RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CHILDREN'S SAFEGUARDS REVIEW AND THE GOVERNMENTS RESPONSE
This is a list of recommendations made by the Children's Safeguards Review. It includes the principle recommendations made by the review but, in addition, it extracts and numbers all the other recommendations made throughout the review report in order of appearance in the text. Recommendations may also be found in the summary of each of the chapters.
The list is mainly in numerical order and the order in which the recommendations appear in the text of the original report. However, where recommendations are linked, they have been listed together so the document is not always in numerical order. Numbers in brackets after the recommendations refer to the paragraph numbers in the text of the original report to which the recommendation refers.
The list has been annotated in italics to indicate whether the recommendations have been accepted or not by the Government and, if they have, how they will be implemented and monitored, whether legislation will be needed and where possible, the timescale for taking work forward. It also refers to the chapter in this response where reference is made to the action being taken.
PR1. The Department of Health/Welsh Office should establish and resource a dedicated group to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy for residential child care. (Chapter 2)
& 58. The Review recommends that the Department of Health commissions a project to assemble and analyse information about the adequacy and co- ordination of local services for troubled young people with a view to producing a national strategy. (8.48-53)
The 3 year "Quality Protects" programme will be led by a focused team established in the Department of Health. The Department of Health will also work with the LGA and ADSS to design strategic arrangements for residential and foster care services and review arrangements for specialist services.
The Government will give strong encouragement to authorities to form regional groupings to review the provision available and commission better specialist facilities. This will facilitate the establishment of specialist placements in both residential and foster care.
The Welsh Office will work with the WLGA to design a Children's Strategy for Wales which will include services for children in need and arrangements for residential and foster care services. From May 1999, the National Assembly for Wales will have responsibility for taking forward the new strategy in line with its own priorities for children's services. (Response Chapter 2)
PR2. Local authorities should secure sufficient provision of residential and foster care to allow a realistic choice of placement for each child. (Chapters 2,3)
& 8. Arrangements between carers and authorities would be improved if foster carers are treated as full partners who are entitled to all relevant information and if more emphasis is given to authorities' obligations in relation to support and training in foster care agreements. (3.39)
& 82. Local authorities should ensure that training is available for all foster carers and should pay particular attention to the needs of experienced carers. (12.34)
Agreed. Some of the new Children's Services Special Grant will be used to increase the range and choice of placement and to make improvements in assessment and care planning so that more children can be appropriately placed when they are first looked after
In addition, work to improve quality and choice of placements by designing strategic arrangements and reviewing specialist services will be taken forward with the LGA/ WLGA and ADSS.
The Government will also support the development of national and local recruitment campaigns for foster carers, and will improve training and support for carers. A Code of Practice on the Recruitment, Assessment, Approval, Training, Management and Support of foster carers has been commissioned and the final document will be issued in May 1999. National Standards for foster care have also been commissioned and will be issued in April 1999.
A £500,000 TSP sub-programme for training for foster carers has recently been announced for 1998/9 and it is expected that £2 million a year will be available for a 3 year period from 1999/2000 onwards. (Response chapter 2)
PR3. Local authorities must pay particular attention to the educational and health needs of the children they look after and ensure a better transition to independent living. (Chapter 2,3)
Agreed. Work will be taken forward to enhance inter-agency working and to improve the education and health outcomes of looked after children (see individual recommendations and response chapters 6 and 7). Significant improvements to the after care provided to care leavers will be funded by the new Children's Services Special Grant (see individual recommendations and response chapter 4).
PR4. Local authorities must observe the Regulations governing the placement and supervision of children in foster care. (Chapter 3)
Agreed. The "Quality Protects" programmes make clear that all regulations must be adhered to and that statutory powers of intervention will be used where they are not. As part of the programme local authorities will improve the quality of assessments, care planning, placements and supervision by 2002. The Local Government White Paper proposes new powers of intervention where regulations are not observed and the forthcoming Social Services White Paper will build on this. (Response chapter 2)
PR5. The Department of Health/Welsh Office should commission a Code of Practice for recruiting, selecting, training and supporting foster carers. (Chapter 3)
Agreed. The Code of Practice has been commissioned. A consultation document will be issued later in 1998 and the final document will be issued in May 1999. (Response (chapter 2)
PR6. The Department of Health/Welsh Office should secure legislation requiring local authorities to register private foster carers and making unregistered foster care a criminal offence. (Chapter 3)
& 20. It should be an offence for parents to place children with unregistered foster carers. (3.80)
Rejected. The Government consider that a new system of regulation is unnecessary. There is already a range of offences associated with private fostering and the Government does not believe it would be right to extend them further. However, it is committed to improving compliance with the existing regulations for private fostering. (Response (chapter 3).
