Other Recommendations
1. Local authorities should review their placement policies and practice to ensure that the safety of each child remains a priority. (2.12)
Agreed. This will be taken forward as part of the "Quality Protects" programme over the next three years. (Response chapter 2).
2. The Review urges speedy implementation of the Burgner recommendation that ... [small children's homes] be brought within the regulatory framework. (2.13)
Agreed. This will be covered in the forthcoming Social Services White Paper. Legislation will be introduced when Parliamentary time is available. (Response chapter 3)
3. The suggestion in the Burgner Report that local authorities should register and inspect voluntary children's homes is supported and other points about registration endorsed. ( 2.13)
Agreed. It is intended that all children's homes will become subject to inspection and regulation under the new independent regulatory arrangements. This will be covered in the forthcoming Social Services White Paper. Legislation will be sought when Parliamentary time is available. (Response chapter 3)
4. Powers should be established that enable the local authority to take over management of a registered children's home in an emergency and the appeals process to a Registered Homes Tribunal should be speeded up. (2.15)
&121 .It is recommended that local authorities should have power to de-register a children's home with immediate effect where the safety of residents is in question (17.36) and the Department for Education and Employment should provide the Registrar of Independent Schools with similar powers.
The closure and de-registration of children's homes will be covered in the forthcoming Social Services White Paper. Legislation will be introduced when Parliamentary time is available. The DfEE and Welsh Office are currently reviewing the existing statutory system of registering and monitoring all independent schools. This will be the subject of a consultation exercise and may require legislation to implement changes. (Response (chapters 3 & 5).
5. The Department of Health/Welsh Office should facilitate the action needed by local and health authorities to identify and meet the health needs of looked after children. (2.17) (Also see PR3, PR17 and 69).
Agreed. Entry to care is a key opportunity to identify the health needs of the child or young person, and to plan, with them, the necessary action to be taken. Guidance will be issued during 1999 to ensure that each child/ young person entering care is offered an appropriate health assessment. In addition, the Looking After Children: Good Parenting, Good Outcomes system helps local authorities to identify the health needs of their looked after children because it requires information on their health history, including health checks and immunisation. A survey of the mental health of children and young people throughout Britain has also been commissioned by the Department of Health and the Welsh Office and is now being piloted. (Response (chapter 6).
6. All staff involved in assessment [of foster carers] should receive awareness training about both male and female offenders who abuse in a family context. (3.33)
Agreed. ACPCs and SSDs are already expected to provide such awareness training as part of their programmes of child care and child protection and the Training Support Programme in England is funding a project in 1998/99 on the profiles and methods of child abusers with a view to introducing training materials by the end of 1999. The Government's plans for improved in-service training and funding for NVQs, DipSW and PQs will also help to meet this need (Response chapter 8).
7. Authorities and agencies should review their policies on family placements to ensure they take account of the dangers of peer abuse. (3.38)
Agreed. This will be taken forward as part of the "Quality Protects" programme to ensure current procedures are correctly followed and that there are sufficient placements to choose from. This issue will also be addressed in taking forward work on the National Standards for Foster Care and the Code of Practice on the Recruitment, Assessment, Approval, Training, Management, and Support of foster carers(Response chapter2).
9. It appears there may be more risk attached in long term foster care. Authorities should carry out an audit of their long-standing carers in order to see whether there are any grounds for concern. (3.42)
When undertaking the required regular reviews of the child's placements local authorities should consider carefully the situation and should address any concerns they may have of any foster care as part of routine practice. Concerns should be discussed at the foster carers annual review. This will be addressed in the National Standards for Foster Care which will be published in April 1999.
10. Local authorities should keep records of allegations of abuse and have a clear policy on when carers would be removed from the foster care register. Records should be taken into account in any further allegations, during regular reviews and in deciding what to put in references. (3.44)
Agreed. This will be taken forward as part of the "Quality Protects" programmes to ensure procedures are correctly followed and records correctly kept. It will also be addressed in the National Standards for Foster Care and the Code of Practice on the Recruitment, Assessment, Approval, Training, Management, and Support of Foster Carers which will be published in 1999.
