Transcript Working Together to Safeguard Children: A guide to inter

Working Together to
Safeguard Children
(March 2010)
Nigel Parton
University of Huddersfield
n.parton:hud.ac.uk
2
The contemporary ‘child protection system’ was effectively
inaugurated with the issue of DHSS Circular:
Non-Accidental Injury to Children. LASSL (74) (13)
It ‘strongly recommended’ that local areas should establish:
 Area Review Committees (re-titled Area Child Protection
Committees in 1988) which would be responsible for developing
local procedures and training
 The introduction of a system of multi-disciplinary Case
Conferences
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The establishment of local Registers
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The Circular was 7 pages long and had One Footnote which
included 4 References, 3 of which were previous DHSS
Circulars.
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The system was then refined on a number of occasions through
the decade:
DHSS Non-Accidental Injury to Children: Area Review Committees,
LASSL (76) (2)
DHSS Non-Accidental Injury to Children: The Police and Case
Conferences, LASSL (1976) (26)
DHSS Child Abuse: The Register System, LA/C396/23D (78)
DHSS Child Abuse: Central Register Systems, LASSL (80) (4)
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DHSS (1988) Working Together: A Guide to Inter-Agency
Co-operation for the Protection of Children from Abuse,
HMSO
Was published on the same day as the Cleveland Inquiry Report.
It tried to provide a framework for inter-agency responses to
child abuse which attempted to avoid ‘over-intervention’ (which
seemed evident in Cleveland ) and ‘under-intervention’ (as in the
child death inquiries into the cases of Jasmine Beckford ,1985;
Tyra Henry, 1987; and Kimberley Carlile, 1987).
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Home Office, Department of Health,
Department of Education and Science, and the
Welsh Office (1991)
Working Together Under the Children Act
1989: A Guide to Arrangements for Interagency Co-operation for the Protection of
Children from Abuse, (HMSO)
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‘The guidance is issued under Section 7 of the
Local Authority Social Services Act 1970, which
requires local authorities in their social services
functions to act under the general guidance of
the Secretary of State. As such, this document
does not have the full force of statute, but
should be complied with unless local
circumstances indicate exceptional reasons
which justify variation’. (HO et al. 1988, p.iii)
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The document was:
126 pages long (made up of 60 pages of Guidance
and 9 Appendices of 66 pages)
It had 39 References, 35 of which were HMSO or a
Government Department
There were No Footnotes
Part 5 on ‘Working Together – Individual Cases’ was 15
pages long
For the first time in Part 8 (4 pages long) Case
Reviews were introduced
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Department of Health, Home Office and Department
for Education and Employment (1999)
Working Together to Safeguard Children: A guide
to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote
the welfare of children (The Stationery Office).
Followed ‘Child Protection: Messages from Research,
the‘Re-Focusing’ Debate and Election of New Labour
in 1997
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The document was:
 119 pages long (made up of 102 pages of Guidance
and 6 Appendices of 17 pages)
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There was a ‘Reading List’ (Appendix 6) of 50
References, of which 31 were HMSO/Stationery
Office or Government Departments; there were NO
Internet links/web addresses
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There were 12 Footnotes
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The 1999 Working Together was published at the
same time as:
Department of Health, Department of Education and
Employment and the Home Office (2000)
Framework for the Assessment of Children in
Need and their Families (The Stationery Office)
Also issued under section 7 of the LA SS Act 1970 and
was ‘incorporated into Working Together to Safeguard
Children’.
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The Assessment Framework was:
109 pages long, including 7 Appendices of 20 pages
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Had a ‘Bibliography’ of 140 References of which 83 were HMSO/The
Stationery Office or Government Departments; there were No Internet
Links/Web Addresses
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The Assessment Framework was also supported by the publication of a
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The Assessment Framework is still in operation and forms the basis for the
range of other materials which included: practice guidance; assessment record
forms; a family assessment pack of questionnaires and scales; a summary of
studies which informed the development of the framework; and a training
pack.
