England: Five years after Climbié case, concerns are highlighted

Serious failings persist in care of vulnerable children

Some of the most vulnerable children in England are still being failed by the services that should protect them, despite a series of high-profile tragedies and inquiries recommending change, according to an official report published today. A joint review by eight government inspectorates reveals that, five years after the death of eight-year-old Victoria Climbié, there are still “serious failings” in the safeguarding of children by services including local councils, the health service and the justice system.

The report comes more than two years after Lord Laming's inquiry into Victoria's death which found that social services, the police and the NHS had missed at least 12 opportunities to save the child. It concludes that many agencies working with children are “often unclear” about how to recognise signs of abuse or neglect, or how to act on them.
The report, which covers just England, also warns that some over-stretched social services departments require cases to be so serious before they act that some youngsters in real need are left at risk.
Because councils often respond too slowly or not at all, other agencies such as schools stop referring children to social services when concerns first emerge, according to the review. “Some families are therefore likely to be subject to avoidable pressure and children may experience preventable abuse or neglect.”

In another finding which will raise concerns, particularly in the light of the 2002 murder of two Soham children by the school caretaker Ian Huntley, the report highlights persistent weaknesses in procedures for checking the suitability of staff working with, or applying to work with, children.
Though the report, Safeguarding Children 2005, says that overall child protection services have improved since the inspectors' first review, in 2002, the failings it exposes will raise deep concerns in the context of the Climbié and Soham cases and Sir William Utting's 1997 report on abuse of children in care.
The Laming inquiry, which said that agencies working with children should cooperate closely to ensure no youngster slipped through the net, prompted a government reform programme, called Every Child Matters, that was enshrined in the 2004 Children Act.
David Behan, chief inspector for the Commission for Social Care Inspection, one of the eight watchdogs involved in the review, said: “While there has been some improvement since the last children's safeguards report three years ago, many children are still being failed by the system.”

He pointed to the practice of some councils of sending children in care to live “hundreds of miles away from their homes” with little follow-up — highlighted recently in a report on the “dumping” of children in care in Thanet, east Kent. And children with physical or learning disabilities were not being cared for properly because many staff were not trained to communicate with them or spot signs of potential abuse.
Mr Behan also highlighted the lack of proper criminal record checks on staff working with children, especially agency staff and foreign workers, and the failure by some employers even to take up references or check out gaps in employment history. A key theme running through the report is the difficulty faced by social services departments, and secure units in particular, in recruiting and retaining staff, a problem that forces them to turn to agency or overseas workers.
Recruitment problems in some services would affect their ability to deliver the government's ambitious Every Child Matters programme, he warned.
A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said the report showed they had “come a long way since the Climbié inquiry with greater accountability and safeguards in the system than ever before”.

He admitted there was still more to do. “We will consider the report's findings carefully. We are already addressing a number of the key issues raised by (it).”

Lucy Ward
14 July 2005

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1528068,00.html

home / Previous feature