Select Committee on Education and Skills Ninth Report


2  Background

Lord Laming's inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbié

5. Eight-year old Victoria Climbié died from hypothermia on 25 February 2000 after months of sustained abuse at the hands of her foster-carer and Great Aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao and her partner Carl John Manning. Following Victoria's death, the Home Office and the Department of Health invited Lord Laming of Tewin to chair an independent statutory review of the circumstances surrounding her murder and to make recommendations to prevent, as far as possible, similar cases arising in the future. The report of the inquiry team was published in January 2003, and makes over a hundred recommendations for action[1].

6. Lord Laming's report concluded that Victoria's death had been entirely preventable—12 key occasions were identified where services could have successfully intervened to prevent Victoria coming to further harm. In each case the opportunity was missed. The inquiry team identified systemic problems which had militated against successful intervention. These included: Low standards of professional practice; an absence of a person or persons with accountability; poor managerial support for front line workers; and failure to share information within and between agencies.

Every Child Matters—key proposals

7. Every Child Matters[2] constituted the Government's policy response to the findings and recommendations of Lord Laming's Inquiry. It was published as a Green Paper for consultation on 8 September 2003, concurrently with the Government's recommendation-by-recommendation response to Lord Laming's report..[3]

8. Consultation on the original Green Paper indicated broad support for its aims and objectives. Its proposals have since been further developed in subsequent documents including Every Child Matters; Next Steps[4] and Every Child Matters; Change for Children[5]. At the time of our inquiry, additional guidance on specific aspects of the reforms was also being published. In tandem, the Department of Health has prepared the National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services,[6] which sets standards for children's health and social services, and the interface of those services with education.

9. The Government has been keen to stress that Every Child Matters aims to provide more than just a response to the Laming inquiry and has a remit wider than acute services and child protection. Instead, it aims to address the latter in a broader context of earlier intervention and the roll-out of better preventative services. Therefore, existing early intervention and support programmes such as Sure Start, Early Excellence Centres, Children's Centres and extended schools now fall under the Every Child Matters banner.

10. Every Child Matters aims to bring about root-and-branch reform of children's services at every level to ensure that children and young people achieve five main outcomes. They should:

11. The following measures are proposed to bring about 'whole system change':

  • Service planning and delivery to be focused on the five outcomes outlined in paragraph 10, above; children, young people, parents and carers to become more closely involved in the design, delivery and management of services.
  • More integrated delivery at the front line: multi-disciplinary teams of professionals—including those from health, education and social services—co-located where appropriate in children's centres or Extended Schools.
  • More integrated processes available across children's services, including protocols for the sharing of information about individual children; a computerised 'child index' containing basic data about all children; common assessment and referral procedures for identifying and addressing need; joint training with common core standards.
  • Local authorities will lead the development of Children's Trusts - these will involve key agencies in the co-ordinated planning, commissioning, funding and delivery of services suited to local needs and priorities.
  • Integrated inspections, with Ofsted as the lead agency, will assess how well services work together to improve outcomes for children in local areas.
  • Directors of Children's Services and Lead (council) Members will be appointed to take strategic leadership and to be accountable for outcomes for children in their area.
  • Integrated governance arrangements to cut across agencies that constitute Children's Trusts.
  • Formerly voluntary Area Child Protection Committees will now be replaced by statutory Local Safeguarding Children Boards.
  • Governmental responsibilities for many services for children and young people co-located in the DfES under the leadership of a new Minister for Children, Young People and Families.

The Children Act 2004

12. Many of the reforms proposed in Every Child Matters—including the establishment of a Children's Commissioner for England—required amendments to statute. Consequently, a Children Bill was presented to Parliament in March 2004 and subsequently received royal assent on 15 November 2004. The Children Act 2004, as it now is, provides the legal 'backbone' for the programme of reform.

13. During the passage of the Act through Parliament, debate focused on a number of particularly contentious issues, including: the role and remit of the Children's Commissioner for England; agencies to be included in the 'statutory duty to co-operate' at local level; the 'reasonable chastisement' justification for capital punishment and amendments to the law on private fostering. These debates continue to resonate with those who have submitted evidence to our inquiry. While it would not be productive to rehearse the debates surrounding the Children Act 2004 in full here, we do refer to them where appropriate.

Initial impressions

14. One very clear message emerges from the evidence we have received: there is almost universal support for the basic aims of Every Child Matters. We agree with witnesses—and therefore think it fitting to state at the outset—that the Government deserves substantial praise for embarking on such an ambitious and comprehensive programme of reform.

15. We have been impressed by the commitment and enthusiasm shown by those at the front line, who will shoulder most of the responsibility for implementing the radical and substantial changes in practice. We welcomed the evidence they gave us of the significant progress made to date. However, we also pressed them on their concerns, in practical terms, about how Every Child Matters will be translated into reality.

16. Early on in the inquiry, Lord Laming foreshadowed the contribution of many of the witnesses we would subsequently hear from when he told us:

17. While generally welcomed, some aspects of the proposed reforms have been the subject of significant concern and debate. These include: proposals to improve information-recording and sharing through the introduction of a series of linked databases containing basic information on all children in England; the role of the Children's Commissioner for England; and the likely participation of some schools, GPs and health services in the programme of reform. Consequently, we comment on these issues in detail in the relevant parts of this report. Structurally, we follow the DfES's lead, looking first at the central 'outcomes' and then at the implications of change at the front line, process level, strategic level and governance level, in turn.


1   The Victoria Climbi¨¦ inquiry : Report of an inquiry by Lord Laming, http://www.victoria-Climbié-inquiry.org.uk/finreport/finreport.htm Back

2   Department for Education and Skills, Every Child Matters, CM 5860, September 2003. Back

3   Department of Health, Department for Education and Skills, and Home Office (2003) Keeping Children Safe. The Government's Response to the Victoria Climbie Inquiry Report and Joint Chief Inspectors' Report Safeguarding Children, CM 5861, September 2003. http://www.everychildmatters.co.uk/_content/documents/KeepingChildrenSafe.pdf Back

4   Department for Education and Skills, Every Child Matters: Next Steps, DfES/0240/2004, March 2004. http://www.everychildmatters.co.uk/_content/documents/EveryChildMattersNextSteps.pdf Back

5   Department for Education and Skills, Every Child Matters: Change for Children, DfES/1110/2004, November 2004 http://www.everychildmatters.co.uk/_content/documents/Every%20Child%20Matinserts.pdf Back

6   Department of Health, National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services, 2004. http://www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/09/05/52/04090552.pdf

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7   Q 6 Back


 
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