11. Placing authorities should notify approving authorities of any allegations and their outcomes and foster carers whose approval is terminated as a result of investigations should be put on the DH Consultancy Index. (3.45)
Agreed. Placing authorities approving authorities and independent agencies should already keep each other informed on allegations and their outcomes and should have clear arrangements about who is responsible for investigating an allegation. This will be promoted as part of the "Quality Protects" programme to ensure procedures are correctly followed and in the Code of Practice on the Recruitment, Assessment, Approval, Training, Management, and Support of Foster Carers and National Standards for Foster Care.
12. Because of potential isolation in foster care, it is recommended that social workers should be required to see the child alone during each visit made under Regulation 6(3) of the Foster Placement Regulations.
Social workers are already required to see children on their own for a proportion of visits. Seeing a child alone on every visit may not always be possible if the child prefers not to be seen alone. However the need to provide evidence that the child has been left alone on some visits will be promoted as part of the "Quality Protects" programme to ensure procedures are correctly followed. This will also be addressed in the National Standards for Foster Care (Response (Chapter 2).
13. Regulation 6(1) (of the Foster Placement Regulations) should be amended to reduce the maximum period between visits to a child in a foster home after the first year of placement from 3 months to 8 weeks. (3.46)
The Government will work with local authorities to improve the quality and choice of placements through additional support and training for foster carers and will consider phasing in this change as part of this(Response Chapter 2).
14. Local authorities should assess any special or additional needs for the support of single foster parents and children placed with them and consider whether to provide the child with an Independent Visitor.
Agreed. This is good practice and should already be considered for all children. Improved care planning as part of the "Quality Protects" programme, ensuring that all children entitled to independent visitors receive them, work to increase the quality and choice of placements through additional support and training for foster carers, the National Standards for foster care and the Code of Practice on the Recruitment, Assessment, Approval, Training, Management, and Support of Foster Carers will address with this issue. (Response Chapter 2).
15. Children in foster care should be given information to help them protect themselves. Social workers should arrange this and discuss it with the child on his/her own. (3.48)
&16. Children should be given age appropriate sex education and have access to help and counselling. (3.49)
&76. The Review recommends that training materials such as those produced by Kidscape should be used as early as possible to introduce children living away from home to what is "appropriate" physical and sexual conduct. (10.30)
Agreed. The Government accepts this recommendation and will work with other agencies (including schools and the voluntary sector) to provide better information to children living away from home on sex education and "appropriate" physical and sexual conduct, in addition is ensuring that they know how to contact outside help to raise concerns. (response chapter 2).
17. Authorities should develop a strategy for dealing with emergency fostering with a view to minimising damaging breakdowns. (3.51)
Agreed. This will be included within the care assessment and care planning work of the "Quality Protects" programme (Response Chapter 2).
18. The educational and health services should be active in helping the foster carer to provide the best care for the child and to ensure that the carer has some positive help in rectifying problems and difficulties rather than feeling unsupported. (3.52)
Agreed. This will be taken forward through a range of work. It should already be done through the care planning and placement planning processes. The "Quality Protects" programme combined with work to improve placement quality and choice through support and training for foster carers and improved inter-agency working should ensure foster carers receive the support they need and know where to turn for assistance. The new children's services objectives, targets arising from the Comprehensive Spending Review and the National Priorities Guidance will also play a role in encouraging work in this area. (Response Chapters 2 and 7).
19. The Burgner recommendation that Independent Fostering Agencies should be brought within the regulatory and inspection framework should be implemented as soon as possible. (3.67)
Agreed. Plans will be set out in the forthcoming Social Services White Paper and legislation sought at the earliest opportunity (Response Chapter 3).
