EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. In November 1997, the Government published the report of the Review of the Safeguards for Children Living Away from Home. This Review had been conducted by Sir William Utting, following reports of widespread abuse of children in care. (A parallel review was carried out in Scotland by Roger Kent).
2. As Frank Dobson, Secretary of State for Health, said when publishing the report, "it presents a woeful tale of failure at all levels to provide a secure and decent childhood for some of the most vulnerable children. It covers the lives of children whose home circumstances were so bad that those in authority, to use the jargon, took them into care. The report reveals that in far too many cases not enough care was taken. Elementary safeguards were not in place or not enforced. Many children were harmed rather than helped. The review reveals that these failings were not just the fault of individuals - though individuals were at fault. It reveals the failures of a whole system."
3. Although the main focus of the report was children looked after by local authorities (there are about 55,000 of them at any one time), it also covers safeguards for other children living away from home, for example, in boarding schools and penal settings. In all, about 200,000 of the 12 million children under the age of 18 in England and Wales are living away from their parent's home for at least 28 days at any one time.
4. The report makes 20 principal recommendations, and over one hundred and thirty other recommendations, the aims of which include to:
- improve protection for children in foster and residential care, in schools and in the penal system
- provide more effective safeguards and checks to prevent abusers from working with children
- provide more effective avenues of complaint and increase access to independent advocates
- provide more vigilant management
- provide effective disciplinary and criminal procedures
- provide effective systems of communication between agencies about known abusers.
5. With the help of a Ministerial Task Force the Government has prepared a response to the principal recommendations of the report. The response covers England and Wales only. In Wales, the National Assembly will need to consider the way in which many of these commitments are to be taken forward and the mechanisms used to implement certain recommendations may differ from those employed in England. Where possible this response identifies where separate actions will be taken in Wales. A separate response to the Scottish review will be published. The key action outlined in this Response is as follows:
Public Care
- a major three year programme in England and Wales called "Quality Protects", this will transform the public care system for children requiring the support of social services, particularly those looked after by local authorities. It will have a strong concentration on better outcomes, for which targets will be set
- a substantial new Children's Services Special Grant for social services in England totalling £380 million over three and a half years (made up of £5 million set up costs in the current year and £375 million over the following three years)
- the promotion of the voice of the child, including £450,000 over 3 years to establish a new group to provide a national voice for children in care and those formerly in care
- action to increase the numbers and skills of foster carers including local and national foster care recruitment campaigns, new funding for training publishing a Code of Practice on the Recruitment, Assessment, Approval Training, Management and Support of Foster Carers and National Standards for Foster Care
- resource improvements in post-qualifying training, take-up of vocational training (NVQs) and increase top management development for child care and child protection work
Care Leavers
- legislating when Parliamentary time allows to ensure that the responsibilities of local authorities for care leavers up to the age of 18 and beyond correspond more closely with those accepted by any good parent (including keeping in touch with more young people after they have left care); and the responsibility for providing after care is placed on the local authority which has been looking after the young person
- taking action through the "Quality Protects" programme to improve services offered to care leavers
- improving services on the ground by promoting the spread and development of specialist schemes for care leavers; and disseminating good practice
- the development of radical new arrangements for 16 to 18 year olds, for announcement by April 1999, aimed at developing life skills and clarifying responsibility for financial support so that young people are looked after until they are demonstrably ready and willing to leave care
Regulation
- legislate when Parliamentary time allows to bring all children's homes and independent fostering agencies within the regulatory system and to extend welfare inspections to boarding schools not currently inspected
- new arrangements for taking simpler and faster action against independent boarding schools and children's homes with unacceptable welfare standards
Education
- new initiatives to improve the school attendance and educational attainment of looked after children and young people formerly looked after, and encouraging post compulsory education
- the introduction of training programmes to heighten boarding school staff awareness of welfare issues; and advice to parents on the welfare standards they should look for when choosing a school
Health
- targets for improvements in the health of looked after children and in child and adolescent mental health services
- steps to monitor and safeguard the welfare of children in hospitals nursing homes, hospices and private hospitals
Inter-agency
- use the new emphasis on the corporate responsibility of the local authority as a whole to improve the full range of services for looked after children and other children who have special needs for help with social care, health and education because of disability, learning disability or educational and behavioural difficulties (EBD)
- stronger role for Children's Services Plans to make them a more effective instrument of corporate working within local government and between local government and other agencies
- revision of inter-agency guidance to improve child protection procedures
Stopping dangerous people from working with children
- establish a new Criminal Records Agency to improve and widen access to police checks on people intending to work with children and other vulnerable groups and continue work as a matter of urgency to establish a "one stop shop": which provides access to the lists held by the DfEE and the Department of Health (see Annex C for information on these lists)
- enforce full compliance by social services authorities with the recommendations of Choosing with Care and adopt these principles in other settings where children live away from home
- legislate to create a General Social Care Council which will set the conduct and practice standards for the whole social care workforce and in due course register those working with children
Penal System
- developing plans to hold all juveniles separately from adults in dedicated accommodation with significantly enhanced regimes and ensuring this reflects the principles and guidance contained in the Children Act 1989 and its regulations
- community based inter-agency work to tackle youth offending and the establishment of a Youth Justice Board for England and Wales with responsibilities to advise on and monitor standards for the care of sentenced and remanded children in all forms of juvenile secure accommodation, including Prison Service accommodation
Criminal Justice
- taking forward many of the recommendations made by the CPS Inspectorate on cases involving child witnesses as part of CPS local management plans. Consulting on those which are relevant to the recommendations in Speaking Up For Justice
- HM Customs review of import and export controls on child pornography
- review law relating to sexual offences which would include the offences and penalties for those who use and abuse children in prostitution.
Implementation and monitoring
6. Individual Government Departments will be monitoring implementation of action within their areas of responsibility. In addition, the Ministerial Task Force on Children's Safeguards will monitor the overall programme of action. Some of the proposals cannot be taken forward until there is time in the legislative programme.
7. The Government has taken into account the costs of the changes in setting the increased level of funding available for individual Departments under the Comprehensive Spending Review.
8. To help finance the improvement in services, the Government is introducing a Children's Services Special Grant totalling £375 million over 3 years. In addition, £5 million is being made available this year to help local authorities prepare for their new responsibilities.
Outcomes
9. All of the action set out in this document is designed to help deliver on the Government's commitment to improve the services, safeguards and outcomes for all children.
|
