Government promises "radical reduction" in regulation of child protection work
The government has vowed in its formal response to the Munro Review to oversee a “radical reduction” in the amount of regulation covering child protection.
It said this would be achieved through a revision of the statutory framework to place greater emphasis on direct work with children, young people and families.
The response – which was informed by an Implementation Working Group drawing on expertise from local authority children’s services, the social work profession, education, police and health services – also said:
- The government agreed that Professor Munro’s 15 recommendations in her final report needed to be considered in the round and acknowledged that together they represented the opportunity to deliver holistic reform of the child protection system
- There would be an amendment to statutory guidance by December 2011 to remove the prescription of timescales and the distinction between core and initial assessments
- The government supported Prof. Munro’s view that the quality of relationships between social workers and children and young people sat at the heart of an effective child protection system. It said it would support and work with the SWRB, the College of Social Work and ADCS to develop the knowledge and skills of the profession
- Inspection would continue to be important with a new inspection framework that would “have at its heart the experiences of children and young people”
- There would be greater transparency and coordination of local arrangements to deliver an early help offer to children, young people and families
- The government would create a chief social worker to advise it on social work practice and the effectiveness of the help being given to children and young people
- There would be a co-produced work programme between the Department for Education, the Department of Health, NHS bodies, local authorities, professional bodies and practitioners to ensure continued improvement of safeguarding arrangements in health reform.
- The government agreed that in future systems review methodology should be used by Local Safeguarding Children Boards when serious case reviews are undertaken. However, it said it was important to plan the transition to new arrangements carefully.
The Association of Directors of Children’s Services called for a number of Prof. Munro’s recommendations to be implemented immediately. In particular guidance on timescales for assessment and learning from serious cases should be subject to urgent review, it said.
The ADCS welcomed proposals to put more trust in social workers by reducing the amount of prescriptive guidance relating to child protection investigations, and suggested that the principles could be extended to all social work with children. Instructions for social workers working which children in care and in adoption and fostering services would also benefit from similar revisions, it added.
Debbie Jones, the association’s Vice President, said: “If Professor Munro’s recommendations are fully supported by government and employers, they will go a long way to improving the way that social workers work with children and families in these very difficult circumstances. The government’s response today gives us hope that this work will be taken forward in the same collaborative spirit as the review itself.
“This will not be a quick process and it will take time for professionals to get accustomed to more freedom and discretion – employers will need to support the transition from a ‘command and control’ model of practice to one in which individuals take responsibility for their decisions.”
On the role of health agencies and schools in supporting children and families, both when there are child protection concerns and when a child or family would benefit from ‘early help’, Jones warned that improvements to social work alone would not produce “the change that we all want to see”.
She added: “Professor Munro notes the changes in health and education as a risk to the multi-agency arrangements that are crucial to good child protection services. Local authorities will need to work with partners locally to build strong relationships across agencies, while central government will have a role to play in ensuring that child protection responsibilities are writ large in any structural changes being proposed. We hope to see the Department for Education and the Department of Health implementing Professor Munro’s recommendations in a joined-up way.”
