Helen Lincoln

Director for Children’s Social Care

MUNRO REVIEWSOF CHILD PROTECTION

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What type of conditions enable professionals to make the best judgements about the help to give children, young people and families

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History

review part of drive to improve the quality of child protection in England -10 June 2010

October 2010 First report: Analysis of unintended consequences of previous reforms

February 2011: Interim report: Characteristics of an effective child protection system

May 2011: Final report: Child- centred system and recommendations for reform

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the givens of the review

• The recommendations to this review have to be understood and not implemented passively – there should be no cherry picking either

• The child protection system is complex

• The Commission on the Rights of the Child – protect and prevent

• Abuse and neglect do not present in unambiguous ways

• Predictions about abusive behaviour are necessarily fallible

• The number of professionals involved makes co-ordination, communication and clarity of role an absolute

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Drivers of the system in recent years

The child protection system in recent times has been shaped by four key driving forces:

the importance of the safety and welfare of children and young people

a belief held by many that uncertainty in child protection work can be eradicated

A tendency in inquiries to focus on professional error without examining the causes of any error

the undue weight given to performance information and targets

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Head line messages

• Children and young people not sufficiently seen and heard and continuity of relationships not valued

• Bureaucratic processes drive and dominate professional practice

• Shared professional responsibility to help families early – significance of universal services

• Over-use of central prescription to improve practice, so cumulative effect is negative

• The system is weighted towards responding to serious abuse and neglect with insufficient preventative, early help

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PRINCIPLES EFFECTIVE CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEM

Child- centred

Family is the best place to bring up children and young people

Helping involves direct work

Early help is better for children and young people

Variety of need reflected in helping responses

Good professional practice informed by theory and research

Uncertainty and risk accepted as intrinsic to the work

Most important measures of success are whether help is effective

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A SYSTEM THAT VALUES PROFESSIONAL EXPERTISE

• Current child protection system

• current role of early help

• risk management across all agencies and organisational insight into the complexity of child protection

• Role of statutory Guidance – revision of working together

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valuing professional expertise what the reviews found

Rigid prescription that has resulted because of

pursuit to eradicate uncertainty with more

rules

Management practice focussed on process because inspection and performance

targets dominate

Rules have compromised capacity

for professional judgment

Skill deficit noticed in Serious Case reviews but more rules the

response

Direct work reduced as compliance with process is

driver

Direct work being undertaken by the least qualified and

skilled

Lack of rigour about use of evidence base methods

Skilled help can enable more children and young people to stay safely with

their families

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Statutory GuidanceStatutory Guidance – ‘Working Together’/Framework for Assessment of Need

InspectionInspection – revised focus, unannounced, peer review, thematic deep dives

Performance dataPerformance data – information to study rather than indicators giving simple measure of success

valuing professional expertise: recommendations

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sharing responsibility for the provision of ‘early help’

All partners responsible for help

imperative to help early to reduce harm

Quantity of assessment and not much help –

rebalance this

Offer of early help on back of local process to

understand need

Know your community need and provide help

Preventative services can do more to reduce

abuse and neglect than

reactive services

those providing help need to be suitably skilled and

qualified

a comprehensive

continuum of service across levels of need

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New duty for local authorities and statutory partners to secure provision New duty for local authorities and statutory partners to secure provision of early helpof early help:

- specify against local profile of need

- LSCB clear role in defining and overseeing early help arrangements

- set out access to social work expertise for those in other services

- oversee local safeguarding and child protection training to help all professionals

- have clear arrangements in place to make an ‘offer of early help’ make an ‘offer of early help’

sharing responsibility for early help: Recommendations

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Capabilities, training and career structure for social workCapabilities, training and career structure for social work

College of Social Work to set out capabilities for child and family social work, considering implications for employers, training establishments, career structures and regulators

Employers and higher education establishments to prepare students for child protection work, including better placements

Local children’s servicesLocal children’s services

Principal social workers in every local authority

Redesign services around consistent relationships with families, and effective helping, including redesign of organisational systems and approaches in delivery of social work

Voice of social work in governmentVoice of social work in government

A chief social worker to advise government and bring voice of profession to policy

developing social work expertise & the organisational context

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CLARIFYING ACCOUNTABILITIES

AND IMPROVING LEARNING ‘The number of agencies and professions required to work together well in order to build an accurate understanding of what is happening in the child’s life and to provide help is part of the inherent challenge in building an effective child protection system

•Roles remits and responsibility •Multi agency case reviews become the norm

•Systems approach to serious case reviews

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LE A R

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clarifying accountabilities and creating a learning system

Reviewing practice now is a defensive activity and the

system is closed to learning – repeat messages from SCRs

Learning from practice is the oxygen that will grow skills to exercise

professional judgment

Capabilities, training and career structure for social work

Strong accountability spine, when much else

locally is changing Organisational understanding about child protection work ( 7S)

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GOVERNMENT RESPONSEThis response is not a one-off set of recommended solutions to be imposed from the centre.Rather it is the start of a shift in mindset and relationship between central Government, localagencies and front line professionals working in partnership. Change will evolve and bestpractice will be informed by experience, innovation and evidence. Our aim will be to createthe conditions for sustained, long term reform which enables and inspires professionals to dotheir best for vulnerable children and their families.’

• The response was informed by an Implementation Working Group drawing on expertise from local authority children’s services, the social work profession, education, police and health services.

• Fourteen of the fifteen recommendations are accepted or accepted in principle, with just one recommendation requiring further consideration.

• Implementation of all agreed recommendations is scheduled by end of 2012.

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A new system should be characterised by:

• children and young people’s wishes, feelings and experiences placed at the centre;

• a relentless focus on the timeliness, quality and effectiveness of help given to children, young people and their families;

• the availability of a range of help and services to match the variety of needs of children, young people and their families;

• recognising that risk and uncertainty are features of the system where risk can never be eliminated but it can be managed smarter;

• trusting professionals and giving them the scope to exercise their professional judgment in deciding how to help children, young people and their families;

• the development of professional expertise to work effectively with children, young people and their families;

• truly valuing and acting on feedback from children, young people and families; and continuous learning and improvement, by reflecting critically on practice to identify problems and opportunities for a more effective system.

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GOVERNMENT RESPONSE

• Prescribed timescales for assessments and the distinction between initial and core assessments will be removed by the end of 2011

• Government to implement a chief social worker who will provide a permanent professional presence for social work in government, covering children and adults.

• Local authorities will also be expected to "assess and redesign child and family social services, based on feedback from children and families“, including designate prinicpal social worker

• Revision of working together

• Revision of inspection framework

• Published performance information regime

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GOVERNMENT RESPONSE

• Coproduced work programme to enable continued progress across NHS sector about child protection issues

• Professional capabilities framework for children’s social work, revisions around social work training

• Strengthening of the LSCB legislative operating framework and move to systems based serious case review regime

• New duty for local authorities and statutory partners to secure provision of early helpNew duty for local authorities and statutory partners to secure provision of early help:- specify against local profile of need- set out access to social work expertise for those in other services - provide local safeguarding and child protection training to help all professionals - have clear arrangements in place to make an ‘offer of early help’make an ‘offer of early help’

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What should we be aiming for • a system that learns whether children are being helped and respects

their need for help

• a system hearing and using feedback – children, young people , families and practitioners

• a system with professional freedom and strong accountable management and leadership

• a system that expects errors and so tries to catch them quickly

• a system that is dominated by direct work with families - the human element of the work

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What does this mean for schools

• Role of schools in early help

• Keeping the haystack level smaller

• Changing approach to children social work-

- working with the most in need families only,

- more direct work with families