How Safe Are Our Children

A new report from the NSPCC:
"This report compiles the most robust and up-to-date child protection data that exists across each of the four nations in the UK.

It sets out 19 different indicators and each indicator looks at the question from a different perspective. These indicators will be regularly updated as new statistics are published.

The report allows us not only to understand how many children are being abused and neglected, but also to track progress so that society can be held to account for its responsibility to children. Only by monitoring the extent of child abuse and neglect in the UK can we judge whether efforts to prevent maltreatment and to protect children are working."

Neglect and Serious Case Reviews

A research report conducted by the University of East Anglia on behalf of the NSPCC examines data on neglect from serious case reviews covering the period 2003-2011. Findings include

• Neglect is far more prevalent in serious case review than previously understood
• Neglect needs to be treated as urgently as other forms of maltreatment, due to the potentially life-threatening nature of neglect 
• Neglect with the most serious outcomes is a danger to children of all ages.

Brandon, M., Bailey, S.,Belderson, P. & Larsson, B. (2013) Neglect and serious case reviews: a report from the University of East Anglia commissioned by NSPCC 

A rapid literature review of evidence on child abuse linked to faith or belief

This publication from the Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre, funded by the Department for Education (England and Wales), is a small scale review of previous research conducted to collate information for future policy. The review looked at the incidence and characteristics of child abuse linked to faith or belief in the UK and some other countries, looked to identify good practice in the identification and reduction of such abuse and sought to define gaps in the evidence base where further research may be helpful. The main sources of information were Stobart’s analysis of Metropolitan Police cases (2006; 2009) and the more recent (as yet unpublished) research from La Fontaine (2012). The review includes evidence on "witchcraft and spirit possession" related cases and also "ritual and satanic abuse".

Protecting Disabled Children

OfSted (England and Wales) have issued a report Protecting disabled children: thematic inspection. The report examines how well local authorities and Local Safeguarding Children Boards work in evaluating the work done by the multiple professionals and agencies involved in provision of services to disabled children. Most children and their parents/carers were offered multi-agency support at an early stage, which was keenly received. However in the work with children in need, plans were often found to lack detail of focus on outcomes and reviews often failed to include all the professionals working with children and in some cases the planning or review process was absent. The report concludes that these gaps may cause delay in  identifying child protection issues with disabled children. Additionally, not all staff from the different agencies working with disabled children were adequately trained in their safeguarding responsibilities.

Action on neglect in schools

Interprofessional working and awareness and action by schools and health professionals is essential if children suffering neglect or abuse are to be reached as quicky and effectively as possible. A article in this weeks Guardian highlights how some schools are working to help children being neglected.

Child Protection on TV

You might want to set your +box or program reminder to watch the new BBC2 series Protecting Our children, first episode to be screened Monday 30.1.12 at 9pm. Following child protection staff in Bristol, the programme also shows interprofessional working with NHS, Family Courts and the police. The series has been made in partnership with the Open University.

Parental Substance Misuse

SCIE have created a free interactive e-learning resource on parental substance misuse, it's affects on children and parenting capacity and the implications for social work practitioners.

Final report of the Munro Review published

This week saw the publication of the final report of Professor Eileen Munro's review of child protection. The review concludes that local authority social workers should be freed from national prescribed targets, methods of working and IT systems and be allowed to redesign services based on research and feedback from children and families.

Domestic Violence

This recent issue of Community Care journal carries a special report on domestic violence with articles on the implications of intervention thresholds for child protection, and engaging more with fathers to improve child protection and prevent domestic violence:

Valios, N. (2011). Fatal consequences of service cuts. Community Care. April 21, 2011, pp16-17.
Carson, G. (2011). Challenging anti-men bias. Community Care.April 21, 2011, pp 18-19.

You can find Community Care at Jordanhill Serials 362 or online via the Suprimo catalogue.

Munro, case recording and ICT

Careknowledge have published the second of their special reports in relation to the Munro Review of Child Protection in England. This one focuses on case recording:
Freeman, I. (2011). Munro and ICT: challenge and opportunity.

A Time to be Heard.

The Scottish Government this week published its response to the recommendations in the Shaw Report, A Time to be Heard, which was a report on the pilot forum to hear the views and experiences of people who had been resident in Quarriers as children. CareKnowledge provides links to both the original report and the government's response.

Munro Interim Report pulished

The second report to come out of the Munro review of child protection, Interim report : Munro, E. (2011)the child's journey, set up in the wake of the Baby P serious case reviews, was published yesterday. In this report Professor Munro's report outlines where the child protection system needs reform and calls for children's needs to be in the forefront of consideration rather than meeting managerial targets and compliance with bureaucracy which have hindered social workers in using their professional judgement. The report also recommends making it easier for other agancies to access social workers for advice and improving the system of serious case review to enable greater information sharing and learning nationally in such cases.
Also reported on in the Guardian, 1 January 2011.

