MP seeks to widen legal definition of neglect

An MP will today launch a bid to make the emotional and psychological neglect of children a crime

A private member’s bill being tabled by Liberal Democrat MP Mark Williams seeks to extend the legal definition of child neglect to include emotional neglect – such as ongoing humiliation.

The present definition only covers physical harm.

“Experts suggest psychological neglect is the most destructive form of abuse, yet the police are powerless to intervene,” said Williams, who is the MP for Ceredigion.

The bill has been drafted by the charity Action for Children and is due to be discussed in parliament on 12 July.

Matthew Downie, head of campaigns and public affairs at the charity, said: “Action for Children has long been leading the campaign to update the law on child neglect.

“The criminal law on child neglect is only appropriate for use in the most severe cases of child neglect, where all efforts have been made to help parents and carers make changes and to keep families together.

“Sadly however, we know that in a small number of cases there are parents who intend to harm their children – and the current law fails to protect children from the full range of that harm.”

The move follows the charity’s Keeping Children Safe report that said the existing laws surrounding neglect were out of date.

Source: CYPnow

Ofsted unveils tougher child protection inspections

Child protection and looked-after children’s services will be deemed ‘inadequate’ even if just part of their work is failing, under plans unveiled by Ofsted to toughen up inspections.

The tougher regime is revealed in a consultation document for joint child protection and looked-after children’s services inspections. It states that Ofsted will give its most damning judgement for overall effectiveness of ‘inadequate’ if councils are found to be ‘inadequate’ in any one of three areas assessed.

These are: the experiences and progress of children in need of protection; the experiences of looked-after children including adoption and support for care leaver services; and the leadership, management and governance of the service.

The consultation document states: “To be judged ‘inadequate’ in any key area means that children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not being promoted.”

The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) has expressed concerns about how judgements under this new regime will be portrayed in the media.

“It does seem unfair for those working in areas of the service that are performing well to be given this label because one area is underperforming”, said BASW professional officer for England Nushra Mansuri.

“All that will be reported in the media will be the overall label – the good performance going on will not get recognised.”

If approved, the plans will come into force in November. In addition, the judgement of ‘adequate’ would be scrapped and replaced with ‘requires improvement.’

‘Good’ will be the benchmark that all services will need to meet, says Ofsted. The consultation document adds: “We are convinced it is right to emphasise that each child should receive a service from authorities that are good or better and any that are not yet ‘good’ will by definition ‘require improvement’.”

Ofsted is also seeking views on whether the judgements of ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’ are appropriate for judging local safeguarding children’s boards (LSCBs).

Eleanor Schooling, chair of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services’ Standards, Performance and Inspection Policy Committee, said: “While we welcome the added focus on the child’s journey identified in the new framework we have a number of concerns and believe more work needs to be done to make the grade criteria more helpful.

“Local authorities need more than a long, potentially highly aspirational, list of descriptors to assess whether or not a service is good.

“There has to be a more precise and definitive definition of what ‘good’ looks like to avoid a superficial tick box approach if we are to be confident that all children have access to high-quality provision and support.”

Its review comes ahead of expected plans by the Department for Education to introduce legislation allowing Ofsted to inspect the effectiveness of LSCBs.

Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said: “This new single inspection will mean Ofsted can inspect the whole system that helps, protects and looks after children. I want those same children to have good lives when they leave the care of the state.”

The decision to bring in joint inspections of looked-after children and child protection services was announced in April, just as plans for multi-agency child protection inspections were shelved following results from pilot sites.

These inspections had been earmarked to come into force this month and would have involved the Care Quality Commission (CQC), Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons. They were a key recommendation of the Munro review of child protection.

The consultation closes on 12 July.

Source: CYPnow

Students who are the first in their family to attend university are to work with local young people on community projects, as part of a new scheme launched by the National Children’s Bureau. The Life Skills Programme aims to help 14-to 17-year-olds build their skills and confidence. NCB participation and involvement manager Sophie Wood said many of the young people on the project do not aspire to attend further education or training but it is hoped that working with “first-generation students” will “inspire them to make positive choices.”

