The tragic death of Baby P has shocked and angered the nation. Nursery World readers who work with young children day in, day out must feel especially upset that a child could die in such circumstances. How adults could commit such acts of cruelty against a defenceless little baby is incomprehensible.
Social workers, police officers, GPs and many, many others who work with children in this country do a difficult job in difficult circumstances. They make difficult judgments every day and deserve our support.
However, when things go wrong, people rightly want to know why.
We all have a role to play in safeguarding children. Childminders and others working on the frontline with children have a particularly important part to play, as they can be the first to spot early signs of neglect or abuse. That is why the welfare aspects of the Early Years Foundation Stage ask early years workers to report those signs to police or social services, who should take action to make that child safe.
For the Government's part, we have taken immediate action to safeguard children in Haringey, including asking Ofsted, the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection and the Chief Inspector of Constabulary to carry out an urgent joint inspection of quality of practice and management. By the time you read this we will have received their first report, which we have pledged to act upon.
We have also asked Lord Laming to provide us with an urgent report of progress made across the country in implementing the reforms following his report into the death of Victoria Climbie, identifying any barriers to effective, consistent implementation, and recommending whether additional action is needed to overcome them. Lord Laming will submit his report early next year.
Key to keeping children safe, I believe, is integrated working and strengthened and improved communications between professionals. That is why we have also announced plans for new legislation to ensure that multi-agency Children's Trust Boards are operating in every local authority area. Under the new law, for the first time, every local authority will be required to have a Children's Trust Board with responsibility for improving the safety and well-being of all children and young people in the area.
The Children's Trust Boards will consist of the local authority, health, police, schools and other services who will be legally required to work together to agree and deliver a Children and Young People's Plan. The Plan will set out a clear local strategy for child safety arrangements, and set the framework for the operation of the Local Safeguarding Children Board.
The legislation will strengthen co-ordination of services at a local level and improve accountability by requiring the Trust Board members to work closely together to jointly own local children's plans, put effective early intervention for children at risk central to those plans and require individual members to be held to account for delivering their agreed part of the shared plan.
We need to ensure that organisational barriers and competing priorities do not get in the way of keeping children safe. We must do whatever it takes to strengthen local arrangements to enable children to live and grow up safely. We want the very best possible arrangements for safeguarding all children and ensuring that the most vulnerable receive the protection they need.
- Beverley Hughes is the Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families.