Avoiding mistakes in child protection

The NSPCC have released a a new guide on risk assessment in child protection:
Broadhurst, K.et al. (2011). Ten pitfall and how to avoid them: what research tells us. NSPCC. The authors state that no amount of micro managing procedural guidelines can substitute for the decision making processes professional social workers engage in every day, but hope in this document to help professionals avoid the more common mistakes identified by research. This document is an update of an original included in the 1998 NSPCC report Assessing Risk in Child Protection.

Sexual expolitation of children in Britain

This weeks news has seen much coverage and opinion on the nature and causes of child sexual exploitation, following Jack Straws remarks typifying young Asian men as perpetrators and white girls as victims. The charity Barnardo's has for many years been running projects in Britain to help young people who find themselves victims of this type of crime. Anne Marie Carrie, chief executive of Barnardo's stated in the Guardian, 17 January that such stereotyping is unhelpful, and that what is actually required is for sexual exploitation to be addressed as a child protection issue, with a national action plan, earlier identification and more robust evidence gathering and prosecution procedures to help protect children and punish offenders. Barnardo's published their report Puppet on a string: the urgent need to cut children free from sexual exploitation this week.

New Scottish documents

Scottish Government (2010). National Guidance for child Protection in Scotland. These new guidelines provide a framework for practitioners and agencies working to safeguard children. These replace the guidelines published in 1998, Protecting Children - a shared responsibility.
MacLeod, P. & Page, L. (2010). 2009/10 Scottish crime and justice survey: partner abuse. Scottish Government. This information in this report was collected as part of the general Scottish Crime and Justice Survey.
Laing, K. & Wilson, G. (2010). Understanding child contact cases in Scottish Sherriff Courts. Scottish Government. This research commissioned by the Scottish Government, examines the court's role in contested contact cases, the characteristics of  parents and their reasons for undertaking court action and whether the views children in such cases are considered by the courts and parents involved.

Baby P - What would you have done?

Following the publication of the second serious case review, in this week's Community Care (11 Nov 2010), Perdeep Gill reviews the options the workers on the case faced at each stage. Community Care can be found at Jordanhill Serials 362, and is also available electronically via Suprimo.

Serious Case Reviews

This week sees the publication of new reports on Serious Case Reviews, in which the authors have attempted to collate information form several years of serious case reviews, carried out in England in cases where a child has died from abuse or neglect:

Sidebotham. P. et al (2010). Learning from serious case reviews: report of a research study on the methods of learning lessons nationally from serious case reviews. Department for Education.

Brandon, M., Bailey, S. & Belderson, P. (2010). Building on the learning from serious case reviews: a two year analysis of child protection database notifications 2007-2009. Department for Education.

Maltreatment in Foster Care

University of York Social Policy Unit, in conjuction with the Fostering Network, have published the following paper:
Biehal, N. & Parry, E. (2010). Maltreatment and allegations of maltreatment in foster care: a review of the evidence. This paper is available via Care Knowledge.

New E-documents on safeguarding children

Mariathasan, J & Hutchinson, D. (2010). Children talking to childline about parental alcohol and drug misuse. Childline/NSPCC.
Atkinson, M., Lamont, E. & Wright, B. (2010). The role of primary mental health workers in education. NFER.
Hicks, L. & Stein, M. (2010). Neglect matters: a multi-agency guide for professionals working together on behalf of teenagers. DCSF.
Rees, G. et al. (2010). Safeguarding young people: responding to young people ages 11to 17 who are maltreated. Children's Society.

New Government - new review of social work in the England

Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education has engaged Professor Eileen Munro of the LSE to conduct an Independent Review of Child Protection in England. Michale Gove's letter outlines the scope of the review in the areas of early intervention, empowering and supporting front line social workers and maximising transparency and accountability. Following the commissioning of the review Professor Munro stated in a BBC radio interview that she favoured a team approach as modelled in Hackney, where decisions and responsibilities for an individual case were shoulderd by a group of professionals, with administrative work on cases being performed by an administrative worker on the team, leaving social workers with more time to spend on home visits. BASW have commented favourably on Professor Munro's appointment. See also Guardian, June 10.

Professor Munro recently had published the article "Learning to reduce risk in child protection", British Journal of Social Work 40(4), pp. 1135-1151.

Another reform will see the full publication of Serious Case Reviews, starting with the two Peter Connolly reviews. See BASW.