PR7. The Department of Health/Welsh Office should extend Section 87 of the Children Act 1989 (which requires independent boarding schools to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, and opens their arrangements for doing so to inspection) to all schools with boarding provision. (Chapter 4)
Agreed. The Social Services White Paper will set out the Government's plan to seek legislation to extend Section 87 to all schools with boarding provision when Parliamentary time allows (response chapter 3).
PR8. Local authorities should unify their educational and social services arrangements for assessing and supporting children with emotional and behavioural difficulties and their families. (Chapter 4)
Rejected. As the bulk of central Government support to local government is paid through a block grant settlement and is not hypothecated to particular purposes, there is no obstacle in the local government finance system to joint working between Education and Social Services Departments of local authorities. The solution is available for local authorities to identify corporately the groups of children whose needs should be jointly addressed, agree objectives and the work to be done, who should take this forward and how this should be resourced. This work, in addition to the development of outcome monitoring mechanisms and plans for improved working with the NHS should then be published in CSPs - Children's Services Plans
A number of initiatives which will promote joint working to the benefit of EBD children and their families are summarised in response chapter 7.
PR9. Government should define parental rights and responsibilities in legislation. (Chapter 6)
Rejected. There is no intention to define parental rights and responsibilities in legislation. The Home Secretary's Family Group will consider this issue as part of their work on family policy.
PR10. All organisations caring for children away from home should provide parents with all relevant information about their arrangements for safeguarding children before a placement is made. (Chapter 6)
&PR11. Government should sponsor a programme to inform parents and relevant staff of the risks to the welfare of children living away from home and of ways of reducing them. (Chapter 6)
Agreed. Detailed implementation plans will be developed in time for an information campaign to be taken forward at the beginning of 1999. The DfEE are working to encourage independent schools and ISIS to include information on welfare arrangements in their brochures.
PR12. All organisations in which children live away from home should apply the recommendations of "Choosing with Care" (The Warner Report) in selecting and recruiting staff and volunteers with substantial unsupervised access to children. (Chapter 13)
& 84. All institutions where children are living away from home should adopt recruitment and selection procedures based on the principles which underpin the 15 Choosing with Care recommendations. The Department for Education and Employment should take steps to support the introduction of these procedures in the maintained sector and discuss with the Independent Schools Joint Council and the Boarding School Association ways of doing so in respect of independent boarding schools in membership of any of its associations. The Prisons Agency should examine its recruitment policy in the light of this recommendation. The Department of Health/Welsh Office should take the appropriate steps to ensure that hospitals adopt these principles when recruiting and selecting staff to care for children in paediatric units and any other units where children are likely to spend time as in-patients.(13.23)
& 102. The Review stresses the importance of implementing the Choosing with Care recommendations on personnel policies. It regards this as of the highest priority for all new social services authorities in England and Wales. (16.4)
Agreed. The Government will enforce full compliance with the "Choosing with Care" recommendations in social services and will adopt these principles in other settings where children live away from home:
Social Services - as part of the "Quality Protects" programme, the "Choosing With Care" principles will be promoted and the Government will emphasise that all procedures must be properly carried out. Monitoring, auditing and quality assurance work within the programmes will also help to deliver this. The Government will also recommend the inclusion of care leavers on interview panels. A Code of Practice for the recruitment and selection of foster carers has also been commissioned.
NHS - guidelines were recently published by the NHS Executive on recruitment practices (HSC(98)64). This included guidance on best practice and local examples of good practice with strong recommendations for implementation. An alert letter system which warns NHS employers about doctors and dentists whose performance has caused serious concern was established in August 1997. Work is underway to develop the same for nurses, midwives, health visitors and PAMs. Further guidance will be issued in 1998 requiring NHS employers to review, by April 1999, their recruitment processes for those working with children who are admitted to hospital. The DH held Consultancy Index will be extended to include NHS staff.
