Latest news from Wakefield Family Services

September 2010

Children, Young People and Families Update

Social Care

Identification concerns put plans to publish full serious case review in doubt
Junior children's minister Tim Loughton has said the government's plan to retrospectively publish the full serious case review of one of four high-profile cases is in doubt because of fears over the identification of surviving children. In June, Loughton told CYP Now that the government would publish in full the serious case reviews of Baby Peter, Khyra Ishaq, the Edlington brothers and Shannon Matthews. But addressing the Education Select Committee this week, he revealed that there were concerns about one of the cases which may prevent its full publication. Responding to a question posed by committee member and Liberal Democrat MP Tessa Mutt, Loughton said: "We said [the reviews] should be published subject to anonymisation, appropriate redaction and subject to there being no threat to the welfare of a surviving child or siblings. "There may be examples in the future where local safeguarding children boards can make an argument as to why a serious case review should not be published in full. One of the retrospective reports we are looking to have published at the moment may come under that bracket and if it does it won't be published." He added that the government believed publishing the reviews in full would "rehabilitate the image of child protection in the eyes of the public". "We didn't just say every serious case review is going to be published and bulldozer that through regardless and we certainly didn't say that retrospectively every one is going to be published," Loughton said. "We chose instead to highlight four high-profile cases which had very wide ramifications for the way we are doing child protection in this country."

Health

Benefit changes will hit disabled families

There are fears families with disabled children will be hit hardest by housing benefit reforms.
Contact a Family is concerned families with disabled children will be disproportionately affected by changes that are due to be implemented in October 2011 and says families already struggling to meet their housing costs will be forced into housing unsuitable for their child. Srabani Sen, chief executive of the charity, said: "Families with disabled children are more likely to be in rented accommodation, more likely to be on low income, less likely to be able to consider moving tenancy and may already be subsidising a shortfall in housing benefit - particularly where a child's disability means they cannot share a bedroom with siblings. "In this economic climate we understand the need for government to look at the benefits bill, but it must ensure that the system is working to protect the most vulnerable in society. It is not right that families living under enormous everyday pressures should be in fear of losing their homes." The Department for Work and Pensions' own impact assessment on the proposed changes estimates that all housing benefits recipients will see an average decrease in benefit of £12 per week. Contact a Family has submitted a response to the Department for Work and Pensions' select committee inquiry into the impact of the housing benefits changes calling for families with disabled children to be exempt from the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rule that says two children of the same sex aged under 16 or two children of either sex aged under 10 should always be expected to share a room. It is also calling for the LHA extra room allowance for a non-family carer to be applicable to disabled children as well as disabled adults, and for families whose disabled children receive Disability Living Allowance on any rate to be exempt from loss of housing benefit if they have been on Jobseeker's Allowance for more than a year.

Education

Quality of mental health services sparks heated exchange between experts

Senior education experts got caught in a heated debate on mental health provision for young people yesterday (16 September). Speaking at a Private Equity Foundation conference on early intervention, pro director at the Institute of Education Sir Alan Steer and Graham Stuart MP, chairman of the select committee on education, clashed on who should hold future responsibility for psychiatric provision in and outside of schools. "The idea of working one's socks off to get a referral in nine months then missing that appointment and having to wait another nine months drives me into a rage," said Steer. "This is a national problem that we should be far more conscious and embarrassed about." "If we had children with physical illness who received the treatment of those with mental health issues, it would be a national scandal and we would have serious ministerial resignations." Steer said the answer lies in schools forging partnerships under a framework directed by the government. "As a [former] head teacher, I would not have wanted a full-time psychiatric social worker, but I would given my right arm to have had easy access [to psychiatric services] and to share ideas with other local schools," he said. "This won't happen without some degree of direction - there ought to be a national set-up." But Stuart accused Steer of looking backwards. "We've had a vastly controlled centralised system and what have we ended up with? Children in the most chaotic situation and failing mental health," he said. "We need to empower people on the frontline and give them greater responsibility. Give them control of their budgets and leave them as unringfenced as possible."

