The Wood Review of the role and functions of Local Safeguarding Children Boards sets out a new framework for improving the organisation and delivery of multi-agency arrangements to protect and safeguard children. You can read the full review, published in may 2016, and the government response, here.
It argues that strong, effective multi-agency arrangements are ones that are responsive to local circumstances and fully engage the right people.
The review found widespread agreement that the current system needs to change in favour of a new model that will ensure collective accountability across the system.
This is the view that has emerged from extensive consultation with a wide range of individuals and organisations and with independent experts such as Lord Laming and Baroness Jay.
There are two key recommendations:
There is not currently a national learning framework for considering the lessons of the tragic events that take a child’s life or seriously harms them. Despite guidance to the contrary, the model of serious case reviews has not been able to overcome the suspicion that its main purpose is to find someone to blame. Although there has been some improvement in the quality of some reviews the general picture is not good enough and the lessons to be learned tend to be predictable, banal and repetitive.
Wood argues that fundamental change is needed. Government should discontinue Serious Case Reviews, and establish an independent body at national level to oversee a new national learning framework for inquiries into child deaths and cases where children have experienced serious harm.
The Government Response
Local Safeguarding Children Boards
The Government agree that current arrangements are inflexible and too often ineffective. Meetings take place involving large numbers of people, but decision-making leading to effective action on the ground can be all too often lacking. Only 25% of LSCBs reviewed under Ofsted’s Single Inspection Framework were found to be Good (Brighton and Hove was one of those following its review in April 2015.)
The Government will introduce a stronger but more flexible statutory framework that will support local partners to work together more effectively to protect and safeguard children and young people, embedding improved multi-agency behaviours and practices. This framework will set out clear requirements for the key local partners, while allowing them freedom to determine how they organise themselves to meet those requirements and improve outcomes for children locally.
To ensure engagement of the key partners in a better coordinated, more consistent framework for protecting children, Government will:
To ensure these arrangements are multi-agency in their approach, Government will:
To simplify and strengthen the existing statutory framework around multiagency working, Government will:
To ensure that local areas have robust arrangements in place for how the key sectors will work together, Government will:
In cases where local arrangements do not work effectively, Government will:
Serious Case Reviews
The Wood Review argues that fundamental change is needed , bringing to an end the existing system of serious case reviews, and replacing it with a new national learning framework for inquiries into child deaths and cases where children have experienced serious harm.
The review sees the essential components of the new framework as:
Government agree. They therefore will replace the current system of SCRs and miscellaneous local reviews with a system of national and local reviews in order to:
In order to make a centralised system work effectively, Government will legislate to:
Government will use the planned What Works Centre for children’s social care to analyse and disseminate lessons from both local and national reviews. Up to £20m has been announced by the Government in the latest spending review, to fund both the What Works Centre and the centralisation of SCRs.
Child Death Overview Panels
The Wood Review found that the gathering and analysis of data on child deaths is incomplete and inconsistent, leading to a gap in our knowledge. It suggests that child deaths need to be reviewed over a population size that gives a sufficient number of deaths to be analysed for patterns, themes and trends of death. It also suggests that regionalisation should be encouraged and that consideration should be given to establishing a national-regional model for child death overview panels (CDOPs).
The review argues that child death reviews should continue to be hosted within local multi-agency arrangements but CDOPs should be hosted within the NHS, and that ownership of the arrangements for supporting CDOPs should move from the Department for Education to the Department of Health.
Evidence suggests that over 80% of child deaths have medical or public health causation and that only 4% of child deaths relate to safeguarding.
Government will:
Has needs met within universal provision. May need limited intervention within the setting to avoid needs arising.
Has additional needs identified within the setting that can be met within identified resources through a single agency response and partnership working.
Has multiple needs requiring a multi-agency coordinated response.
Has a high level of unmet & complex needs, or is in need of protection.