Website of the Department of Health

Introduction

56.01  Formulating the Tribunal's recommendations has been an especially difficult task because there have been so many relevant developments since the events that we have described occurred and even since the Tribunal was appointed. The Children Act 1989 and the regulations made under it introduced major changes in the practice of child care but they did not come into effect until two years later, close to the end of our period under review, and little of the evidence before us has provided reliable guidance as to the effectiveness of the changes in preventing child abuse and detecting it when it occurs. A separate problem has been that, since the mid-1980s, there has been a continuous flow of other initiatives in the form of reports, consultation documents, legislation and statements of government intention touching directly upon the protection of children and the quality of child care. Such initiatives continued throughout our hearings and whilst this report was being prepared.

56.02  We welcome these initiatives unreservedly but they pose for us a problem of selection when setting out our recommendations. It would, for example, be otiose for us to recommend changes that have already been embodied in legislation, even if that legislation has not yet come into effect. We received many submissions in favour of a "one stop shop" for information about persons who may become involved in the care of children and statutory status for the Department of Health's Consultancy Service Index but we make no recommendation about these matters because they have already been dealt with in the Protection of Children Act 1999. More difficult questions of selection have arisen in relation to reports already published and statements of government intention. Some of these may require legislation but many of them are matters requiring only administrative and practical action to put them into effect and there is only patchy evidence before us, at best, to indicate the extent to which this has already been carried out.

  56.03  A further problem is that we have inevitably received evidence and submissions touching upon a wide range of child care issues, not all of which can be said to impinge directly upon prevention of the abuse of children in care. At the conclusion of our hearings we received helpful submissions about our recommendations from Counsel on behalf of all the parties who appeared before us and Counsel to the Tribunal, for which we express our great gratitude. As we have said earlier, we had the benefit also of hearing the views of a representative panel of experts in the course of a two day seminar, to whom we are also very grateful. In the end, however, our recommendations have to be directed to our specific terms of reference and based upon the evidence that we have received, including some helpful suggestions by witnesses themselves.

  56.04  In the light of these introductory comments our recommendations are focussed upon what we regard as continuing areas of concern and the measures necessary to deal with them, whether or not a particular recommendation has already been made in an earlier report and whether or not it has been endorsed by central government. In our judgment this is the only way in which we can present a relevant body of recommendations in response to our terms of reference. In relation to such matters as recruitment and training, which have previously been considered in great detail, the form of our recommendations takes account of this.

The Tribunal's recommendations

  56.05  The Tribunal make the following recommendations:

RECOMMENDATION

The detection of, and response to, abuse

Children's Commissioner

Note: Source[914] numbering is at the end of each paragraph

(1) An independent Children's Commissioner for Wales should be appointed.1 to 21

45 to 58

(2) The duties of the Commissioner should include:

(a) ensuring that children's rights are respected through the monitoring and oversight of the operation of complaints and whistleblowing procedures and the arrangements for children's advocacy;

(b) examining the handling of individual cases brought to the Commissioner's attention (including making recommendations on the merits) when he considers it necessary and appropriate to do so;

(c) publishing reports, including an annual report to the National Assembly for Wales.

Children's Complaints Officer

(3) Every social services authority should be required to appoint an appropriately qualified or experienced Children's Complaints Officer, who should not be the line manager of residential or other staff who may be the subject of children's complaints or complaints relating to children.18 to 21

58(i) to (iii)

(4) Amongst the duties of the Children's Complaints Officer should be:

(a) to act in the best interests of the child;

(b) on receiving a complaint, to see the affected child and the complainant, if it is not the affected child;

(c) thereafter to notify and consult with appropriate line managers about the further handling of the complaint, including:

(i) any necessary interim action in relation to the affected child, the complainant and the person who is the subject of complaint, including informal resolution of the complaint, if that is appropriate;

(ii) consideration of the established procedures to be implemented, such as child protection and disciplinary procedures and including any necessary involvement of the police and/or other agencies;

(d) to ensure that recourse to an independent advocacy service is available to any complainant or affected child who wishes to have it;

(e) to keep a complete record of all complaints received and how they are dealt with, including the ultimate outcome;

(f) to report periodically to the Director of Social Services on complaints received, how they have been dealt with and the results.

Response to complaints

(5) Any decision about the future of a child who is alleged to have been abused should be made in that child's best interests. In particular, the child should not be transferred to another placement unless it is in the child's best interests to be transferred.19, 58(ii)

Complaints procedures

(6) Every local authority should promote vigorously awareness by children and staff of its complaints procedures for looked after children and the importance of applying them conscientiously without any threat or fear of reprisals in any form.

