ADCS response: National Panel’s annual report

31 Jan 2024 in Safeguarding and Child Protection > Safeguarding & Child Protection >

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Responding to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s annual report John Pearce, ADCS President, said:

“The death or serious harm of any child, though thankfully rare, is a tragedy. England has one of the safest child protection systems in the world. However, it’s crucial that we learn lessons when things do go wrong and that we continuously strive to improve the safeguarding system and in turn children’s outcomes.

“We welcome the report’s focus on supporting councils and our safeguarding partners to keep children safe. Child protection is difficult and complex work, even where children are known to us, abuse and neglect can be actively hidden by individuals seeking to deceive professionals. The report also identifies other issues that can hinder our collective ability to help and protect children. This includes workforce challenges, a lack of suitable placements and the loss of preventative services over time. It also identifies systemic issues and injustices that need action to radically improve all children’s experiences, including poverty and racism. Councils and our partners cannot address these issues alone, we need support from government. While there is a national plan in place to address some of the workforce challenges councils face in relation to social workers and a wider children’s social care reform agenda, this must be properly resourced and rolled out at pace.

“Councils are committed to working with our safeguarding partners to keep children safe. All councils, their safeguarding partners, and others should read this report and take note of the themes and learning that it helpfully draws together. We hope this report and safeguarding reforms underway result in improved safeguards and, crucially, outcomes for all children.”

ENDS