The Child Protection System in England

Written evidence submitted by Children England

1. Children England is the leading membership organisation for the children, young people and families’ voluntary sector and the Department for Education’s overarching strategic partner. With member organisations working in all parts of the country ranging from small local groups to the largest household names in children’s charities, Children England is in a unique position to use the collective voice of the voluntary sector to achieve positive change for children.  Children England provides capacity building, support and information to its members and the wide range of voluntary sector organisations working with children, young people and families. It does this by building active networks, promoting good practice, stimulating policy debate and ensuring that the issues that matter most to its members are taken up with decision makers.

2. Children England is committed to working alongside its members in the creation of a society where children and young people are valued, protected and listened to, their rights are realised and their families supported.

Whether the child protection system allows for effective identification of, and early help to, children at risk of different forms of abuse and exploitation (including, but not restricted to: neglect, sexual and physical abuse, domestic violence, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, child trafficking and online exploitation)

3. Real thought has to go into the causes of children being at risk in families.  Engagement with families under stress has to happen early on. The support given should be holistic and tailored to each family, not every family does well in parenting groups for instance, especially when they already feel that they are bad parents. When people are in debt, have housing and relationship problems and their children have behavioral difficulties they need support and encouragement to build both their own and their children's self esteem.

4. What has been missing all too often is this level of support which is not provided by social services until families are in deep crisis. A problem that has been getting worse as local authorities, coping with sharp budget reductions, have often cut back on all but crisis services. Voluntary groups work in this way to prevent families reaching crisis, by gaining their trust, they are then able to be honest about their parenting and by providing access to funding, outreach parenting support, therapeutic groups for them and groups for their children that address behaviour issues and build self esteem, families become happier, there is an improvement in safeguarding practice and children have a better chance to reach their full potential.

5. Although the government has recognised the cost effective nature of this work and understands that preventative work is an essential part of a properly balanced safeguarding system, it has not protected early intervention budgets, with the new Early Intervention Grant to local authorities worth considerably less than the separate funding streams that it replaced. Our members have already reported, in Children England’s survey in March 2011, that early intervention services are being cut, with limited financial resources prioritized for crisis services. As such, while we welcome the emphasis given to early help in the recent Munro Review, we are concerned about local authorities’ ability to meet the proposed new early help duty given these cuts.

6. However, social services departments struggling with limited resources are not a new phenomenon. Our members have identified that the move to safeguarding children introduced a broader range of responsibilities to an already over worked group of professionals. No one would argue against the principal of safeguarding children in this broader sense, but the responsibilities have come without the requisite resources. The consequence of this on the ground is that the same small group of over stretched professionals have yet more to address and this comes at a cost. Many very experienced social workers are leaving the profession blaming this widening of responsibility as well as the massive increase in bureaucracy\form filling and the constant preparation for inspection.

7. Aside from resource problems, our members have highlighted a number of specific barriers to identification and the provision of early help. Firstly, children and young people need more guarantees from people in authority when they disclose abuse. Far too many children are still being put off from reporting abuse due to no guarantees that they won't be separated from siblings or sent back to their abuser due to lack of evidence or not meeting the threshold. In addition many workers are not confident in assessing the evidence they receive from children in relation to that provided by adults. There remains a tendency to de-value their views and experiences. The extension of advocacy services would assist with giving children the confidence, access to dedicated support and a voice independent of those having to assess cases and ration resources.

8. Secondly, safeguarding staff often do not understand the needs of children and parents who have physical and mental disabilities which impede communication. The training available to those safeguarding children often does not include any input on children with complex needs, communication difficulties and particularly autism. This is vital for staff in education, health and voluntary sector settings as well as in social care.

