Latest Safeguarding Children Review Shows Most Vulnerable Children Not Yet Benefiting From Improvements To Services And Outcomes

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 10 Jul 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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Much has changed in the landscape of children's services since the previous Safeguarding Children report in 2005. As a result of improved safeguarding arrangements, most children now feel safe in their homes and communities, and are receiving the quality of care and support that they need.

But some children and young people are still not well enough served by public services. This is particularly the case for those who are looked after by their local authority, who are in secure settings or are asylum-seeking children, according to the third joint Chief Inspectors' review of arrangements to safeguard children. The report is jointly published today by the chief inspectors of eight inspectorates.

The report also highlights that some of the recommendations made in 2005 have not been implemented. These include recommendations relating to restraint techniques in secure settings, the effects of detention in immigration removal centres on children, and continued delays in carrying out welfare assessments.

Speaking on behalf of all the inspectorates, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills, Christine Gilbert, said:

"It is encouraging to be able to point to some tangible improvements over the last three years but the position is still not good enough to give our most vulnerable children and young people the support they need.

I hope the recommendations from this report - coming as they do with the force of eight inspectorates behind them - accelerate the pace of change so that these children thrive and are more able to lead productive and fulfilling lives".

The report, 'Safeguarding Children' is published every three years. It assesses how well agencies are working at both national and local levels to safeguard children and young people. Safeguarding children is more than protecting children from abuse or neglect. It also means ensuring their health and development is not impaired, and that they are growing up safe and well cared for in order to have the best possible life chances and enter adulthood effectively.

According to the report, the priority given to safeguarding across agencies has increased since the first Safeguarding review was completed in 2002. There is greater independence in the chairing and reporting arrangements of Local Safeguarding Children's Boards (LSCBs). Strategic partnerships are now in place in all areas to deliver services to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. And joint working has particularly improved in some areas, including arrangements between children's services, the police and the health service aimed at preventing domestic violence.

But the report finds that not all agencies are meeting their statutory duties, and lines of accountability and responsibility for child protection are still not always clear. In particular, inspections have highlighted the lack of priority given to children's safeguarding by some NHS trusts.

Anna Walker, Chief Executive of the Healthcare Commission, said:

"Our experience is that healthcare organisations have made real progress in putting in place processes for safeguarding children. Services are getting better at identifying problems early and taking the necessary steps to address these problems.

"However, there is still an enormous amount to do and this is particularly true for the most vulnerable. The needs of children with mental health problems or learning disabilities, particularly those with complex mental and physical needs, and young people in the criminal justice system struggle to get to the top of the priority list. We will continue to press for services to work together, particularly for those young people in greatest need."

There also remains a lack of a shared, consistent understanding of safeguarding between social care services, the criminal justice system and in secure establishments, where the focus is disproportionately on security issues over the impact these can have on children's well-being.

The report finds that the majority of settings where children are cared for or are educated comply with regulations for keeping children safe. But there are some significant exceptions. One in ten children's homes, for example, is inadequate in meeting standards for keeping children safe. The choice of placement in children's homes and foster homes remains limited for most children in care. For care leavers and young people leaving custody, there is also inadequate accommodation in most local authority areas.

The review found that agencies have a greater awareness of the importance of Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checking for staff whose jobs bring them into contact with children. But it highlights that whilst new staff are normally checked, there is inconsistency in the extent to which best practice is followed for re-checking staff already in post.

The report makes 22 recommendations to government departments, agencies providing services to children and young people, local safeguarding children boards and relevant inspectorates. Amongst these, is a call from the inspectors for co-ordinated information to be gathered on children who go missing to improve arrangements for tracing these children and to better understand the circumstances in which this happens.

Safeguarding children - The third joint chief inspectors' report on arrangements to safeguard children (pdf 4489kb) (opens new window)

Notes

1. The report 'Safeguarding Children: The third joint chief Inspectors' report on arrangements to safeguard children' can be found on the Ofsted website A micro site of the report can be found at http://www.safeguardingchildren.org.uk

2. The findings of the Ofsted survey are based on 118 questionnaire responses and 19 structured interviews with LSCB chairs

3. The report looks at arrangements for safeguarding in four key areas: the effectiveness of the overall safeguarding systems and frameworks that are in place; public services' wider safeguarding role; targeted activity to safeguard vulnerable groups of children and identifying and responding to child protection concerns.

4. The two previous Safeguarding reports were published in 2002 and 2005.

5. New arrangements for the integrated inspection of children's services were introduced in 2005, when the last review was published.

6. The different types of inspection were carried out using approaches that are tailored to the topics and services involved.

7. Evidence in this report comes from the annual performance assessment (APA) of each local authority's children's services. It also comes from the programme of joint area reviews (JARS) carried out by a range of inspectorates working together in each of the 150 upper tier local authority areas in England.

8. On 1 January 2008, Ofsted had responsibility for inspecting 1,738 children's homes, 276 independent fostering agencies and 140 local authority foster agencies in England

9. The responsibility for maintaining a record of serious incidents and for evaluating the quality of serious case reviews from the Commission for Social Care Inspection to Ofsted in April 2007.

10. The National Service Framework (NSF) for Children, Young People and Maternity Services, published in 2004, is an integral part of Every Child Matters and aims at sustained improvement in children's health over a 10-year period

11. The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted): Ofsted has the responsibility for the inspection of adult learning and training, the regulation and inspection of children's social care, the inspection of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service. Ofsted inspects or regulates the following services - childminders, full and sessional day-care providers, out of school care, crèches, adoption and fostering agencies, residential schools, family centres and homes for children, all state maintained schools, some independent schools, Pupil Referral Units the Children and Family Courts Advisory Service, the overall level of services for children in local authority areas (known as Joint Area Reviews), further education Initial Teacher Training, and publicly funded adult skills and employment based training.

12. The joint Chief Inspectors are:

- Christine Gilbert CBE, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills
- Anna Walker CB, Chief Executive, Healthcare Commission
- Paul Snell, Chief Inspector for Social Care Inspection
- Sir Ronnie Flanagan GBE QPM, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary
- Stephen J Wooler CB, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate
- Eddie Bloomfield, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Court Administration
- Anne Owers CBE, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons
- Andrew Bridges CBE, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Probation

Healthcare Commission