21. It will be necessary to give the public notification of the proposed changes in the law (on regulation of private fostering) and it is recommended that the Department of Health should mount a public awareness campaign about this (3.81)
Although not taking forward the Review's recommendation to register and approve all private foster carers, a public information campaign will be mounted to promote compliance with the existing regulations and to inform parents about the proposed Code of Practice for language schools.
22. The Review supports the recommendation made by the Service Children's Education Authority that the Ministry of Defence make the Boarding School Allowance payable on condition that parents seek advice about choosing a school from the Authority. (4.9)
&25. The Review supports the Service Children's Education Authority's proposal that payment of the Boarding School Allowance be conditional on parents seeking advice from the Authority. (4.8-9)
A wide ranging review was undertaken of the administration of the Admissible Schools List. This review concluded that the advisory role of the Service Children's Education Agency will be enhanced and all claimants will be required to certify that they are aware that advice is available, or has been obtained from the Agency.
Additionally, it has been decided that from 1 September 1999, schools will be included on their Admissible Schools List (to be renamed Accredited Schools Database) only if they are members of an organisation affiliated to the Independent Schools Council or are in the maintained sector, or are governed by an appropriate professional or vocational organisation, and which, having been inspected under a DfEE (or similar) approved regime, agree to the inspection report being placed in the public domain. Revised arrangements will also be introduced for removing schools from the List when they fail to meet the criteria, or when a Notice of Complaint is issued. Parents who choose to keep their children at such a school will jeopardise their entitlement to educational allowances
22. Independent boarding schools should ensure that their brochures include information on safeguards. (4.10)
&24. The Independent Schools Information Service's guide to choosing an independent school should include a section on safeguards. (4.10)
Agreed. This will tie in with work in response to PR10 and PR11. DfEE are working with relevant interests.
26. The Review welcomes the proposal for an umbrella body for guardianship agencies, which would develop an accreditation system and Code of Practice. It would be desirable to ensure that parents always appoint a guardian from an agency accredited by the body and conforming to their Code of Practice. (4.19)
The Association of Educational Guardians for International Students (AEGIS) and their code of practice was launched in November 1997. This is an independent organisation. The Government agrees it would be desirable if parents always appointed guardians accredited by an agency belonging to AEGIS.
27. Section 87 procedures should be improved: (i) Inspection reports to be publicly available on the same basis as those on children's homes; (4.25)
&118 Reports of inspections under Section 87 of the Children Act 1989 be regarded as public documents. (17.31)
Agreed. These documents should be publicly available and is considering how to implement.
27. Section 87 procedures should be improved: (ii)Independent Registration and Inspection Units to give priority to making the format and content of reports more accessible to a lay audience; (4.25)
Agreed. The Government agrees reports of Section 87 inspections should be reader friendly and the Government is considering how to implement.
27. Section 87 procedures should be improved: (iii) Local authorities to be responsible for following up recommendations. (4.26)
Agreed. Recommendations in Section 87 welfare inspection reports should be followed up to ensure that they are complied with. The Government will consider how to implement this in the context of the new regulatory arrangements to be set out in the Social Services White Paper.
28. The Review welcomes the DfEE's intention to review the registration system for independent schools. Any review should be based on the principle that boarding schools should not accommodate children without preliminary examination of the welfare aspects and any new Notice of Complaint procedure [should] allow for immediate cancellation where children are in danger. (4.29-4.31)
The Review of the existing statutory system of registering and monitoring all independent schools is currently being carried out by the DfEE and the Welsh Office and will be the subject of a consultation exercise during Autumn 1998. (Response Chapter 3).
29. The Review welcomes the fact that maintained and non-maintained residential special schools are required to have a governing body with a duty to make arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of pupils and recommends that independent special schools should be required to have similar bodies. (4.40)
Agreed. The Government will consult early in 1999 on plans for placing governing bodies of approved independent special schools under a duty to make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of pupils in a similar way to maintained and non-maintained special schools. (Response Chapter 5).
