Munro Review of Child Protection
Safeguarding Children in London:
The role of councillors after the Munro Review
Jacky Tiotto
Head of Safeguarding practice, improvement and learning, DfE
London Councils and London Safeguarding Board, 13 June 2011
the process

review part of drive to improve the quality of child
protection in England -10 June 2010

October 2010 First report: Analysis of unintended
consequences of previous reforms

February 2011: Interim report: Characteristics of an
effective child protection system

May 2011: Final report: Child- centred system and
recommendations for reform
the ‘givens’
• The recommendations to this review have to be understood and not
implemented passively – there should be no cherry picking either
• The child protection system is complex
• The Commission on the Rights of the Child – protect and prevent
• Abuse and neglect do not present in unambiguous ways
• Predictions about abusive behaviour are necessarily fallible
•
The number of professionals involved makes co-ordination,
communication and clarity of role an absolute ‘drive on left’ rule
principles of a child-centred system
•
Child- centred
•
Family is the best place to bring up children and young people
•
Helping involves direct work
•
Early help better for children and young people
•
Variety of need reflected in helping responses
•
Good professional practice informed by theory and research
•
Uncertainty and risk accepted as intrinsic to the work
•
Most important measures of success are whether help is effective
drivers of the system in recent years
The child protection system in recent times has been shaped by four
key driving forces:
•
the importance of the safety and welfare of children and young people
•
a belief held by many that uncertainty in child protection work can be
eradicated
•
A tendency in inquiries to focus on professional error without examining
the causes of any error
•
the undue weight given to performance information and targets
headline messages
• Children and young people not sufficiently seen and heard and continuity
of relationships not valued
• Bureaucratic processes drive and dominate professional practice
• Shared professional responsibility to help families early – significance of
universal services
• Over-use of central prescription to improve practice, so cumulative effect
is negative
• The system is weighted towards responding to serious abuse and neglect
with insufficient preventative, early help - Cuts to preventative services
short-sighted
what to aim for?
 a system that learns whether children are being helped and respects their
need for help
 a system hearing and using feedback – children, young people , families
and practitioners
 a system with professional freedom and strong accountable management
and leadership
 a system that expects errors and so tries to catch them quickly
 a system that is dominated by direct work with families - the human
element of the work
valuing professional expertise
Rigid prescription that
has resulted because of
pursuit to eradicate
uncertainty with more
rules
Rules have
compromised capacity
for professional
judgment
Skill deficit noticed in
SCRs but more rules the
response
Management practice
focussed on process
because inspection and
performance targets
dominate
Direct work reduced as
compliance with
process is driver
valuing professional expertise: recommendations
Statutory Guidance – ‘Working Together’/Framework for Assessment of Need
Inspection – beginning to end of help
Performance data – information to study rather than indicators giving simple
measure of success
sharing responsibility for the provision of ‘early help’
Lots of assessment and
not much help –
expectations of help
that does not happen
Moral imperative to
help early to reduce
harm and efficiency
gains
Cuts to
preventative
services will
create costs and
worse outcomes
what is there if not
social care? All partners
responsible for help
Offer of early help on
back of local process to
understand need
Know your community
need and provide help
sharing responsibility for early help: Recommendations
 New duty for local authorities and statutory partners to secure provision
of early help:
-
specify against local profile of need
-
set out access to social work expertise for those in other services
-
provide local safeguarding and child protection training to help all
professionals
-
have clear arrangements in place to make an ‘offer of early help’
developing social work expertise &
the organisational context
Voice of profession
needed to influence
and advise government
Career path for social
workers support them
leaving practice as they
get experienced
Employers and HEIs to
create higher standards
for training and
placement
Local services build
change of lead
professional into system
developing social work expertise & the organisational context:
recommendations
Capabilities, training and career structure for social work
 College of Social Work to set out capabilities for child and family social
work, considering implications for employers, training establishments,
career structures and regulators
 Employers and higher education establishments to prepare students for
child protection work, including better placements
Local children’s services
 Principal social workers in every LA – practicing senior managers
 Redesign services around consistent relationships with families and
effective helping
Voice of social work in government
 A chief social worker to advise government and bring voice of profession
to policy
clarifying accountabilities and creating a learning
system
Reviewing practice now is a
Learning from practice
defensive activity and the
system is closed to learning –
repeat messages from SCRs
is the oxygen that will
grow skills to exercise
professional judgment
E
A
R
L
Strong accountability
spine, when much else
locally is changing
Additional duties will
dilute DCS role.
Improvement and
Change programme
need to be led by
someone with
dedicated attention on
services
N
accountabilities and learning: recommendations
Leadership
• Statutory guidance revised to stress exceptional arrangements of DCS and
lead member with additional functions
• Research on impact of public health reforms on provision of help and
protection
LSCBs
• Produce an annual report for most senior leaders of Local Authority, Health
and Police
• Strengthened monitoring of effectiveness of help (and early help), value
for money, and multi agency training in safeguarding and child protection
• To use systems methodology when undertaking serious case reviews,
including government providing reviewers, disseminating learning to
inform report of chief social worker
• SCR evaluations should end
local political accountabilities
• Role of leader – recommendation about annual report from LSCB (rec 5)
• Duty for Local authority and statutory partners to secure sufficient
provision for early help, setting out arrangements including the resources
available (Rec 10)
• Inspection of child’s journey from needing to receiving help (rec 3)
• Availability of data (rec 4)
• Quality of social work environment, placements, supervision and first line
management (rec 12)
• Strengthened role of LSCB in monitoring effectiveness of help, including
early help and multi- agency training (rec 6)
• Statutory role of DCS and Lead Member and additional functions (rec 7)
• Serious case reviews – learning and improving (rec 9)
• Degree of child- centredness
What you might see in local failure and what might
you do?
1.
2.
3.
What is the performance management system locally? What is it telling them and what are
they doing about it?
Who knows what about what professionals are doing with children and families and the
impact this is having?
Who in the leadership team has this information and what do they do with it?
Some specifics:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
What are local social work caseloads?
What are they doing with children in need, with child protection plans and those looked after?
How often is supervision and what happens in supervision?
How is the interface between universal services and social care managed? What do leaders
and managers know about this interface and the safe identification of abuse and neglect? eg
Hospitals, GPs, police and schools
What is happening to contacts, referrals and decisions to act or not act?
What services are there locally and is the range of need represented in the provision
available?
What happens to children with child protection plans? Who does what, when and to what
effect?
One inspection report I read said nothing about relationships, complex work and help!
Ambition