Every Child Matters: Child Protection Procedures in Health and Social Work
| Author | Safda Mahmood/Julie Doughty |
| Pages | 39-59 |
Current child protection procedures are formed to operate within the framework of the CA 1989 and the Children Act 2004, underpinning the Every Child Matters: Change for Children (DfES, 2004) (Every Child Matters) programme, which included the provisions for the establishment of Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs).
The CA 1989 and the Children Act 2004 apply to both England and Wales, but Every Child Matters was a policy applicable only in England, and there are some variations in Wales. For example, the Working Together guidance referred to below does not apply in Wales, which has its own statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard People. Volume 5 – Handling Individual Cases to Protect Children at Risk (Welsh Government, 2018) and non-statutory All Wales Child Protection Procedures (Children in Wales, 2008). In Wales, the statutory guidance is contained in the Codes of Practice issued pursuant to section 145 of the SSW(W)A 2014. These Codes contain a mixture of both statutory and non-statutory guidance. In relation to assessments, there was previously the Framework for Assessment of Children in Need and their Families tool of 2001. Since April 2016, this tool for assessing children and families is now included in Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 – Part 3 Code of Practice (assessing the needs of individuals) (Welsh Government, 2015) (Part 3 Code of Practice).
The child protection procedures for England are set out in a number of publications. The main publication is Working Together to Safeguard Children, A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children (DfE, 2018) (Working Together). The Department for Education website, www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education, has useful information and is worth visiting at regular intervals to see the new publications added, including, amongst other publications, the following:
40 Child Care and Protection: Law and Practice
• Care of unaccompanied migrant children and child victims of modern slavery (DfE, 2017).
• Child sexual exploitation: definition and guide for practitioners (DfE, 2017).
• Children Act 1989: care planning, placement and case review (DfE, 2015).
• Safeguarding children who may have been trafficked (DfE and Home Office, 2011).
• Safeguarding strategy – unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children (DfE, 2017).
• Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges (DfE, 2018).
• Statutory guidance on children who run away or go missing from home or care (DfE, 2014).
• What to do if you’re worried a child is being abused: advice for practitioners (DfE, 2015).
The Department for Education website and Working Together also contain guidance issued by other government departments and agencies, such as the following:
• Achieving Best Evidence in Criminal Proceedings: Guidance on interviewing victims and witnesses, and guidance on using special measures (Ministry of Justice, 2011).
• Advice to parents and carers on gangs (Home Office, 2014).
• Advice to schools and colleges on gangs and youth violence (Home Office, 2013).
• Arrangements to Safeguard and Promote Children’s Welfare (UK Visas and Immigration, 2009).
• Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders: factsheet (Home Office, 2016).
• Forced marriage – Information and practice guidelines for professionals protecting, advising and supporting victims (Foreign & Commonwealth Office and Home Office, 2018).
• Guidance for health professionals on domestic violence – Guidance for health professionals on domestic violence (DHSC, 2013).
• Handling cases of forced marriage: multi-agency practice guidelines (Foreign & Commonwealth Office, 2013).
• Radicalisation – Prevent strategy (Home Office, 2016).
• Sudden unexpected death in infancy and childhood: multi-agency guidelines for care and investigation (Royal College of Pathologists, 2016).
The CA 1989 is clarified and explained by the various volumes of The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations (DCSF, 2008), which are available, along with new publications, at the Department for Education website, www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education. These volumes of guidance are all mandatory guidelines issued under section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970. Local authorities must follow that guidance, unless local circumstances indicate exceptional reasons that justify a variation, and any departure from it must be justified in respect of any complaints procedure or judicial review. The volumes of The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations are:
• Volume 1: court orders.
• Volume 2: care planning, placement and case review.
• Volume 3: transition to adulthood for care leavers.
• Volume 4: fostering services.
• Volume 5: children’s homes regulations, including quality standards: guide.
Working Together is issued under various statutory provisions, such as under section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970 referred to above. This statutory guidance should be read and followed by strategic and senior leaders and frontline practitioners of all organisations and agencies. At a strategic level, this includes local authority chief executives, directors of children’s services, chief officers of police and clinical commissioning groups, and other senior leaders within organisations and agencies that commission and provide services for children and families. Members of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel should also read and follow the guidance. This means that they must take the guidance into account and, if they decide to depart from it, have clear reasons for doing so.
4.1 Safeguarding Partners, Child Safeguarding Practice Review and Child Death Review Partners
The updated Working Together guidance sets out that LSCBs are to be replaced by ‘safeguarding partners’, which are made up of three safeguarding partners, namely local authorities, chief officers of police, and clinical commissioning groups. All three partners must make arrangements to work together with relevant agencies, so as to then safeguard and protect the welfare of children in the area. There is an expectation to have a local safeguarding arrangement in place. The updated guidance provides that these safeguarding partners must set out
42 Child Care and Protection: Law and Practice
in their published arrangements which organisations and agencies they will be working with to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, and this will change over time. A list of relevant agencies is set out in the Child Safeguarding Practice Review and Relevant Agency (England) Regulations 2018 (SI 2018/789). The updated Working Together guidance has also set out the arrangements for the new national and local review process. The safeguarding partners must consider the criteria and guidance set out in the Child Safeguarding Practice Review and Relevant Agency (England) Regulations 2018 when determining whether to carry out a local child safeguarding practice review. The responsibility for child safeguarding incidents at a national level lies with the new Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, and at a local level, with the safeguarding partners. In order to bring about transparency of the activity, there is a requirement for the safeguarding partners to publish a report, at least once in every 12-month period, setting out what they have done as a result of the arrangements, including how effective these arrangements have been. The purpose of the reviews of serious child safeguarding cases, at both local and national level, is to identify improvements to be made to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. More particularly, section 16C(1) of the Children Act 2004 (as amended by the Children and Social Work Act 2017) sets out that where a local authority in England knows or suspects that a child has been abused or neglected, the local authority must notify the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel if: (a) the child dies or is seriously harmed in the local authority’s area; or (b) while normally resident in the local authority’s area, the child dies or is seriously harmed outside England. The reviews should seek to prevent or reduce the risk of recurrence of similar incidents
In relation to child death reviews, the updated Working Together guidance sets out that the responsibility of LSCBs for undertaking reviews through the child death overview panel is replaced with the ‘child death review partners’. The child death review partners are local authorities and any clinical commissioning groups for the local area as set out in the Children Act 2004, as amended by the Children and Social Work Act 2017. In making arrangements to review child deaths, child death review partners are expected to set up a structure and process to review all deaths of children. The guidance also sets out that the President of the Family Division’s guidance covering the role of the judiciary in Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) should also be noted in the context of child safeguarding practice reviews (see President of the Family Division’s Guidance covering the role of the judiciary in serious case reviews, 2 May 2017).
Every Child Matters 43
Each social services department will use terminology that is likely to vary geographically. The head of social services may be called the director of social services, supported by one or more assistant directors, each of whom usually has an administrative responsibility related either to an area of work, or to a geographical area. The Statutory Guidance on the roles and responsibilities of the Director of Children’s Services and the Lead Member for Children’s Services (DfE, 2013) covers the legislative basis for the two appointments, roles and responsibilities of the post...
To continue reading
Request your trial