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Paragraphs: 17.46
- 17.57 | 17.58 - 17.63
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17.46
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Despite a national regulatory framework for children's services,
the organisation and delivery of those services, both in and across
agencies, is not consistent. The fourth seminar examined the current
issues that influence service provision and service delivery.
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17.47
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It was said that when work with children goes well it is because
staff with different expertise know and trust each other. But there
were competing views about what it was that damaged trust and co-operation.
Some thought that agencies other than social services often did
not give enough priority to their work in relation to protecting
children. Others said that social services had become the dominant
agency rather than the lead agency, and to an unhealthy degree.
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17.48
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For some, the problem lay in society's attitude to children. Children
were not sufficiently valued and some level of violence towards
them was tolerated. The solution would be nationally agreed outcomes
for children, which everyone involved could work to.
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17.49
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For many of the participants, inadequacies in the level and quality
of staffing had an immediate effect on service provision. Front-line
staff in all the services were said to be under pressure because
of increasing workloads, high vacancy rates, inadequate information
technology and administrative systems, and inadequate training.
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17.50
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A number of the papers received for this seminar suggested that
the deficiencies in the child protection system could only be addressed
properly by structural reform. The main suggestions were:
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a national child protection agency
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a national supervising agency
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a national network of multi-agency teams, based on the Youth Offending
Team model
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child safeguarding teams
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reform of Area Child Protection Committees (ACPCs)
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a 'virtual' child protection team.
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17.51
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The suggested creation of a national child protection agency would
be a freestanding, independent agency, staffed by qualified social
workers, police officers, medical practitioners, and other professionals.
It would investigate and respond to all cases where there were grounds
to suspect the ill-treatment of a child.
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17.52
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The Metropolitan Police Service proposed an alternative arrangement.
It was suggested that the current agency structures should be retained
but that a new national supervising agency should be superimposed.
The agency would be responsible for policy, inspection and review,
training and investigative standards, and the setting of standard
operating procedures across the country.
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17.53
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The Youth Offending Team model brings together the important agencies
without divorcing them from their local management. This model was
considered by some participants as providing a useful model for
child protection work.
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17.54
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The NSPCC, in their written submission, had developed detailed
proposals for greatly strengthened multi-disciplinary teams. During
the seminar, they expanded on their call for the establishment of
child safeguarding teams involving all the main agencies in the
delivery of initial investigation and assessment of children.
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17.55
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Proposals for reforming ACPCs received wide support. Although many
do good work, they seemed widely to be regarded as lacking 'teeth'.
They had no real authority over their constituent agencies and did
not provide the strategic leadership needed.
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17.56
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There were several proposals on how ACPCs could be made more effective.
These included:
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placing them on a statutory footing
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strengthening their executive powers
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requiring them to engage independent chairs
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making them directly accountable to the local authority chief executive
or to the National Care Standards Commission
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giving them power to require financial contributions from the other
agencies
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adding to their membership representatives of housing authorities
or local social security offices or Jobcentres
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giving them a strategic responsibility.
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17.57
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The creation of a 'virtual' child protection team with the aid
of modern technology and the electronic sharing of information was
also discussed, and such a model was described. The model described
did not remove the apparent legal restrictions on data sharing,
but it did appear to provide a sensible way of managing large amounts
of information from different sources.
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Paragraphs: 17.46
- 17.57 | 17.58 - 17.63
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17.58
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There was much discussion about the means by which performance
in the delivery of services might be improved, and what the barriers
to such improvement would be.
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17.59
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It was suggested it was important that practice should be governed
by professional judgement, and not by rules and procedures. While
regulation had its place, it could not be a substitute for reflection
and judgement. There was also much discussion about the importance
of high-quality supervision and clear lines of accountability.
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17.60
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A really serious matter is the recruitment and retention of good-quality
staff, which is a prerequisite to improving performance. It was
considered essential that means are found to acknowledge the importance
of child protection and support work for children and families,
and to value staff who do this work. The 'blame culture', that was
said to have developed, has to be replaced by a 'responsibility
culture' to discourage the present tendency of defensive practice.
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17.61
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Unsurprisingly, training was regarded as critical to improving
performance. Training had to be of high quality, not only before
qualification, but also during practice. Continuing training for
social workers had to be more systematic, and it was suggested by
some that training of medical staff in the safeguarding of children
should become compulsory at all levels. Risk assessment and risk
management training were seen as essential for both medical and
social care staff. Child protection training for the police needs
to be more detailed.
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17.62
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Finally, the discussion turned to look at the way in which agencies
decide what services to provide. There appeared to be a widely held
view that in practice, social work tends to be service-led rather
than needs-led. The majority of service users tend to receive the
services that are available, not necessarily the services they require.
This is the result of limited resources, administrative convenience,
and the failure to recognise the need for individual assessment
to determine the service to be provided.
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17.63
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The difficulty in adopting a needs-led approach was said to be
due both to the shortage of skilled staff and to the substantial
capital investment involved in providing certain services that demanded
their subsequent use. Nonetheless, there should be the expectation
that all agencies ought to be providing services that meet the needs
of their clients rather than seeking users that can take advantage
of their services.
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