Nursery World - Joining forces (1)

Some local authorities were already integrating children's services before the Government proposed it, reports Simon Vevers The death of Victoria Climbie in 2000 as a result of brutality and neglect, and the subsequent Laming Inquiry, exposed the urgent need for an overhaul of children's services to ensure greater multi-agency working and prevent similar tragedies. The Green Paper, Every child matters, maps out how children's services could be better co-ordinated, by bringing together education and children's social services. But some local authorities have pre-empted the Government proposals down this route.

The death of Victoria Climbie in 2000 as a result of brutality and neglect, and the subsequent Laming Inquiry, exposed the urgent need for an overhaul of children's services to ensure greater multi-agency working and prevent similar tragedies. The Green Paper, Every child matters, maps out how children's services could be better co-ordinated, by bringing together education and children's social services. But some local authorities have pre-empted the Government proposals down this route.

'We do not see teachers in the red corner and social workers in the blue corner. We have come to the view that in the middle of the ring are children and we are all working with them.' That is how Bob Wolfson, director of Wiltshire County Council's Children, Education and Libraries department, explains the rationale behind the recently-merged department to create a body more attuned to children's needs.

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