Safeguarding children and young people: a national perspective

Jeanette Pugh

Director, Safeguarding Group

Overview

The Government’s ambition The challenge Setting the agenda Staying Safe Action Plan A new Public Service Agreement Strengthening the framework Local Safeguarding Children Boards Child Death Reviews & Serious Case Reviews

Safety is fundamental

“Every child deserves to be safe and loved and have a healthy and happy childhood, free from harm.”

Ed Balls,18 July 2007

“Safety is fundamental – if children are not safe, they cannot be happy, healthy, achieve, or reach their full potential.”

Ed Balls, 5 February 2008

Ambition for safeguarding

Everyone taking responsibility A focus on prevention and early intervention Clear accountability, decision making, planning Effective local services – co-ordinated by LSCBs Measurable improvement in outcomes ‘Staying safe’ as well as child protection Striking the right balance

The challenge

Safeguarding every child and young person Tackling children’s safety in the round Maintaining a child-centred approach Joining up different services Working across communities, faith groups, sectors,

backgrounds Making a practical reality of `making safeguarding

children everyone’s responsibility’

Setting the agenda

Children’s Plan, December 2007 – a vision for 2020 Staying Safe consultation July 2007 leading to the

Staying Safe Action Plan February 2008 – a comprehensive cross-Government programme of action spanning every aspect of children’s safety

A new Public Service Agreement to improve children and young people’s safety – setting indicators and deliverables over the CSR period 2008-2011

Staying Safe: from consultation ..to.. action plan

Staying Safe: consultation

Cross-Government commitment to improving the safety of all children and young people

Re-balancing the debate

“Today we launch our consultation on Staying Safe … the start of a very important debate about what we all need to do – parents, politicians, employers, practitioners, children and young people – to ensure the safety and wellbeing of every child.”

Ed Balls, 18 July 2007

Staying Safe consultation: purpose

Raise awareness of importance of safeguarding children and young people and encourage wider debate around safeguarding as everyone’s responsibility

Promote better understanding of safeguarding issues, and start to change behaviour towards children and young people, and their safety and welfare

Ensure work in this area is coherent and effectively co-ordinated across Government to maximise the impact on outcomes for children and young people

Reinforce existing activity with new commitments in each area of the safeguarding framework (universal, targeted and responsive) to plug gaps or improve linkages

Staying Safe consultation: process 18 July to 31 October 2007

Over 1,000 written and online responses from parents, practitioners, the general public and children and young people. Most were from children and young people themselves

8 regional events held for practitioners and 18 discussion groups with parents, children and young people and the general public

Discussion groups with particular groups, including recent immigrant arrivals, children and young people with SEN and parents with problems that impact on children

Staying Safe: from consultation ..to.. action plan

Staying Safe: Action Plan

Launched 5 February 2008. Builds on existing frameworks and policies and the Children’s Plan (chapter 2 `Safe and Sound’)

Comprehensive cross-Government programme of work covering every aspect of children’s safety – abuse and maltreatment, bullying, crime and anti-social behaviour, prevention of accidents, and ensuring children and young people have a secure home environment

Underpinned by the PSA Delivery Agreement

The Action Plan can be downloaded from www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/stayingsafe

Staying Safe: Action PlanKey messages

Keeping children and young people safe is everyone’s responsibility

In many ways children and young people are safer than previous generations, but there are new risks and challenges

It is important to strike a balance between protecting children and young people and allowing them to explore and learn about risks for themselves

Staying Safe: Action PlanCommitments

Wide range of commitments, including new announcements to: set up a National Safeguarding Unit for the Third Sector to

provide advice and assistance to all third sector organisations establish a Child Safety Education Coalition so that more

children have access to fun and practical safety education launch a major new communications campaign on children and

young people’s safety fund a new home safety equipment scheme targeted at

deprived families – totalling £18 million over three years

Full set of commitments in Annex B of the Action Plan

Public Service Agreement to improve children and young people’s safety (PSA 13)

