The wrong approach?
“The role of Government, both central and local, is not to get involved in the detail of service provision. It is to set the broad objectives, to resource services adequately and to hold those delivering services to account…” Chris Mills looks at the decision by Coventry City Council to appoint a retired high court judge to advise it on child protection.
Keanu Williams - some reflections on the Serious Case Review
“Improvement will come not from kicking people out or revising the rulebook. It will come from an increasing awareness of how human factors interact with organisational safety.” Chris Mills reflects on what we can learn from another failure in child protection.
Sixteen principles for better and safer practice
“Sometimes it seems that there is something about child protection that defies all attempts at improvement. The case of Daniel Pelka, and the uninspiring report into his tragic death, only serves to deepen frustrations.” Chris Mills outlines sixteen principles for better and safer practice.
Ugh!! More from Ofsted
How depressing it is to read yet another glib document from Ofsted! I don’t know how many people will be fooled with this one, but it cuts no ice with me. I shall certainly be responding to the consultation and leaving them in no doubt what I think. The headlines speak of plans for “tougher” child protection inspections. But […]
Attitudes to child sexual abuse
There was an interesting discussion this morning on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Baroness Butler Sloss, a former High Court Judge who used to head up the family courts, was interviewed about the implications of the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse case. She was rather pessimistic about whether attitudes had fundamentally changed and she was critical of […]
Should more children be taken into care?
In this post I want to look at some more of the failings identified by Michael Gove. I had planned to tackle ‘Failing No 1’ next, because it seems to me that the issue of too many local authorities not meeting acceptable standards for child safeguarding is very fundamental. However, because of recent letters published […]
Can we get rid of unnecessary guidance?
“The problem, I think, is not the length of guidance but its quality. The real problem is that the proposed guidance to replace Working Together is badly drafted and foolishly seeks to combine guidance on child protection with the framework for assessment.” Chris Mills of the Child Protection Blog makes the case for short, clear and useful child protection guidance.
