The Michael Sieff Foundation

NEWS RELEASE

LOCAL ACTION VITAL FOR CHILDREN’S WELFARE

In a wide-ranging response to the Green Paper ‘Every Child Matters’, The Michael Sieff Foundation welcome the Government’s determination to build on the best practices. But the national children’s welfare charity stress too little action is proposed on topics ranging from targeting the needs of offending children to research into academic centres of excellence.

A key conclusion is that the Green Paper is “rather centralist.” The Foundation’s response points out:

“Local government must not be allowed to opt out of family support on the basis that central government and the voluntary sector are doing all that is needed. Local government priorities for children within social services and education must be maintained… The core task of local managers is surely to promote and support good professional practice.

“The promotion of better professional work must be the major aim… Of course our system needs improvement but as a whole it compares reasonably with many other countries. Staff morale will improve if this is recognised by the public.”

The Foundation recall that one of the reasons for poor management of case work in the tragic Victoria Climbié case was the distraction of management from core tasks. Local government must be allowed to get on with its job, including an appropriate use of local voluntary services, and be given the right resources. The poor level of staffing in some London boroughs needs to be tackled as a priority.

The main failing was of professional practice and of simple things, such as seeing the child. If a child is not going to school, action must be taken. The French system picked up the possibility of Victoria being at risk when she went to school - which she didn’t do in any of the London boroughs.

2/A better relationship….

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A better relationship is called for between education and social services, schools and local social services, teachers and social workers. This is important not just for education but for safeguarding all children.

The Foundation’s recent conferences have reviewed the importance for the courts of the interface between crime and care, welfare and justice and focused on measures to prevent youth offending and to reform of the juvenile justice system. A much closer relationship is called for between different parts of the system. For example, the Youth Justice Board is reluctant to work with others and a common assessment framework is needed.

The full response - which has been sent to Chief Treasury Secretary Paul Boateng - is on the Foundation’s website: www.michaelsieff-foundation.org.uk

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Further information from:

Norman Woodhouse

Phone: 01737 355118

Fax: 01737 373556

Email: 1 January 2004