Transcript Document

MUNRO REVIEWS
OF CHILD PROTECTION
Helen Lincoln
Director for Children’s Social Care
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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
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The recommendations to this review have to be understood and not
implemented passively – there should be no cherry picking either
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The child protection system is complex
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The Commission on the Rights of the Child – protect and prevent
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Abuse and neglect do not present in unambiguous ways
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Predictions about abusive behaviour are necessarily fallible
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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
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Children and young people not sufficiently seen and heard and continuity of
relationships not valued
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Bureaucratic processes drive and dominate professional practice
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Shared professional responsibility to help families early – significance of
universal services
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Over-use of central prescription to improve practice, so cumulative effect is
negative
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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
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Current child protection system
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current role of early help
• risk management across all agencies and organisational insight
into the complexity of child protection
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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
Rules have
compromised capacity
for professional
judgment
Skill deficit noticed in
Serious Case reviews
but more rules the
response
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Management practice
focussed on process because
inspection and performance
targets dominate
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
valuing professional expertise: recommendations
Statutory Guidance – ‘Working Together’/Framework for Assessment of Need
Inspection – revised focus, unannounced, peer review, thematic deep dives
Performance data – information to study rather than indicators giving simple
measure of success
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sharing responsibility for the provision of ‘early help’
imperative to help
early to reduce harm
those providing help need
to be suitably skilled and
qualified
Preventative
services can do
more to reduce
abuse and
neglect than
reactive services
Quantity of assessment
and not much help –
rebalance this
a
comprehensive
continuum of
service across
levels of need
All partners responsible
for help
Offer of early help on
back of local process to
understand need
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Know your community
need and provide help
sharing responsibility for early help:
Recommendations
 New duty for local authorities and statutory partners to secure provision
of early help:
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specify against local profile of need
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LSCB clear role in defining and overseeing early help arrangements
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set out access to social work expertise for those in other services
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oversee local safeguarding and child protection training to help all
professionals
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have clear arrangements in place to make an ‘offer of early help’
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developing social work expertise &
the organisational context
Capabilities, 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
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Employers and higher education establishments to prepare students for child
protection work, including better placements
Local children’s services
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Principal social workers in every local authority
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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 government

A chief social worker to advise government and bring voice of profession to
policy
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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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clarifying accountabilities and creating a learning system
Learning from practice
is the oxygen that will
grow skills to exercise
professional judgment
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Reviewing practice now is a
defensive activity and the
system is closed to learning –
repeat messages from SCRs
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Capabilities, training and career
structure for social work
Strong accountability
spine, when much else
locally is changing
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Organisational understanding about
child protection work ( 7S)
GOVERNMENT RESPONSE
This 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, local
agencies and front line professionals working in partnership. Change will evolve and best
practice will be informed by experience, innovation and evidence. Our aim will be to create
the conditions for sustained, long term reform which enables and inspires professionals to do
their best for vulnerable children and their families.’
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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.
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Fourteen of the fifteen recommendations are accepted or accepted in principle,
with just one recommendation requiring further consideration.
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Implementation of all agreed recommendations is scheduled by end of 2012.
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A new system should be characterised by:
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children and young people’s wishes, feelings and experiences placed at the centre;
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a relentless focus on the timeliness, quality and effectiveness of help given to children,
young people and their families;
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the availability of a range of help and services to match the variety of needs of children,
young people and their families;
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recognising that risk and uncertainty are features of the system where risk can never be
eliminated but it can be managed smarter;
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trusting professionals and giving them the scope to exercise their professional judgment
in deciding how to help children, young people and their families;
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the development of professional expertise to work effectively with children, young
people and their families;
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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
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Prescribed timescales for assessments and the distinction between initial and core
assessments will be removed by the end of 2011
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Government to implement a chief social worker who will provide a permanent
professional presence for social work in government, covering children and adults.
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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
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Revision of working together
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Revision of inspection framework
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Published performance information regime
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GOVERNMENT RESPONSE
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Coproduced work programme to enable continued progress across NHS sector about
child protection issues
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Professional capabilities framework for children’s social work, revisions around social
work training
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Strengthening of the LSCB legislative operating framework and move to systems based
serious case review regime
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New 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’
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What should we be aiming for
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a system that learns whether children are being helped and respects
their need for help
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a system hearing and using feedback – children, young people ,
families and practitioners
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a system with professional freedom and strong accountable
management and leadership
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a system that expects errors and so tries to catch them quickly
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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
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