30. Children with emotional and behavioural difficulties who are placed in residential schools for social and educational reasons should also be assessed as potential children in need. (4.42-4.46)
&52. The emotional needs of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties make them susceptible and their behaviour means they are less likely to be believed. The agencies responsible for them may not be disposed to ask too many questions of institutions that seem to be successfully containing particularly difficult children. And they may be exposed to abuse under the guise of innovatory treatment. The Review believes that the existing protection for these children should be extended and improved. (8.36-7)
Rejected. The Government believes that current assessment procedures are appropriate and that, if procedures are properly followed, children in need are identified. The "Quality Protects" programme will improve assessment and placement procedures by SSDs and will promote the correct use of procedures for investigating allegations. It will also stress that these must be properly followed and that if they are not action will be taken. (Response Chapters 2 & 7).
Procedures for making educational placements in residential schools and for considering allegations will be looked at further.
31. DH and DfEE statistics on numbers of schools also required to register as children's homes are markedly different. The Review suggests that the two Departments look into the effect of the Children Act 1989 definition and take steps to make the regulatory framework simpler and more effective. (4.52-4.53)
Agreed. Officials from the Department of Health and the DfEE will work together towards the end of 1998 to review the current legislation and to simplify and clarify procedures for dual registration. More details will be announced in 1999.
32. The Review comments on the dearth of information about the effect of Section 85 of the Children Act 1989 which requires education establishments to notify local authorities of any child they accommodate or intend to accommodate for three months or more. It suggests that the Social Services Inspectorate should set up an inspection to obtain information about this. (4.54)
The Government is planning to do work to identify the level of notifications, reasons for non-notifications, what is done when a local authority is notified and what better arrangements there could be to safeguard children's welfare in England.
SSI Wales has no current plans to include an inspection on Section 85.
33. Prison Service policy to keep children in discrete accommodation is not being achieved. The incidence of sexual assaults on children in penal settings is unclear and research is recommended. (5.5)
The Prison Services policy is, so far as is practicable, to keep those aged under 18 separate from other young adults (i.e. 18-20 year olds) and adults. Mixing in regime activities, with appropriate supervision, is permitted. Unconvicted 15 and 16 year old girls are not held in prison but 17 year old girls held on remand (of whom there were only 16 on 31 March 1998) are. Plans are urgently being drawn up to hold all juveniles separately in dedicated accommodation with significantly enhanced regimes. In addition, plans are being developed for three units to hold juveniles sentenced under Section 53 of the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933, one of which it is hoped will be operational this autumn.
There were four recorded incidents of sexual assault in which juveniles were victims in the 12 months to 31 March 1998. The Police investigated each incident and no prosecutions resulted. The Prison Service is looking at how research can best be carried out. (Response Chapter 9).
34. Children, particularly those who are disturbed, have special health needs. The Review believes the National Health Service should be responsible for the health care of children in penal settings. (5.8)
The Prison Service's Directorate of Health Care and the Department of Health have conducted a joint review of the organisation and delivery of health care for prisons in England and Wales. A report on the way forward will be published towards the end of the year. (Response Chapter 9).
35. The fact that boys aged 15 and 16 are still being remanded to prison is a serious failure of public policy which should be put right as quickly as possible. Additional public expenditure must be found in order to end the remand of boys to prison establishments. (5.9)
The Government has reviewed the secure estate for juveniles and will be making changes in its use, in consultation with the new Youth Justice Board for England and Wales. The Government plans include a discrete secure estate for juveniles within Prison Service accommodation and giving the courts greater flexibility for remanding the most vulnerable 15 and 16 year old boys direct to secure accommodation. This should help resolve the main area of concern which is holding remanded juveniles in adult prisons.
