Responding to safeguarding concerns sharing the challenge

1
Responding to safeguarding concerns sharing the
challenge

• Yvonne Rodgers
• Director, Barnardos Cymru

2
Barnardos

• In existence for over 140 years
• In Wales since 1892
• Significant changes to social care practice
  during this time but not to the harm inflicted on
  children
• neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse and
  exploitation and emotional abuse
• Still much to be done taking forward a
  multi-agency response to meeting the needs of
  vulnerable children

3
Background

• Fulfilled Lives, Supportive Communities
• The Children Act 2004 and Rights to Action
• safeguarding children at the heart of what we do
• no need for further radical reform of childrens
  welfare legislation and policy
• What is the key to keeping children safe?
• protection
• prevention
• prediction

4
Context

• How safeguarding has been shaped by Laming
• Lord Laming
• Victoria Climbié WAG response
• Baby Peter WAG response

5
Serious case reviews

• WAG tightening up on monitoring of SCRs
• inconsistencies across Wales particularly
  timescales
• evaluation
• learning and prediction
• deficit of qualified experienced chairs and
  overview authors

6
The wider context
7
Perceptions and their significance

• Social workers are in the main dedicated, hard
  working and
• determined to achieve positive outcomes for
  children
• against over-whelming odds.
• constant criticism of professionals by public and
  politicians extremely damaging
• public intolerance understandable but
• complexity of issues involved in safeguarding
  children should however be understood by
  politicians and the media
• unhelpful criticism undermines confidence of
  workforce and robs the future potential for
  recruiting aspiring skilled practitioners

8
Critical issues in safeguarding

• Acting on concerns the capacity and ability of
  managers and staff to recognise and respond
  effectively to anything that may give rise to
  concern about the well-being of service users
• Accountability and roles management roles and
  responsibilities for effective safeguarding
• Staff support how staff are supported to
  deliver and sustain effective safeguarding
• Knowledge staffs knowledge of safeguarding
  practice
• Partnership working with partner agencies to
  achieve effective safeguarding
• Participation capacity and opportunity to pick
  up childrens and other service users views and
  safeguarding concerns

9
The voice of the child

• Where is the voice of the child in safeguarding?
• effectiveness of systems to obtain and reflect on
  this?
• what importance is given to childrens rights
  through safeguarding processes?
• no voice baby Peter?

10
Role of the Voluntary Sector

• Speaking out
• greater freedom than local authorities
• challenging accepted wisdom
• Added value
• part of the public service citizen at the
  centre
• working together across sectors to deliver the
  best public service within the resources
• specialist services

11
What is the Voluntary Sector concerned about?

• Inconsistent involvement of the childrens
  voluntary sector in
• levels of statutory response to reported
  safeguarding concerns
• engagement with us as a sector when the process
  is up and running
• varying degree of effective dialogue between
  LSCBs and voluntary sector

12
Integrated Family Support Teams

• Key element of Children and Families (Wales)
  Measure to reform support provided to
  vulnerable children and families creating
• Integrated Family Support Teams
• Intense and multi-disciplinary support to
  families with complex needs
• Help with early identification of families with
  complex needs
• Early identification of children who need to be
  removed from the family to better meet needs,
  offering more stable future

13
Some commissioning challenges

• Outcome driven services and individual care plans
• Putting citizens at the centre of all
  commissioning
• Strengthening services through effective
  partnership working with providers
• Enabling the Third Sector to be a key contributor
  in developing and providing local services

14
Progress and improvements

• Standards have been driven up through
• Care Council for Wales higher standards across
  social care workforce of
• conduct
• practice
• Training Workforce Action Plan
• CSSIW inspects and reviews across 22 local
  authorities a range of social services.
• Raising quality of services through regulation
  and national minimum standards

15
Winds of change

• When the wind blows the cradle will rock
• When the bough breaks the cradle will fall
• Down will come baby
• In times of recession, change is inevitable.
• Let us make sure all of our babies, children and
  young people are safe and safeguarded we have a
  responsibility to all our children.