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MUNRO REVIEWS OF CHILD PROTECTION

MUNRO REVIEWS OF CHILD PROTECTION. Helen Lincoln Director for Children’s Social Care. What type of conditions enable professionals to make the best judgements about the help to give children, young people and families. History.

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MUNRO REVIEWS OF CHILD PROTECTION

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  1. MUNRO REVIEWSOF CHILD PROTECTION Helen Lincoln Director for Children’s Social Care

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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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

  9. valuing professional expertise what the reviews found Management practice focussed on process because inspection and performance targets dominate 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 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

  10. 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

  11. sharing responsibility for the provision of ‘early help’ Quantity of assessment and not much help – rebalance this those providing help need to be suitably skilled and qualified imperative to help early to reduce harm Preventative services can do more to reduce abuse and neglect than reactive services a comprehensive continuum of service across levels of need All partners responsible for help Know your community need and provide help Offer of early help on back of local process to understand need

  12. sharing responsibility for early help: Recommendations • New duty for local authorities and statutory partners to secure provision of 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’

  13. 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 • Employers and higher education establishments to prepare students for child protection work, including better placements Local 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 government • A chief social worker to advise government and bring voice of profession to policy

  14. 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

  15. clarifying accountabilities and creating a learning system Learning from practice is the oxygen that will grow skills to exercise professional judgment Reviewing practice now is a defensive activity and the system is closed to learning – repeat messages from SCRs A R E N L Capabilities, training and career structure for social work Strong accountability spine, when much else locally is changing Organisational understanding about child protection work ( 7S)

  16. 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.’ • 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.

  17. 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.

  18. 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

  19. 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 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’

  20. 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

  21. 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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