1. Discovery and Inclusion

"Digging deep - where are the children? Are they getting the services they are entitled to?" (First seminar)

There are many ways in which children and their carers come into contact with the various agencies that operate nationally, such as education, health, employment, housing, social services, police and social security. Many agencies operating at a local level also come into contact with children and their carers. Ways must be found to make the most of these opportunities for the benefit of children and their carers.

Tracking the whereabouts of every child in the country would be an enormous task for any agency and is clearly not a realistic option. One option however, is to improve the mechanisms by which agencies share information and work in partnership to ensure that children and their carers receive the services that they need.

The community at large has a very important part to play in ensuring the well being of children and their carers. We should therefore explore the role that society can play in ensuring that children and their carers have access to the services they need and are entitled to.

Key questions that arise are:

i. How can children who are not known to national or local agencies be identified, including those:

Newly arrived in the England
Recently moved within the England
Not living with their birth parents

To ensure that they receive the services they are entitled to?

ii. How can the wider community be encouraged to participate in this process?

iii. How can relevant agencies work better together to improve the ways in which the whereabouts of children can be monitored more effectively?

iv. How can the relevant agencies take account of information on children and their carers from a variety of sources and use the information to ensure that children and their carers receive the services to which they are entitled?

v. What, if any, are the implications for children from ethnic minorities?

2. Identification

"A Common Purpose, a common language" (Second seminar)

Improved ways of discovering children and carers may lead to the identification of 'need' and, in some cases the need for protection. In the same way that no one agency is wholly responsible for 'discovery', the identification of 'need' will require the combined resources and expertise of a variety of agencies.

Key questions are:

i. How can we ensure that every child potentially in need is identified at a very early stage and is brought within the system of assessment, care planning, and if necessary, formal protection?

ii. How can the protective circle for children be extended so that the wider community is fully aware of child protection issues and the role that individual citizens can play in protecting children?

iii. Is it possible to develop a common tool for use by any professional who may have concerns about a child that is:

Simple to use
Enables vulnerable children and their carers to be easily identified
Identifies who is best placed to respond to their needs

iv. What implications will such a tool have for the training and the abilities of professionals likely to come into contact with children and their carers.

v. What are the implications of such a tool for the management of information sharing between the agencies?

vi. How can an assessment, planning and protection tool be developed that is effective regardless of the performance of an organisation and individual staff?

vii. What, if any, are the implications for children from ethnic minority communities?

3. Determining requirements

"Getting it right -turning theory into practice" (Third seminar)

Once needy and vulnerable children and their carers have been identified, a thorough assessment of their circumstances must be carried out. An accurate determination of the ways in which their needs can best be met should then be made.

Throughout Phase One however, the Inquiry team became aware of the wide range of practice applied by individuals and organisations to the assessment of vulnerable children and their carers. Assessment tools recently introduced, such as the "Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families" 1may help in addressing some of the differences in individual practice and provide a robust and effective system for assessment.

Key questions are:

i. Having identified need, how can we ensure that the needs of each child, and their carers, are properly assessed and an appropriate plan of action put into operation and reviewed regularly?

ii. Is the "Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families" appropriate and able to be used by all agencies in their assessment of vulnerable children in a way that avoids the same information being collected by more than one agency? If not, what are the obstacles to its successful implementation?

iii. Are changes needed to current training programmes? If so, which training programmes and for which groups of staff?

iv. How can agencies best organise themselves and the way in which they handle their initial responses to concerns about children, regardless of whether those concerns are raised by another professional agency or a member of the public?

v. What are the implications for developing information systems (either electronically or paper based) to ensure that assessments are properly shared, are acted on by those best placed to do so and are regularly reviewed.

vi. Who should be responsible for ensuring that cases are properly assessed, that appropriate action plans are in place and delivered to agreed deadlines?

vii. How should existing arrangements be adapted to ensure better outcomes for children and their carers who are from different racial and cultural backgrounds?

4. Service provision and delivery

"Delivering the service - who does it and how?" (Fourth seminar)

Despite a national regulatory framework for children's services, the organisation and delivery of those services, both in and across agencies, is not consistent. Different models of service may, however, matter less than the quality of staff responsible for delivering the services.

The extent to which successful outcomes depend on professional qualities and how much they depend on systems and organisation is an important issue for debate.

Key questions are:

i. In what ways, if any, should the current provision of services be modified to ensure that every child is properly protected?

ii. Is there a need for greater clarity about individual accountability throughout organisations and a greater understanding about individual roles and responsibilities when working in partnership with other agencies?

iii. Would a lead child protection agency get in the way of effective working in partnership arrangements and blur professional lines of responsibility?

iv. What advantages, if any, would come from the establishment of a multi-disciplinary child protection agency and how would it operate?

v. Is it possible to create a virtual child protection agency through the improved use of modern information technology?

vi. Should more be done to harmonise and simplify local policies and procedures? What more should be done to ensure that national and local guidelines, procedures and protocols are put into practice?

vii. What more can be done to ensure that delivery of services is sensitive to the needs of children and carers from ethnic minorities?

viii. Is there need for greater clarity in organisational accountability and local arrangements?

5. Monitoring performance

"Performing well - how will we know when we are?" (Fifth seminar)

Measuring performance plays a vital role in delivering good outcomes for children and their carers. Robust systems that monitor what is actually taking place and the effectiveness of those actions by individuals and organisations is critical.

Key questions are:

i. How can the arrangements for evaluating services which have been set up to protect children at risk be modified to ensure more effective outcomes for such children?

ii. How can modern technology best be used to aid the monitoring and performance of the children's services?

iii. Would the management of child protection information be more effective if organised on a national basis?

iv. Are performance management systems in place in each of the key agencies that are designed to ensure safe outcomes for children? Are managers' and practitioners' objectives consistent with that aim?

v. Should multi agency working arrangements be inspected on a multi agency basis?

vi. What should be the role of Area Child Protection Committees? Should they continue? If so, should they be put on a statutory basis and should their roles and responsibilities change? In particular, should there be a national system for the standardisation and production of Part 8 reviews 1that can be available publicly and lessons learned?

vii. What are the implications of any of the above for ethnic minority children and their carers?