The government is neglecting the improvement of child protection services, a group of MPs has claimed.
In a new report, the influential Public Accounts Committee has condemned government efforts to tackle underperforming local authorities as “too slow”, Children & Young People Now reports. Six years after a major review of child protection services was conducted by Professor Eileen Munro, less than a quarter (23 per cent) of local authorities have been rated ‘good’ by the inspectorate Ofsted.
The Committee declares:
“By no standards can this be seen as an improvement.”
The Department for Education has no “credible plan to improve the system by 2020″ the report insists. The MPs called on the government to draw up “detailed plans, including a timetable and resources for how it will work with local authorities to transform services”.
More needs to be done, the report claims, to recruit experienced social worker for supervisory positions.
“Despite some excellent practice, there is a problem with the competency and capability of too many social workers, and not enough good people to help improve services faster.”
Read the report here.
Tighter regulation of entry into child protection social work is necessary. The status of ‘Approved Child and Family Practitioner’ should be necessary for anyone working with involuntary clients. Social workers should be better trained before they become child protection specialists. The training required would be complex because it is such a highly contested area of work and the profession should take the lead in describing the key areas of knowledge required. This role would suit social workers who have gained some experience and want to further their careers without going into management. Selection would need to consider their capacity to handle emotionally charged situations and make fine judgements as well as their intellectual skills in grappling with the complexities of the legal process.
What is needed is so obvious we need social workers to ‘support’ families affected by sex abuse providing they are not the perpetrators and had no knowledge of the abuse. Child abuse is a CRIMINAL matter not civil and should be handled by the police who have the ability to investigate and prosecute thus protecting future victim not make children victims twice over by smearing the parents and hiding it away in family courts thus letting the abuser be totally accountable the system is being abused.