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April 2002 Archived News
Wednesday 25 April 2002
CLIMBIÉ INQUIRY TO FINISH TAKING EVIDENCE
THE VICTORIA Climbié Inquiry will be taking evidence for
the last time on Friday 26 April, when it stages its last Phase
Two seminar.
The seminar, entitled Monitoring Performance, is the fifth and
final discussion group and concludes the part of the Inquiry devoted
to looking at ways to improve the national child protection system.
When Phase Two is completed it will have heard evidence from 121
expert contributors, including people such as Gillian Shephard,
the former Cabinet minister and Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC, chairman
of the Jasmine Beckford child death Inquiry. It will also have heard
from numerous frontline staff working in social services, the National
Health Service and police. In addition it will have received 266
written submissions, to be considered as evidence, from organisations
and members of the public, who have not taken part in the seminars.
Phase Two has considered various key questions in relation to the
future of the child protection system: such as how effectively to
include all those children and families who need services and how
those services should best be delivered. Phase One, which finished
in February, looked at the circumstances surrounding Victoria’s
death.
Among those appearing at Friday’s event will be: Denise Platt,
Chief Inspector of the Social Services Inspectorate; Chief Inspector
Leroy Logan, Chairman of the Black Police Officers’ Association
and Sir Andrew Foster, controller of the Audit Commission. They
and 20 other guests will try assess how the evaluation of services,
for children at risk, can be modified to ensure a more effective
system.
Once Phase Two has been completed, Lord Laming will consider all
the evidence put before the Inquiry, oral and written, and write
a final report, which it is hoped he will be able to hand to the
Government later this year.
Further evidence will only be heard by the Inquiry in exceptional
circumstances.
Contact:
Paul Rees, Head of Communications
Tel: 020 7972 1999
Fax: 020 7972 1981
Mobile: 07884 473 355
paul.rees@victoriaclimbie.org
Wednesday 17 April 2002
INQUIRY TO BE TOLD: WELL-BEING OF CHILDREN AT RISK WOULD IMPROVE
IF NATION’S POTENTIAL VOLUNTEERS WERE UTILISED
THE WELL-BEING of children at risk would greatly improve if the
millions of people wanting to help in the work of the child protection
system were utilised, the Victoria Climbié Inquiry will be
told at its fourth Phase Two seminar on Friday 19 April.
The Community Service Volunteers (CSV) will tell the Inquiry that
11 million members of the public, nationwide, would be willing to
assist in the work of the child protection system, if they were
given the chance.
The CSV claims that where volunteers have been similarly utilised
to help with child protection work, in New York, “the impact
on children at risk has been enormously positive”.
The written submission by the CSV will be taken as evidence, on
Friday, when the Inquiry holds its fourth expert discussion group,
which will be entitled Service Provision and Delivery, and will
look at how to ensure that the protection given to children is effective
and consistent, across the country.
In its submission, the CSV says: “Research indicates a widespread
readiness to help amongst citizens of all ages. Already half the
population volunteers and a further 11 million would participate
if asked. However, social services, police and medical professionals
are slow to harness this growing resource. Many volunteers to these
agencies are not welcomed owing to lack of knowledge, frameworks
and training.”
However, the paper goes on: “In New York City teams of carefully
selected and trained volunteers support social workers and health
visitors, including visiting children at risk every day of the week
for as long as is needed. Their task is to see the child and offer
practical help with transport to nursery or school, homework support,
babysitting or play…Their practical support is valued highly
by children, carers and professionals.”
Contact:
Paul Rees, Head of Communications
Tel: 020 7972 1999
Fax: 020 7972 1981
Mobile: 07884 473 355
paul.rees@victoriaclimbie.org
Wednesday 10 April 2002
INQUIRY TO BE TOLD: CHILDREN WOULD BE BETTER PROTECTED IF SOCIAL
WORKERS REFORMED WAYS OF WORKING
CHILDREN AT risk would be better protected if social workers reformed
the way they take referrals of urgent cases, the Victoria Climbié
Inquiry will be told at it’s third Phase Two seminar on Friday
12 April.
David Thorpe, Professor of Applied Social Science, at Lancaster
University, will tell the discussion group that the arrangements
adopted by many social services departments lead to chaotic referral-taking,
which sometimes results in reports about children at risk being
lost.
Professor Thorpe, who has submitted a paper in advance of the third
seminar, argues, in it, that to ensure that social workers work
in an effective way, all social services departments should adopt
a ‘whole systems’ approach in their ‘referral-taking
social work’.
While doing his research, Professor Thorpe found that considerable
disorder existed in some departments, with fragments of information
becoming scattered across diaries, log books, computers, filing
baskets and filing cabinets. On one particular site, case papers
could be found in any one of eleven places. The most of these that
were known to any one person was six.
To prevent such chaos, Professor Thorpe believes that the working
environments and work practices of duty teams, who take the child
protection referrals, should be reorganised, so that the lay-out
of the office is designed for the purpose of taking referrals and
not just set up in a haphazard manner. He also believes that work
should be re-prioritised so that the most urgent cases get the greatest
attention.
Professor Thorpe says the evidence suggests that when a ‘whole
systems’ approach is adopted, the chances of cases going astray
is minimised and staff morale improves. He bases his position on
research he has done on 3,000 child protection investigations in
social services departments in the UK and in Australia.
Contact:
Paul Rees, Head of Communications
Tel: 020 7972 1999
Fax: 020 7972 1981
Mobile: 07884 473 355
paul.rees@victoriaclimbie.org
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