Source: CYPnow

Google have been urged to restrict access to images of child abuse, after paedophile Mark Bridger was jailed for the murder of April Jones.The Guardian reports that John Carr, a government adviser on child internet safety, said it should be made more difficult to access hardcore pornography sites. He said he will be urging Google to take measures in a meeting with the company next week.

The number of young people getting into trouble with the law for the first time is continuing to plummet, latest figures show.

Statistics released by the Ministry of Justice yesterday show that 28,711 under-18s entered the criminal justice system for the first time in 2012, a drop of 24 per cent on the 2011 figure of 37,787.

Meanwhile, the total number of young people sentenced for offences fell from 63,424 in 2011, to 47,515 in 2012.

First-time entrants are categorised as those receiving their first conviction, caution, reprimand, or warning. The latest fall continues the trend of recent years.

Numbers peaked in the year 2007 when there were 110,826 first-time entrants.

Tim Bateman, criminologist at the University of Bedfordshire, said the abolition of police targets for crime “detections” in 2008 contributed to the fall in first-time entrants to the system.

He explained that this has given the police greater discretion to make decisions according to the circumstances of the case, meaning fewer children and young people are criminalised unnecessarily for minor offending.

The police are issuing far fewer reprimands and final warnings – there was a 26 per cent drop in their use in the year 2012 compared with 2011. Bateman said this suggests that police and youth offending teams are using alternative, informal measures such as community resolutions and triage for relatively minor offences.

“Given the evidence that formal contact with the youth justice system can increase the chances of reoffending, this would appear to be a sensible approach,” he said.

Lucy Dawes, Youth Justice Board (YJB) lead on community, said the fall is a result of partnership working across youth offending teams, the police, and local authorities.

“The YJB’s aim is to prevent children and young people from entering the youth justice system. Strong evidence shows that once deterred young people move on to live a life free from crime.”

Figures for the year 2012 build on the latest financial-year figures, published in February, which showed that there were 36,677 first-time entrants between April 2011 and March 2012. This represented a 20 per cent decrease on the 2010/11 figure of 45,910.

The numbers of first-time entrants is one of the Youth Justice Board’s three “headline measures” for the system, alongside numbers of under-18s in custody and reoffending rates.

Like first-time entrants, the numbers of young people in custody has been dropping. In March this year, there were 1,291 under-18s in custody – less than half the figure for 2009.

However, the rate of young people reoffending within 12 months of leaving custody remains above 70 per cent.

Source: CYPnow

Children’s homes will be required to notify local councils when children move in from other areas, under new government measures to tackle child sexual exploitation

The changes will also oblige homes to carry out a risk assessment of their local area alongside police and the local authority to make sure children are safe from sexual exploitation, gangs and other threats.

Children’s homes could be closed down or refused registration if their local area poses too many risks.

The reforms will also require decisions on placing children in care far from their home to be made by a senior official.

The measures are a response to the Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s inquiry into child sexual exploitation in gangs and groups, which followed the sentencing last May of nine men who groomed and abused young girls in Rochdale.

The Department for Education said the measures will help develop “strong, constructive relationships” between children’s homes and the local authority area they are located in.

In addition, the DfE will review the effectiveness of children’s homes provision and test alternative ways of delivering support.

There will also be a comprehensive review of the training, qualifications and career pathways for both new and existing staff in children’s homes.

Ellen Broome, policy director at The Children’s Society, said last year’s parliamentary inquiry into children going missing from care identified that thousands of children were being failed by the systems and professionals tasked with keeping them safe.

“Changing these damaging professional attitudes, alongside measures to address the poor quality of care too many children receive, is key to making sure these vulnerable children are kept safe,” she said.

“We look forward to seeing more detail about the plans and working with the government and professionals to make the system better.”

