1 February 2011
The government is considering a trial suspension of some statutory child protection procedures at five councils, following an official report criticising the amount of bureaucracy facing social workers.
Professor Eileen Munro published her interimreview on child protection in England today. She was asked by the government to conduct a review of the system in June.
It follows a series of high-profile cases in recent years highlighting failings, most notably the death of Baby Peter in August 2007.
Today’s report says social workers are spending too much time ‘ticking boxes’ and preparing for inspections rather than looking after children and doing the job they are trained for.
Munro said: ‘Too often questions are asked if rules and procedures have been met but not whether this has helped children.
‘Whilst some regulation is needed, we need to reduce it to a small, manageable size. Professionals should be spending more time with children.’
To help remove the volume of bureaucracy and give social workers greater autonomy, Education Secretary Michael Gove is now considering using his powers to grant five local authorities temporary suspension of certain aspects of statutory guidance, subject to conditions.
Social workers in Cumbria, Knowsley, Westminster, Hackney and Gateshead would be able to complete certain assessments and hold child protection conferences within timescales that they think would best meet children’s needs. The trials would be rigorously monitored to ensure the safety and welfare of children, and to minimise delays, ministers said.
The tests, which would last beyond when Munro publishes her final report in April, would be used to inform the Department for Education’s response to the final report.
Today’s interim report also stresses the importance of other professionals, including health workers, police and family support services, in the child protection system. In a further move to free social workers for frontline work, it calls for less inspection by Ofsted.
Munro recommends that announced inspections of children’s services are scrapped, with only unannounced ones continuing to take place.
Ofsted should also immediately be stripped of its role in evaluating Serious Case Reviews. Instead SCR overview documents should be published and opened up to public scrutiny.
A spokesman from Ofsted said: ‘While we believe that Ofsted’s work in the evaluation of serious Case Reviews has had a positive impact in improving their quality, we agree that these should now end and have been suggesting this ourselves for some time.’
Commenting on the interim report, children’s minister Tim
Loughton said: ‘Professor Munro has identified areas where professionals’ time
is being wasted and children’s needs are not being properly identified. I
welcome her approach to getting to the neediest children and families as early
as possible, and recognising that child protection is not just the
responsibility of social workers.’
Baroness Shireen Ritchie, chair of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, said Munro’s recommendations were very welcome.
‘Cuts to council budgets make the need for getting on with these reforms even more urgent,’ she said.
‘Initiatives to increase the number of social workers and raise the status of the profession are on track but action is needed now to make sure councils can keep the social workers they have and that they can spend as much time as possible working with the children who need them.’
