INTRODUCTION
1.1 In November 1997 the Government published the report of the Review of the Safeguards for Children Living Away from Home which had been conducted in England and Wales by Sir William Utting and others following reports of widespread abuse of children in care (a similar review was undertaken by Roger Kent in Scotland). The Secretary of State for Health also announced that he would chair a Ministerial Task Force "to help the Government prepare costed responses to the principal recommendations of the report and then monitor progress with their implementation". A list of the Task Force membership is at annex A. It includes 10 Ministers from across Government, and expert advisers from both inside and outside Government. Ministers are particularly grateful to those from outside Government who have advised the Task Force. They have done so on a personal basis.
1.2 The Review made a number of principal recommendations, and over 130 other recommendations and suggestions for detailed change. These cover a wide range of areas including:
- the quality of local authority care for children they look after, and the support of those children and young people after they leave care
- education and health care for looked after children
- the regulation of foster care and children's homes, and boarding schools not already inspected
- checks on the suitability of people recruited to work with children
- the criminal justice system, including the prosecution of alleged child abusers, child prostitution and child pornography
- the youth justice system and the protection of children in custody.
1.3 The Government accepts the general principles of the Review report and almost all of its detailed recommendations. This Response describes a major action programme for change and improvement covering all the Government programmes which the Review examined. The Task Force identified three key principles to guide its work:
- children have a right to be protected against abuse. This is a provision of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which the UK has ratified. There cannot be any absolute guarantee that abuse will never occur. But, particularly for children living away from home, the Government has a responsibility to put all practicable safeguards in place to prevent it, to uncover it when it does occur, and deal severely with those responsible
- local authorities responsible for children in care should so far as possible provide those children with the support that children can normally expect from their parents. The parental responsibility for a child in its care is the highest priority in the children's field for a local authority
- in discharging that responsibility the care authority should normally be able to look to other public services, such as health and education, for the help that any ordinary parent can expect.
1.4 The actions the Government has decided on in England and Wales are set out in the Executive Summary. They aim to offer a clear framework for developing services to ensure all children have the love, care, safeguards, support and opportunities they need for the whole of their childhood and can gain maximum life chances. The key changes are:
- the reform and renewal of the public care system
- improving the education of looked after children
- increasing the choice of placements for looked after children
- improving services for care leavers
- radical improvements to procedures to prevent dangerous people from working with children
- stronger emphasis on inter-agency working and the corporate responsibility of the local authority
- better safeguards for children and young people in all settings away from home.
Implementation and Enforcement
1.5 The material in the following chapters explains in more detail what is intended in each of the main areas. Each chapter also explains how the Government's policies will be monitored and enforced. The Task Force will have a continuing role in helping the Government to monitor implementation of the policies to which it is committed.
1.6 Annex B lists all the recommendations and suggestions made in the Report of the Children's Safeguards Review with a note of the Government's response and/or a reference to where the recommendation is dealt with in the main body of the report.
1.7 Where planned changes need legislation which is not already enacted or before Parliament, the timing will depend on the legislative programme. Work will, in the meantime, continue on the details of the legislative changes necessary, and some important issues of detail will be announced in the run-up to legislation. This will include, for example, the way the new General Social Care Council and the existing Consultancy Index held by the Department of Health (see Annex C for details) link together. A Regulatory Impact Assessment will be undertaken and made available.
1.8 There are other areas where further work or consideration is needed before detailed implementation plans can be announced - as set out in the main text and in Annex B. This will be taken forward as quickly as possible.
1.9 The Task Force assessed the costs of the changes proposed. It has taken into account, as fully as possible, these costs when setting the increased level of funding in the Comprehensive Spending Review.
Outcomes
1.10 The programme of action described in this document will help to deliver on the Government's commitment to improve the services, safeguards and outcomes for all children. Each chapter includes references to the outcomes expected from the policies outlined.
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