Childcare and Early Years

Early intervention bodies called on to offer evidence of best practice

Organisations that focus on early intervention are being asked to submit evidence of best practice for the national independent review of the area. The announcement was made yesterday (16 September) by Labour MP Graham Allen, chair of the independent review, at the Private Equity Foundation's conference on early intervention. "We will be sending out a list of questions to interested parties, but people can tell us what they like," said Allen. "We want to find out what works, where it needs to be spread, and what national organisation might be able to promote early intervention work in the future." "We also want to hear from people in the City about how we can get funding from the private sector," he added. Allen has years of experience in early intervention schemes, having set up the Early Intervention Programme in his Nottingham constituency. "Early intervention gives every baby, child and young person the social and emotional capabilities to make the most of themselves in life," he said. The review was commissioned to Allen, a Labour minister, by the Social Justice Cabinet Committee chaired by Iain Duncan Smith. "This must be a cross-party practice that lasts for longer than a generation," Allen said. "It's a tremendous opportunity to have a real impact." Allen will report his first findings in January, with a final report on funding to follow in May. Interested organisations should respond before the end of November.
NHS not giving children's services enough priority, finds health report
A huge cultural shift is needed across health services to meet the needs of children and young people, a report has found. The report by Professor Ian Kennedy, described NHS services as "mediocre" and said the single most important change will be to make sure children's health services are prioritised as highly as adult services from the moment they are conceived. Kennedy found standards of care across the country varied, with some health services struggling to communicate effectively across the complex array of organisations, units and teams. He said many GPs have little or no experience of paediatrics as part of their professional training and "caring for children and young people is low on most GPs' priorities". Kennedy also found that parents and carers are "frustrated at the lack of co-ordination between services" and said problems of co-ordination reflect the sheer complexity of the services children and young people need. The findings call for a review of how young patients progress from children's to adult care. Currently, under what Kennedy describes as "a phenomenon created by the system", young patients are arbitrarily moved from children's services to adult's services when they turn 16 or 18, regardless of their needs.

Youth Work

Children's trust rules removed

The government has officially revoked the requirement for children's trusts to publish local children and young people's plans. Tory proposals to scrap duties on local plans as well as wider reforms to deregulate children's trusts were first revealed earlier this year by CYP Now in an interview with Michael Gove, then shadow children's secretary. The removal of the duty on the plans has been quietly ushered in first, since the changes do not require primary legislation. A government assessment said the move will "reduce burdens on local authorities and their relevant partners".
Youth Justice
Majority of public don't want children detained for crime
Close to two-thirds of the public do not want to see children locked up behind bars until at least the age of 12, a poll commissioned by a prison campaign group has found. The YouGov poll, commissioned by the Prison Reform Trust's Out of Trouble campaign, also found the majority of those questioned do not want children to be sentenced to custody until 14 for non-violent crimes. The poll comes in the same week Barnardo's called for an increase in the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 years old for all but the most serious crimes. YouGov questioned 2,089 members of the public on their attitudes towards imprisoning children and the most effective ways of preventing them re-offending. The accompanying report released by the trust, Punishing Disadvantage, profiles the experiences of 6,000 young people in custody who received custodial sentences or remands in the second half of 2008. It includes a more detailed examination of the backgrounds of 300 of the children. The authors found layers of complex disadvantage characterising the backgrounds of the majority of the detained young people they spoke to. At least three-quarters of the sample had absent fathers and a third had absent mothers, while half lived in a deprived household or unsuitable accommodation. Just under half had run away or absconded at some point in their lives. Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "The findings of this uniquely comprehensive study will give all of us cause for concern and should reinforce the coalition government's determination to intervene early, support families and get children out of trouble."

Advice & Guidance

Study into Connexions' career services sparks backlash

A Local Government Association (LGA) study that claims most young people find careers advice from Connexions staff unhelpful has sparked outrage. The report said that four out of five young people found formal careers advice only "a little bit" or "not at all" helpful, with most preferring to seek advice from parents, teachers and youth workers. Unison is among those leading an attack on the research, which was carried out by the National Youth Agency and the National Foundation for Educational Research. Denise Bertuchi from Unison says the study is based on limited evidence, with the National Youth Agency only surveying 79 young people. She added: "The report fails to recognise the positives; in areas where Connexions is well funded and well advertised, it does some great work with both universal young people and Neets. "However, in other areas where funding is inadequate or nearly non-existent then Connexions does struggle to support young people. This can only be addressed by ensuring that there is consistency and coherence."