9. Finally, there are issues with supporting the youngest children. During consultation, one of our members, a Family Support Worker for a children’s charity, said: "Children over two and under five can all too easily disappear from services. It is rare for a health visitor to consistently visit a three or four year old due to massive case loads and lack of time. There is also less of an expectation on a parent to attend clinic with a three or four years old. Some of my clients have not seen their Health Visitor for over two years, even though they have small children"

Factors affecting the quality of decision-making in referral and assessment, and variations across the country

10. Our members have raised a number of issues relating to referrals. Firstly, there is an increasing tendency not to accept referrals concerning teenage children and particularly older boys. This is in part an issue of thresholds but also reflects a lack of understanding of the safeguarding needs of these groups and how they may present themselves. The situation is more acute with refugee and asylum seeking young people and those from some BME communities where cultural misunderstandings and confusions compound the difficulties of timely and sensitive assessment of need and appropriate interventions. Ongoing training, regularly updated to take account of the changing nature of abuse and exploitation, including on-line bullying and grooming etc. needs to be in place to ensure staff in all agencies are confident in serving the needs of these young people.

11. Secondly, many organisations have said that they have no idea what happens after they have made a referral and find it difficult to get a response from the agency they made the referral to. "There are delays in action when referrals are made to Social services when there is concern about a child and often after a home visit has been made, there appears to be no follow up procedure. This often results in apathy about referral." Manager of a Children’s centre.

12. Thirdly, the huge variation in local arrangements can be extremely confusing for service providers who work across a number of local authority areas. Not only is the inconsistency inefficient but it also hinders the development of an early offer.

13. We would like to highlight excellent practice in two areas. Kirklees Council has worked with its VCS to develop a handbook "Safe and Sound" which assists the sector in understanding referral routes and thresholds for intervention and how the sector can work in partnership with the authority to keep children and young people safe.

14. The Solihull Model for Multi Agency Support of Children, Young People and Their Families, known as LINCS (Local Integrated Needs-led Coordinated Support) has enable VCS organisations to initiate CAFs. The LINC will then take responsibility for identifying an appropriate Lead Professional to take the CAF process forward, thus engaging the sector whilst recognising their capacity issues. Also the sector can have the confidence to initiate a CAF knowing there is a clear and established system for allocating to an LP and that they will not be morally guilt tripped into taking on the role due to a lack of alternative arrangements.

Appropriate thresholds for intervention, including arguments for and against removing children from their families

15. Many of our members tell us that they feel local authorities and other agencies have too high thresholds when it comes to taking action on a referral. Feedback included:

16. The pressure on local authorities to cope with referrals means that the threshold for referral has been raised. The number of times authorities in whose area abuse has occurred attempt to pass the case to the authority in which the child’s parents live has increased exponentially.

17. In the past children placed under the provisions of section 20 of the Children Act meant that they were visited by social workers and were the subjects of regular reviews etc. In efforts to reduce the number of "children looked after" some authorities now list these children as being cared for under Section 17 of the Act removing the safeguard of regular social work visits. This has reduced safeguarding and is another example of corner cutting by people under intense pressure to meet demand.

18. Local Authorities and other agencies not being in agreement about what constitutes abuse/ neglect often results in no action taking place, again thresholds come into play.

19. The increasing thresholds required for social work intervention have meant that voluntary organisations are increasingly being asked to deal with more complex and difficult cases in community settings, but without additional resources or access to higher levels of training.

20. VCS organisations which work across many authorities report widely varying practice in the acceptance of referrals and subsequent case management for children and young people with very similar needs and circumstances.

Whether the child protection policies and practices of non-social work agencies and Government departments assist professionals to work together in the interests of the child

21. There is a need to encourage and promote stability within the childcare system as a whole, but this is especially important within safeguarding. The relationships of trust and the understanding of protocols, accountability chains and agreed multi -agency referral procedures need time to bed in, be owned and used reliably by all those caring for children and young people in an area. As such, the Committee should be mindful of the extent to which its recommendations would lead to increased churn.

22. There are several causes of the current instability;

23. The well documented levels of social work staff turnover create instability in continuity of recording and evidence gathering; there can be several social workers assigned to a case during quite intense CP Procedures.

