Review publishes recommendations on safeguarding disabled children in residential settings

The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has demanded a “major overhaul” of the safeguarding system to protect children with disabilities from abuse at children’s homes, making nine recommendations for improvement.

The report, published last week (20 April) recommended that statutory guidance should be developed to require local authorities and integrated care boards (ICBs) to “jointly commission safe, sufficient and appropriate provision for children with disabilities and complex health needs”.

In October 2022, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel published a review into “very serious abuse to a significant number of children with disabilities and complex health needs” at three residential special schools registered as children’s homes.

Looking at the experiences of 108 children and young adults, the panel found “a culture of abuse and harm”, including evidence of physical abuse and violence, neglect, emotional abuse and sexual harm.

The review found that the leadership and management in the three settings was “inadequate” and “actively concealed incidents of abuse from authorities”.

Further, when there were complaints and concerns about the settings from whistleblowers and parents, these were not sufficiently brought together by authorities. Therefore, “the safety net that should have protected the children was ineffective”, said the panel.

The phase 2 report published last week draws on the learning from the investigation and “sets out a case for change in the quality, oversight and regulation of all residential settings for children with disabilities and complex health needs”.

The report's recommendations for government departments, inspectorates and NHS England include:

• The government should commission an integrated strategy for the development of the children’s workforce in residential settings - this should include training on the appropriate use of physical restraints and restrictive interventions and their authorisation.
• The government should ensure all children with disabilities and complex health needs have access to independently commissioned, non-instructed advocacy.
• Systems for the early identification of safeguarding risks in residential settings should be strengthened through an enhanced role for host local authorities and ICBs in the oversight of residential settings in their area.
• The Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care should revise the regulatory framework for residential settings and immediately establish arrangements for joint inspection by Ofsted and CQC of residential settings for children with disabilities and complex health needs.
• National leadership and investment by providers is urgently required to address the longstanding challenges in recruiting, retaining and developing a skilled workforce is residential settings.

Panel Chair, Annie Hudson said there was "widespread public shock and distress" when "it published its initial findings about the "extremely disturbing neglect, abuse and harm" experienced by a large number of children with disabilities and complex health needs living in residential settings.

“However, despair and shock are never enough and will not address the fundamental and systemic problems that contributed to the children’s unspeakably distressing experiences, over an extended period, in environments that should have kept them safe," she said.

“Today’s report draws on the learning from what happened to those children to make national recommendations that must be secured so that this very vulnerable group of children thrive, are safe and enjoy the rights that every child should be able to enjoy.”

Responding to the report, ADCS President John Pearce said: “Phase two of this review highlights systemic challenges that act as barriers to us meeting the needs of children with disabilities and complex health issues as well as we would like to.

“[…] We face longstanding challenges around placement quality, sufficiency and cost, effective commissioning may be part of the answer, but it is not a silver bullet, we need to look beyond commissioning practice. Our current model of care and support for children with complex SEND has shifted radically towards independent residential special school provision far removed from a child’s home and community. This does not align with the ambition and vision in the government’s own children’s social care strategy, which is to keep children in care as close to home as possible and in a family environment."

Pearce added: “Change where it benefits children is a positive thing but barriers to achieving the sort of change children need can include regulation and resourcing. Many of the recommendations in this report will have a significant multi agency resource requirement to implement effectively and take time to achieve and we await the government’s response to these.”

Also responding to the report, the British Association for Social Workers (BASW) said: “The report is right when it calls for a 'major overhaul”'of the safeguarding system and we hope that the important role of social work in protecting and upholding the rights of children is considered as part of any action taken in response.”

It added that the role of Ofsted must come under “further scrutiny” as it was confirmed that “they had been warned on more than 100 occasions about incidents at children’s homes with residents facing “horrific” abuse.”

Lottie Winson