Integrated Children’s System (ICS)
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HM Government (2006) Working Together to Safeguard
Children: A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and
promote the welfare of children
Re-written to take account of:
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Every Child Matters: Change for Children programme
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Children Act 2004 which introduced a number of new statutory
changes including the requirement to establish Local Children’s
Safeguarding Boards and Child Death Review Processes
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The document was:
231 pages long including 155 pages of Statutory
Guidance, 30 pages of Non-Statutory Practice
guidance and 6 Appendices of 28 pages
78 ‘References and Internet Links’, including 69
Internet Links/Web Addresses, of which 60 were
gov.uk
With 43 Footnotes
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On 17 November 2008 the Secretary of State asked Lord Laming
to prepare an urgent and independent report on;
‘the progress being made across the country to implement
effective arrangements for safeguarding children’
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Lord Laming (12 March, 2009) The Protection of Children in
England
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HM Government (6 May, 2009) The Protection of Children in
England: Action Plan. The Government’s Response to
Lord Laming
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The Government accepted all of Lord Laming’s 58
Recommendations, 17 of which were to be responded
to by the revision of Working Together.
In addition there were a further 6 changes that related
to the statutory guidance to Chapter 8 on Serious Case
Reviews, and the commitment of the government to
appoint lay members to Local Safeguarding Children
Boards
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The public consultation on the revised Working
Together ran from 18 December 2009 – 11 February
2010, and was preceded by a separate consultation on
the revision of Chapter 8 on Serious Case Reviews
(31 July – 23 October 2009) with the new version of
Chapter 8 being published on 18 December 2009
See:
HM Government (March, 2010) Working Together
to Safeguard Children: Government response to
public consultation
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HM Government (2010) Working Together to Safeguard
Children: A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and
promote the welfare of children; London: DCSF
published on 17 March 2010
While it has the same title as both the 1999 and 2006 Working
Together and follows a similar chapter structure and layout, the
revisions and changes very much reflect the changing policy and
organisational climates of the intervening years
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Crucially the length and complexity of both the
document and the work is evident. This was the
major comment in the consultation and is clearly
recognised by the DCSF who have committed
themselves to:
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Produce an easily navigable web-based version of the
document, with hyperlinks to relevant supporting
guidance;
Produce in partnership with stakeholders a short
practitioner guide; and
Work with stakeholders to identify what might be done
to present the document more effectively to ensure that
the statutory requirements to safeguard and promote
the welfare of children and yourng people are not
inadvertently obscured by non-statutory guidance
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The document:
 Has 390 pages which include: an Executive
Summary of 15 pages; Statutory Guidance of
228 pages; Non-statutory practice guidance
of 51 pages; and 6 Appendices of 34 pages
 200 ‘References and Internet Links’ including
124 with Internet links/Web Addresses, of
which 78 are gov.uk
 273 Footnotes
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
The Chapters in Part 1 on the Statutory Guidance are
organised as follows:
Introduction 10 pages
Roles and Responsibilities 47 pages
Local Safeguarding Children Boards 24 pages
Training, development and supervision for inter-agency
working 19 pages
Managing individual cases where there are concerns
about a child’s safety and welfare 57pages
Supplementary guidance on safeguarding and promoting
welfare 16 pages
Child death review processes 22 pages
Serious case reviews 23 pages
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Part 2: Non-statutory practice guidance, consists of:
9. Lessons from research 25 pages
10. Implementing the principles on working with
children and their families 7 pages
11. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of
children who may be particularly vulnerable
12. Managing individuals who pose a risk of harm to
children
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Chapter 6 – Supplementary guidance on
safeguarding and promoting the welfare of
children – outlines, references and links to 10 other
Statutory Supplementary guidance documents:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Sexually exploited children (2009) 96 pages
Children affected by gang activity (2010) 52 pages
Fabricated or induced illness (FII) (2008) 88
pages
Investigating complex (organised or multiple)
abuse (2002)
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5. Female genital mutilation – LA Circular 2004
6. Forced marriage and honour-based violence (2009)
26 pages
7. Allegations of abuse made against a person who
works with children, plus Appendix 5 10 pages
8. Abuse of disabled children (2009) 84 pages
9. Child abuse linked to belief in ‘spirit possession’
(2007) 23 pages
10. Child victims of trafficking (2007) 55 pages
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Chapter 11 – Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children who may be
particularly vulnerable lists the following:
1.
Children living away from home
2.
Abuse by children and young people
3.
Children whose behaviour indicates a lack of parental control
4.
Race and racism
5.
Violent extremism
6.
Domestic violence
7.
Child abuse and information communication technology (ICT)
8.
Children with families whose whereabouts are unknown
9.
Children who go missing
10.
Children who go missing from education
11.
Children of families living in temporary accommodation
12.
Migrant children
13.
Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC)
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Some specific changes:
Chapter 2 on Roles and Responsibilities now
has new sections on ContactPoint and the CAF
both of which are seen to play key roles in
information sharing and multi agency working
The length of time for an ‘Initial Assessment’
has been increased from 7 to 10 days