24. Many areas of work which impact on the quality and support for safeguarding are funded through time limited funding streams. The longevity of projects in both the statutory and voluntary sector that carry out excellent work and make positive change are often threatened through lack of funding, and lose good staff due to this insecurity. 

25. In the last five years many organisations in the voluntary sector have experienced real difficulties because of the development of a commissioning environment which is financially and target driven. Most contracts are short term, in spite of the recommendations within the Compact. Often the pressure to cut costs leads to insufficient money to pay for robust recruitment and supervision, training or the support that makes for a high quality professional child-centred service, which are by their nature often expensive in comparison with other services.

26. In addition, the introduction of competitive drivers has made a virtue out of innovation and radical change, when in fact what many staff and service users tell us they need is continuity and consolidation of their services, allied with incremental improvement.

27. The introduction of Children’s Trusts (and the subsequent removal of their statutory basis) and LSCB’s plus the many changes to NHS structures (with more to come) has led to a protracted period of restructuring of local services and changes of personnel. This has disrupted long standing relationships and has to some degree destabilised the way child care services are provided. Time is needed for all sectors and agencies to have confidence in the new systems and their roles within them. Children England and many of our members work alongside the Children’s Workforce Development Council, General Social Care Council and Skills for Care. We have seen how continual restructuring and change challenges the commitment, knowledge and expertise of individuals and teams.

28. The Committee should also be aware that there are specific issues with the child protection policies and practice of small voluntary and community sector organisations. Children England has in the past few years undertaken research work with members and the small organisations it supports directly that shows both a worrying continued lack of awareness, both about safeguarding practice and its importance. In Under the Radar (2007), a survey of 108 small organisations we found that only 38% of organisations reported having attended safeguarding training. That number dropped to 14% for organisations with no paid staff. In the same report, only 24% of respondents wanted more access to safeguarding training – the least desired training from the seven options they had to choose from. In a follow up survey, carried out in late 2008, we asked how aware organisations were of the new Independent Safeguarding Authority and the vetting and barring scheme. 33.7% of small organisations had never heard of it and only 45% knew it has to do with safer recruitment. Just 18% were aware of the start date for the scheme.

29. During consultation events, our members identified that a key reason for this lack of awareness was that VCS organisations are often excluded from joint working and multi-agency training. Where training is available, VCS organisations have to pay for it whereas statutory agencies receive it free. Where multi-agency training has been prioritised it is paying dividends not only in improving practice but also in building the relationships of trust and respect which must underpin any effective safeguarding system. Our members report increased understanding of the constraints and context within which the wider system must operate and feel more confident in playing a supportive and appropriate role within it.

30. Support is also available through Safe Network (http://www.safenetwork.org.uk) which Children England delivers in partnership with the NSPCC and the Child Accident Prevention Trust, funded by the Department for Education. The programme is focussed entirely on raising the child protection awareness and confidence for volunteers and staff in some of the smallest community and activist groups in the country, reaching those who may have never even considered their potential role in helping to protect children before. With Government ambitions to see more and more members of the community engaged in increasing levels of informal and unregulated activity with children and families in their communities, practical and direct engagement with them about what they can and should do, and how to develop their skills and judgements, where a child may be in danger, will be critical.

31. The importance of developing the children’s workforce was also rightly recognised by the Munro Review and it is vital that her recommendations are properly considered and resourced in the round – not only for the social work professionals and managers directly affected by child protection and social work reform, but for all agencies and professionals responsible for working with children and in partnership with local authority teams. Ongoing professional development is absolutely essential if these reforms, which rely on well-informed professional judgment, are to be a success. Unfortunately, funding for the Children’s Workforce Development Council as a Non-Departmental Public Body comes to an end in March 2012, with only £44m allocated in this final year for the Social Work Improvement Fund. The situation is particularly acute for VCS organisations, which in most cases, in the absence of external support, are unlikely to have the necessary resources to internally upskill their own staff.

October 2011