(7) Such complaints procedures should:

(a) be neither too prescriptive nor too restrictive in categorising what constitutes a complaint;

(b) encompass a wide variety of channels through which complaints by or relating to looked after children may be made or referred to the Children's Complaints Officer including teachers, doctors, nurses, police officers and elected members as well as residential care staff and social workers;

(c) ensure that any person who is the subject of complaint will not be involved in the handling of the complaint.

Whistleblowing procedures

(8) Every local authority should establish and implement conscientiously clear whistleblowing procedures enabling members of staff to make complaints and raise matters of concern affecting the treatment or welfare of looked after children without threats or fear of reprisals in any form. Such procedures should embody the principles indicated in recommendation (7) and the action to be taken should follow, as far as may be appropriate, that set out in recommendation (4).20, 58(iii),62(v)

Duty to report abuse

(9) Consideration should be given to requiring failure by a member of staff to report actual or suspected physical or sexual abuse of a child by another member of staff or other person having contact with the child to be made an explicit disciplinary offence.

Field social workers

(10) An appropriate[915] field social worker should be assigned to every looked after child throughout the period that the child remains in care and for an appropriate period following the child's discharge from care.

(11) Field social workers should be required by regulation to visit any looked after child for whom they are responsible not less than once every eight weeks[916]. In the case of older children, they should be required also to see the child alone and at intervals away from their residential or foster home.30, 58(vi)

(12) Any arrangements made for the provision of residential care or fostering services should expressly safeguard the field social worker's continuing responsibilities for supervision of the placement and care planning.59

Awareness of abuse

(13) Area Child Protection Committees should arrange training in sexual abuse awareness for social services staff and for those from other departments, agencies and organisations in their area.

(14) Steps should be taken through training and professional and other channels periodically to remind persons outside social services departments who are or may be in regular contact with looked after children, such as teachers, medical practitioners, nurses and police officers, of their potential role in identifying and reporting abuse, the importance of that role and the procedures available to them.

Police log

(15) A log of all incidents, disturbances, reports, complaints and absconsions at a children's home should be kept at an appropriate nearby police station and made accessible, when required, to officers of the Social Services Department.19, 29

Absconders

(16) Police officers should be reminded periodically that an absconder from a residential care or foster home may have been motivated to abscond by abuse in the home. They should be advised that, when apprehended, an absconder should be encouraged to explain his reasons for absconding and that the absconder should not automatically be returned to the home from which he absconded without consultation with his field social worker.75

(17) It should be a rule of practice that any absconsion should be reported as soon as possible to the absconder's field social worker and that the absconder should be seen on his return by that social worker or by another appropriate person who is independent of the home.

Strategy on investigation of complaint

(18) When a complaint alleges serious misbehaviour by a member of staff, the Director of Social Services should appoint a senior officer to formulate an overall strategy for dealing with the complaint, including such matters as liaison with the police in relation to investigation and with other agencies as appropriate, the impact on the child and other residents, any links with other establishments, the handling of any disciplinary proceedings, treatment of any looked after children who are or may become abusers themselves, the management of information for children and parents, staff, elected members and the public. Paras 15.15 to 15.18, 16.06 to 16.19

Liaison with police

(19) Whenever a police investigation follows upon a complaint of abuse of a looked after child, the senior officer referred to in recommendation (18) or another senior officer assigned for the specific purpose should establish and maintain close liaison with the senior investigating officer appointed by the police for that investigation and the local authority's officer should be kept informed of the progress of the investigation.76, 77

Disciplinary proceedings

(20) Any disciplinary proceedings that are necessary following a complaint of abuse to a child should be conducted with the greatest possible expedition and should not automatically await the outcome of parallel investigations by the police or the report on any other investigation. In this context it should be emphasised to personnel departments and other persons responsible for the conduct of disciplinary proceedings within local authorities that: 21, 39, 62(v)

(a) police or any other independent investigation does not determine disciplinary issues;

(b) disciplinary proceedings may well involve wider issues than whether a crime has been committed;

(c) the standard of proof in disciplinary proceedings is different from that in criminal proceedings; and

(d) statements made to the police by potential witnesses in disciplinary proceedings, including statements by a complainant, can and should be made available to local authorities for use in such proceedings, if consent to this is given by the maker of the statement.