36. The Department of Health/Welsh Office should consult the Local Government Association and Prison Service about the support social services authorities provide to children in penal settings and their families. (5.12)
Agreed. The Prison Services Assistant Director (Young Offenders) is in consultation with colleagues from the Department of Health and Welsh Office and representatives of the ADSS, the LGA, the Welsh LGA and ACOP about how the care of juveniles in prison establishments may best be co-ordinated. (Response Chapter 9).
37. The principles of the Children Act 1989 in promoting and safeguarding children should be incorporated in penal system regulations. Allegations of abuse or other harm should be investigated by the criminal and civil arms as in other settings. (5.13) A major commitment to welfare as well as containment is needed. (5.14) Implementing the overall aim would require a renewed approach to staff training. (5.14)
The principles and safeguards in the Children Act 1989 do not expressly apply to children in prison. However, the new regime for juveniles will reflect the principles and guidance contained in the Act and its regulations. The Prison Services is in discussion with ACPO, ADSS, and the LGA about arrangements for investigations into allegations or incidents of harm involving a juvenile in a prison establishment. (Response Chapter 9).
38. The Review supports the recommendation of HM Inspector of Prisons that a National Director be appointed for the young offender estate. (5.15)
Rejected. The Government has not been persuaded that the recommendation by HM Inspector of Prisons that a national director be appointed for the young offender estate. The appointment of the first Director of Regimes in the Prison Service, who is assisted by an Assistant Director with specific responsibilities for Prison Service policies on young offenders, will lead to a greater emphasis on specific provision within the Prison Service to meet the special needs of young offenders.
39. A number of babies live in prison. Child protection procedures are needed in two prisons that lack them. (5.19)
Agreed. All the mother and baby units in women's prisons now have written child protection procedures in place.
40. The Social Services Inspectorate should carry out an inspection to obtain information about the operation of Section 85 of the Children Act 1989, which requires health authorities to notify local authorities about a child who has been or is intended to be in hospital for more than three months. (5.30)
Agreed. The SSI, working in partnership with the relevant NHS Executive Regional Office will undertake a thematic review as soon as possible and the Government will consider the need for any further action once the results of the review are available.
SSI Wales has no current plans to include an inspection on Section 85. However, consideration will be given to the findings in the forthcoming report by the Hospital Advisory Service 2000 in Wales which reviews the safeguards and standards of care for children receiving in-patient mental health care. The review covered the operation of Section 85 and a statistical analysis of the lengths of stay of such young people.
41. Psychiatric units should ensure that they have robust systems to prevent visits by undesirable people. (5.27)
Agreed. Special attention needs to be given to ensuring that children in psychiatric units are safeguarded and will consider the forthcoming report by the Health Advisory Service 2000 on in-patient mental health units in Wales.
42. The Department of Health/Welsh Office should explore with health authorities ways in which recruitment and selection procedures might be included in any monitoring contracts. (5.32)
Agreed. NHS employers are being required to review their recruitment processes for those working with children, by April 1999. The outcome will be monitored by NHS Executive Regional Offices.
43. The children contributing to the Review, and their carers, had clear and valuable opinions on what kept them safe and what exposed them to danger. Some local authorities have discussed these matters with children and carers and the Review commends this to others. (7.6)
Agreed. The Government will promote the involvement of children in decisions on their care and the involvement of young people in local planning and in local developments. This will be one of the themes of the "Quality Protects" programme.
44. The Review believes that social services departments must give full weight to the child protection aspects of investigations when abuse is alleged in residential settings and foster care. (7.9)
Agreed. The Code of Practice for foster care will pick up on procedures for dealing with allegations. "Working Together under the Children Act 1989" makes clear that the protection of children should be the primary focus of all abuse investigations, whatever their setting. The new "Working Together" guidance to be issued in Spring 1999 will set out the key principles for all child protection investigations, including those in residential settings. The Welsh Office has commissioned the production of a Practice Guide to follow when investigating allegations of abuse made against a local authority member of staff or a foster carer. This Guide will be available by the end of 1998.
|
