for Government Departments, together with recommendations to other national and local agencies.

The Government will consider very carefully the recommendations that have been made and will publish its response by next spring .

The joint report follows a Government commitment made in the 1998 White Paper Modernising Social Services, that a joint inspection of children's safeguards should take place every three years. It is the result of a programme of joint inspections undertaken in eight Area Child Protection Committee localities, combined with supporting evidence from a number of other recent inspections.

The inspections sought to determine how well children are safeguarded from harm in their own homes, residential schools, hospitals, foster care, residential care and youth offender institutions, and how well agencies work together to safeguard children.

Jacqui Smith, Social Services Minister, said:
"I welcome this important report, and the collaboration that has produced it.

"The Government is committed to improving safeguards for children, and has introduced new legislation, new guidance, new structures and new policy initiatives to make children safer and to ensure that there is a proper focus on children at the very heart of Government.

"We do, however, recognise that there is still more to be done to ensure that the highest standards of child protection are applied in every case. That is why we commissioned the Joint Chief Inspector's report. It is also why the Secretary of State for Health and the Home Secretary set up the statutory inquiry, chaired by Lord Laming, into the circumstances leading up to, and surrounding, the death of Victoria Climbié. We will also be piloting Children's Trusts as a means of breaking down structural barriers, and providing the opportunity for local partners to jointly plan, commission and finance services."

John Denham, Minister for Young People, said:
"In addition to the Government's commitment to the higher standard of child protection, we have recently announced action to address wider issues of children at risk by asking local authority chief executives to take the lead to ensure that all those responsible for relevant services are involved in agreeing a local preventive strategy next year, setting out their contributions to improving services for all children at risk.

"An essential part of these strategies will be the implementation of Identification, Referral and Tracking systems to support those children most at risk of falling into offending, substance mis-use and unwanted teenage pregnancy, for example."

The Government looks forward to receiving Lord Laming's report later this year. It will respond in full to both reports after it has had the opportunity to consider them fully.