(21) Personnel departments and other persons responsible for disciplinary proceedings within local authorities should be reminded that:

(a) in deciding whether or not a member of staff should be suspended following an allegation of abuse to a looked after child, first consideration should be given to the best interests of the child;

(b) suspension is a neutral act in relation to guilt or innocence;

(c) long periods of suspension are contrary to the public interest and should be avoided whenever practicable;

(d) depending upon the gravity of the allegation of abuse, the employment of a member of staff in another capacity not involving contact with children or other vulnerable persons may be an appropriate decision at the time of suspending or finally, having regard to the importance of protecting looked after children from abuse.

Review of procedures in major investigations and guidance

(22) In the light of the recent experience gained in both England and Wales in major investigations of alleged wide ranging abuse of children in care/looked after children, an inter-agency review of the procedures followed and personnel employed in those investigations should now be arranged with a view to issuing practical procedural guidance for the future. In any event guidance is required to social services departments and police forces now in relation to: 82

(a) the safeguarding and preservation of social services files;

(b) the safeguarding and preservation of police records of major investigations, including statements and the policy file;

(c) access by the police to social services files;

(d) the supply of information about alleged and suspected abusers by the police following an investigation; and

(e) the sharing of information generally for criminal investigation and child protection purposes.

The prevention of abuse

Recruitment of staff

(23) Social Services Departments should be reminded periodically that they must exercise vigilance in the recruitment and management of their staff in strict accordance with the detailed recommendations of the Warner committee[917]; and compliance with them by individual local authorities should be audited from time to time.25 to 27

Approval of foster parents

(24) Similar vigilance should be mandatory in relation to all applications for approval as foster parents. In particular, any application to foster by a member of a local authority's child care staff should be stringently vetted by a social worker who is not known to the applicant. 27 Paras 26.05 to 26.15

Induction training

(25) Social Services Departments should ensure that appropriate and timely induction training is provided for all newly recruited residential child care staff. 28

Training generally

(26) The Tribunal endorses all five of the most recent recommendations of Sir William Utting in "People Like Us"[918] in relation to the content and provision of training for staff in children's homes and the care units of residential special schools and recommends that they should be implemented as expeditiously as possible.

(27) It should be a requirement that senior staff of children's homes (including private and voluntary homes) must be qualified social workers or, if that is not practicable before appointment, that it should be a condition of their appointment that they undertake qualifying training within a specified period.26

(28) Central government should take the initiative to promote and validate training in safe methods of restraint with a view to making such training readily available for residential child care staff and foster parents.12, 28, 49

(29) Suitable specialist training in child care at post-qualifying level should be made widely available and, in particular, to the senior residential care staff of children's homes and to field social workers.

Attracting suitable staff

(30) There should be a national review of the pay, status and career development of residential child care staff and field social workers to ensure as far as possible that there is a sufficient supply of candidates for such posts of appropriate calibre.

The quality of care

Assessment

(31) Whenever it is possible to do so, an appropriate social worker should carry out a comprehensive assessment of a child's needs and family situation before that child is admitted to care.31, 58(vii)

(32) All emergency admissions should be provisional and should be followed, within a prescribed short period, by a comprehensive assessment of the child's needs and family situation.37, 62(iii)

Care planning

(33) The comprehensive assessment referred to in recommendations (31) and (32) should form the basis for the preparation of a care plan in consultation with and for the child within a prescribed short period after the child's admission to care.31, 58(vii)

(34) An appropriate social worker should be designated as the person responsible for the implementation of the care plan and supervision of the looked after child.

Foster carers

(35) Foster carers should receive continuing support and have access as necessary to specialist services. In this context we endorse the recommendations of Sir William Utting in relation to training in "People Like Us"[919].

Leaving care

(36) The daily regime in residential establishments and foster homes should encourage and provide facilities for the acquisition of skills necessary for independent living.32, 58(viii)

(37) A leaving care plan should be prepared for each looked after child, in consultation with that child, a year in advance of the event and should be reviewed periodically thereafter until the child ceases to require or be eligible for further support.58(viii)

(38) The duty upon local authorities under section 24(1) of the Children Act 1989 to advise, assist and befriend a child with a view to promoting his welfare when he ceases to be looked after by them should be extended so as to ensure that placing authorities provide the level of support to be expected of good parents, including (where appropriate) help to foster parents to provide continuing support[920].

Fostering breakdowns

(39) Every local authority's fostering service, whether provided directly or by another agency, should monitor breakdowns in placements with a view to analysing the causes and remedying any faults in the service and should report upon them periodically to the Director of Social Services.Para 49.54

Compliance with safeguards

(40) Appropriate key indicators of compliance with safeguards for looked after children should be developed, covering particularly:34, 62(i)

(a) the allocation of a designated social worker to each looked after child;

(b) compliance with fostering and placement regulations;

(c) statutory review requirements; and

(d) rota visits by elected members.