Education - will extend checks against the DH Consultancy Index to potential employees in all boarding schools and will seek legislation to extend Section 87 inspections to all boarding schools. This will ensure that compliance with all checks is inspected.
Prison Service - the new Youth Justice Board for England and Wales came into operation on 30 September 1998. Its role will include advising on standards for secure facilities for sentenced and remanded juveniles, including Prison Service accommodation. It will also monitor the extent to which standards are met and will help ensure effective checks are made for all staff working with young people in secure establishments, in line with "Choosing With Care".(Response Chapter 8)
PR13. Government should examine the need to strengthen the legal protection of agencies communicating information about the suitability of individuals to work with children. (Chapter 15)
&96. The Review recommends an examination of legislation - the Data Protection Act, law on defamation, employment protection legislation and judicial review - to establish whether a protocol could be developed to legitimise exchange of information between parties with a proper interest in protecting children (15.7).
A protocol cannot change the law, however, the Government is taking positive steps to reduce confusion over the legal position on the sharing of information. This includes issuing guidance on the disclosure of information in relation to sex offenders later this year; action taken in relation to the provisions of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to ensure organisations can share information for the purposes of that Act where this is appropriate or necessary; drawing up a Code of Practice on the use of information contained in Criminal Records Certificates as part of the work to set up a Criminal Records Agency; and as a matter of priority looking at the question of information sharing in the recently established Home Office led inter-departmental working group which will also consider additional safeguards to prevent those people who are considered unsuitable from working with children. (Response chapter 8)
PR14. All organisations accommodating children should instruct staff to raise legitimate concerns about the conduct of colleagues or managers and protect them against victimisation. (Chapter 15)
& 49. There is a need for urgent advice to staff about professionals who abuse (children with disabilities), including what to do if they suspect a colleague. & 101. The Review recommends that
- "cultural change must be led from the top" boards of management should adopt and promulgate policies of openness and promptness in dealing with complaints, and designate a board member with special responsibility;
- executive management should investigate and report on all complaints about staff that affect children;
- a senior official should be nominated to institute investigations where the complainant feels unable to act through line management; codes of conduct should include a duty to report any behaviour which may harm children on the part of staff, managers, volunteers on others. such reports should normally be made to a member of line management or to a nominated officer, or to a nominated member of the board of management;
- the code should offer confidentiality for the initial reports and protect a complainant in good faith against any subsequent disadvantage. (15.27)
Agreed. The Government will remind the governing bodies of all organisations responsible for the care of children and young people that they should have procedures in place that enable staff to raise significant concerns outside their normal line management when they consider the manager has been unresponsive or is the subject of concern. Governing bodies should inform staff of the established procedures for making complaints. This is in line with recommendations in "Choosing With Care". (Response (chapter 8)
PR15. Local authorities should make direct use of the experience of the children they look after in developing policy, practice and training for services for children living away from home. (Chapter 7)
Agreed. The "Quality Protects" programme will promote the involvement of young people in local planning and the Government will involve, as appropriate, young people in developing policy, practice and staff training on a national basis. As a first step, a young person formerly in care was a member of the Ministerial Task Force which assisted the Government in drawing up this response and which will help the Government to monitor its implementation. (Response (chapter 2).
PR16. Government should ensure that legal protection against abuse and harm is consistent in all settings in which children live away from home. (Chapter 10)
& 67. The Review supports the view of the British Association of Social Workers that 'the law should establish a set of legal rights and protections applying to all children living away from home', and recommends that the Government takes steps to achieve this. (10.6)
The principles of the Children Act already apply to many of the children living away from home. These will be extended. The Government will take legislation to extend welfare inspections to all boarding schools and to require all children's homes to be registered under the Children Act. In addition, the new regime for juveniles held by the Prison Service will reflect the principles and guidance contained in the Act and its regulations.