Measured by 4 indicators:1. Percentage of children who have experienced bullying2. Percentage of children referred to children’s social care who

received an initial assessment within 7 working days3. Hospital admissions caused by unintentional and deliberate

injuries to children and young people4. Preventable child deaths as recorded through child death review

panel processes

Delivery Agreement published on HMT website April 2008

Will ensure that delivery of the Action Plan is effectively monitored to drive improvements in children and young people’s safety

Strengthening the framework for safeguarding

Children Act 2004 – new framework of roles and duties; LSCBs Working Together to Safeguard Children (April 2006)

– S11 guidance on safeguarding and promoting welfare of children (updated March 2007)

– Safeguarding against abuse linked to belief in spirit possession (May 2007)

– Safeguarding children and young people who may have been trafficked (joint with HO, December 2007)

– Guidance on Safeguarding Children Involved in Prostitution (2000) - being extended and updated

– Safeguarding Children in whom illness is fabricated or induced (2008) – Guidance on safeguarding disabled children – planned

Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 – a safe workforce

Local Safeguarding Children Boards

Encouraging early progress:– LSCBs have given safeguarding a new energy– Statutory basis is raising profile and ownership of safeguarding

across agencies– Improving understanding about wider safeguarding agenda

Latest Ofsted LSCB survey (10 March 2008):– More independent Chairs than previously– Lead Members better informed about the LSCBs and

safeguarding, and good examples of scrutiny – Focus shifting from child protection to wider safeguarding agenda– Where SCRs are well established, LSCBs demonstrating

contribution to improvements in practice.

Local Safeguarding Children Boards

Continuing challenges:

– Accountability relationships– Engagement of some LSCB partners– Local service reconfiguration and reorganisation can

undermine the consistency and quality of agency representation at some LSCBs

– Performance and quality improvement, including SCRs– Ongoing variation in resources allocated to LSCBs across

the country and within regions

Current work to support LSCBs

Gathering exemplars of effective local practice Developing a self-improvement tool for LSCBs Second successful national event held 19 March 2008 Drawing up further guidance for LSCBs, based on

effective local practice (to provide national advice on how they can deal with some of the challenges they have identified)

Focus on improving effectiveness, learning from SCRs, setting up Child Death Review Panels

Child Death Reviews

Requirement for LSCBs across England from April 2008 to review the deaths of children in their area

Child Death Overview Panels – set up by Local Authority; function of LSCB to ensure investigations carried out and data analysed; age range to be covered – birth to under 18

Progress:– New funding over CSR period 2008-9 to 2010-11: £22 million for

Local Authorities and £30 million for health bodies • Familiarisation DVD produced – ‘Why Jason Died’• Regional seminars held – November/December 2007• Multi-agency training resources• Development of common data set for LSCBs to use

Serious Case Reviews

Biennial Overview Reports published on 31 January covering 2001-2003 and 2003-2005. Key messages:

– the need to develop a much stronger learning culture– the vulnerability of older children and disabled children– how family difficulties, e.g. domestic abuse, mental ill

health, can pose a major challenge for service providers– the importance of early identification and intervention, and

seeking the views of the child – Importance of effective communication between agencies – the potential for greater collaboration between LSCBs

regionally and between adult and children’s services

Learning from Serious Case Reviews

“I see it as critical to our ambitions to safeguard and promote children’s welfare that LSCBs are highly effective learning organisations which routinely learn from each other and take every opportunity to influence policies and practices which will better safeguard children.”

“If we can raise the standard and impact of serious case reviews so that they are all at the high standards of the very best, we can have confidence that the findings from serious case reviews will make a long term, sustained difference to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.”

Kevin Brennan, 19 February 2008

In summary…

Safeguarding high on the national agenda Strong cross-Government commitment through

Staying Safe: Action Plan and PSA 13 – building on the legislative and policy framework already in place

A national debate on children’s safety - broadening understanding and making safeguarding everyone’s responsibility

A focus on learning and improving. Translating national and local commitment into demonstrable, sustained improved outcomes – the key challenge?

Safeguarding children and young people: a national perspective

Jeanette Pugh

Director, Safeguarding Group