Jonathan Stanley, chief executive of the Independent Children’s Homes Association, said that while his organisation is committed to “comprehensive transformation of children’s homes”, there is a need to reform the entire looked-after children system.

“We hope that these are the start of many more announcements,” he said.

“If these are all that results then it will be too little, too slow.”

The DfE will also release a data pack in the summer that will include detailed information about each children’s home in England by local authority and area.

It hopes the data will make it easier for local authorities to find good quality placements.

Source: CYPNow

Government confirms changes to adoption process

The government has confirmed it is to push ahead with a series of legal changes to speed up the adoption system.

In its response to the Adoption and Fostering: Tackling Delay consultation, the government has outlined measures to ensure adopters are approved more quickly and to overcome blockages in the legal system that slow the adoption process.

Changes include a two-stage approval process for adopters to ensure the majority of adopters are approved to adopt within six months. A fast-track procedure for approved foster carers and previous adopters who wish to adopt will also be introduced.

There will be a legal obligation on all adoption agencies to refer prospective adopters to the Adoption Register within three months of approval, and ensure information on children waiting to be adopted is kept up to date.

Minister for children and families Edward Timpson said prospective adopters had been dissuaded from adopting children in the past because of delays.

“So we’re overhauling the system to encourage more people to adopt, and making it swifter, more effective and robust,” said Timpson.

“The Children and Families Bill will place a new duty on local authorities to inform adopters about the support available to them.”

According to research published by the DfE in March, about 658,000 people feel they are very likely or certain to consider adopting at some point in the future, but may be put off by misconceptions about the process, including lack of support.

Source: CYPnow

An investigation has been launched into why hundreds of children go missing after being placed in care in Kent. The BBC reports that in 2011/12, more than 200 children were reported missing for more than 24 hours. Kent has around 1,800 children in its care system, with a further 1,200 children placed in care in the county from other areas, who remain the responsibility of their home local authority. Jenny Whittle, head of children’s services at the authority said a working group of county councillors will be set up to find out why children are going missing.

Source: CYPnow

Parents back schools to teach about dangers of online porn

Both primary and secondary schools should play a major role in teaching children about the dangers of online pornography, new research suggests.

A survey of 1,009 parents, carried out on behalf of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), found that more than three-quarters (83 per cent) thought schools should share with them the responsibility for teaching children about the risks associated with viewing pornography online.

The majority (51 per cent) of survey respondents said lessons about internet porn should not take place until secondary school, however 42 per cent thought it appropriate for schools to teach children about the risks as soon as they were old enough to access the internet, even if aged five or six.

Just seven per cent of parents thought the subject was inappropriate to be taught in school, while 13 per cent thought it should be the sole responsibility of parents to educate children about it.

The survey also found that 60 per cent of parents were worried or very worried about their children viewing explicit material of a violent or sexual nature online, while 90 per cent supported the idea that all equipment that can access the internet should come with a default block on pornographic websites that require users to “opt in” to view.

Despite parents’ concerns, 80 per cent said they felt confident or very confident about protecting their children online, and a similar proportion felt confident about talking to their child about sex and relationships.

The issue of pornography is becoming increasingly troubling to teachers as they attempt to manage the impact of readily-accessible explicit material on pupils’ self-image and perceptions of sexuality.

Russell Hobby, general secretary of NAHT, said: “NAHT has repeatedly said that young people must be protected from pornography and children should receive appropriate guidance as part of relationship and sex education. We would also like to see improved advice for schools to help them manage these issues most effectively.

“There is no place for explicit materials in the classroom or school, even in the course of teaching about their dangers, but many young people are exposed to such materials on the internet and phones. In the face of this, young people need to know how to cope with and avoid these distorted views of relationships.

“It is reassuring to see that parents accept that schools are an essential part of the support network for their children. In a fast-paced communications environment that can present pupils with confusing messages, few parents believe there is an option to pretend it isn’t happening.”

Source: CYPNow