PR17. Local and health authorities should assess and meet the need for treatment of children who have been abused. (Chapter 10)
& 69. Abused children should attract high priority for treatment from public funds - especially children who have been abused while in public care. Local and health authorities should ensure that it is provided. (10.9)
There is no single treatment for abuse. The resultant problems or disorders are the focus for treatment. Joint working between local and health authorities and other agencies is essential to ensure that needs are correctly assessed and met appropriately. This should be covered in Children's Services Plans. The on-going programme of improvement to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services is focused on ensuring more equitable availability of effective treatment for children with specific mental health problems and disorders, many of which occur as a result of abuse. Priority for treatment from the NHS is determined by clinical need. (Response chapter 6).
PR18. Departments of State with responsibilities affecting children should adopt and actively pursue the aim of safeguarding and promoting their welfare. (Chapter 16)
&112. The Review acknowledges that policies and their implementation might be better harmonised between different Departments of State, and was impressed by the discussion of these matters in Effective Government Structures for Children (Hodgkin and Newell, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1996). A first step would be for all Departments of State with responsibilities towards children to adopt the goal of promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children, direct their operations to achieving that goal, and evaluate the success. (16.28)
Agreed. Departments with direct responsibility for the welfare of children will have objectives appropriate to those responsibilities included in their Departmental Objectives from 1999-2000 and will report on their performance in the achievement of those objectives in their annual reports. (Response chapter 7).
PR19. The Department of Health/Welsh Office should in the medium term review and re-issue the Regulations and Guidance associated with the Children Act 1989. (Chapter 17)
As legislative changes are made, changes will also need to be made to the regulations and guidance under the Children Act 1989. This will be done once amending primary legislation has been enacted. Guidance about their corporate parenting responsibilities has been issued to local authority members in England. as part of the "Quality Protects" programme In the longer term it may be necessary to completely revise and re-issue the regulations and guidance to the Children Act 1989. (Response chapter 2).
PR20. Government should implement the remaining recommendations of the Advisory Group on Video Evidence (The Pigot Report), and undertake a comprehensive review of arrangements for prosecuting sexual offenders against children. (Chapter 20)
& 134. Action is needed to make it more effective. Its main recommendations are that the Pigot recommendations should be implemented in the next Parliamentary session (20.19). In order to improve their effectiveness and afford greater protection to children in general. There should be a wide ranging review of the arrangements for prosecuting alleged sex offenders against children (20.27). It should also consider the arrangements in magistrates courts and civil proceedings (20.28). It makes a number of suggestions aimed at increasing the proportion of cases which go to trial. The Memorandum of Guidance for interviewing children should be reviewed (20.19); there should be flexibility in allowing evidence in a form suited to the age of the child and the child should be helped to communicate if necessary (20.20); the severance of cases should only be allowed if requested by the prosecution. (20.21)
& 138. Action should be taken to make the process of the justice system less damaging for children by: the greater use of video recording and television links (20.31); the use of judges and barristers who specialise in work with children (20.32); preparation for the child via the child witness pack and programmes such as the NSPCC's Witness Support Project (20.33); minimise the time it takes cases to come to court and making careful arrangements for child witnesses (20.35).
Agreed. A range of action is being taken forward to improve the effectiveness of procedures and afford greater protection to children. The Government recently published "Speaking Up for Justice", the report of the Working Group on Vulnerable or Intimidated Witnesses which makes 78 recommendations to improve the way such witnesses, including children, are dealt with in the criminal justice system. These include proposals for the implementation of the outstanding Pigot recommendations (pre-trial cross-examination and use of an intermediary), greater use of the CCTV link for child witnesses and training for all those in the criminal justice system. The Government hopes to make an announcement shortly on this matter.
The Steering Group on Child Evidence is tasked with monitoring and improving child evidence provisions including preparation of child witnesses, fast-tracking of cases, guidance on pre-trial therapy and consideration of any relevant information or research.
The Government believes it would not be right to change the standard of proof in criminal trials involving child witnesses as this would be discriminatory and in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. It also sees considerable legal and practical difficulties with the proposals to involve the county courts. The Law Commission are currently reviewing the admissibility of evidence of previous misconduct and their report is expected in early 1999.
The Steering Group on Child Evidence is taking action on a number of procedural issues raised in the report. The Government will consider the wider prosecution issues in the light of research which is set out in Annex D. (Response chapter 10)
|
