Agenda item

Members of the Committee to consider a summary  of  the Munro Review  into  Child Protection from the Independent Member.

The Committee noted that Eileen Munro had been commissioned by the Coalition government to undertake a review of child protection and make recommendations on how the system could be improved.  Munro had compiled two previous reports, the first  report   was  a system analysis  of the current child protection system  and how it had evolved and been shaped  by  key driving forces. The second report had  looked at  how the system could be reformed to  keep focus  on the child’s experiences from needing help to receiving it.  The final third report from Munro brought together the issues arising from the first two reports. The Independent Member of the Committee had compiled a summary of Munro’s final report which contained proposals for changes to the child protection system. The key components of these recommendations were developing social work capacity; ensuring children were communicated with, and that the child  was at the centre of the organisations process.

 The Committee further learned that Munro had found the current Child Protection system to be reactive instead of proactive. The performance management culture had the impact of an organisation focussing on process and targets rather than outcomes for children and families. Also the current system did not take account of a child’s experiences. The following key recommendations from the Munro report were set out by the Independent Member:

• A new system for child protection which is child focused
• The family is the best place to bring up children
• Helping children and families involves working with them – Social workers will enter the field of social work with the aim of helping families and the system should allow the social worker to do this in a better way.
• Early help is better for children – prevention and early intervention is the best way to help children in the long run
• Children’s needs and circumstances are varied  so the system should be flexible and offer variety good professional practice is informed by knowledge of the latest theory and research -  workforce needs to be informed by the latest knowledge and research  -
• Uncertainty and risk are features of the work –  there was a need to assist social workers exercise their authority
• The measure of success of child protection systems is whether children receive effective help. -  There should be a focus on principles that underpin good practice and it should be clear what children services and social workers are accountable for.  The should also be better ways of helping staff working in child protection understand when the systems should be improved.

 The review also outlined the following areas for reform:

• Value given to professional expertise
• Clarification on accountabilities and creation of a learning system
• Shared responsibility for the provision of early help
• Developing social work expertise
• Organisation supporting effective social work practice

In considering the information from the Munro report the Independent Member advised the Committee that it was important to keep in mind that there was not an exemplary children’s service structure   for local authorities to follow. The best way forward for local authorities was being aware of and making use of the best aspects of each others organisational forms

The Munro report also contained details of how the recommendations could be implemented; these were set out in pages 11 and 12 of the agenda pack.  It was noted that a Government response to the review had just recently been published and  was agreed that this information would be circulated to committee members.

 A proposal, the Munro report,  pertinent to the remit of the committee was for local authorities to   set local performance indicators .This would include the local authority setting timescales for  when initial assessments and core assessment  were completed and deciding what other areas of children’s work should be monitored.

 The committee noted the recommendation for serious case reviews to not be marked by Ofsted and learned that the council were already trialling other SCR methodologies and thought was being given to the timescales around completion of SCR’s.

 The committee felt that clarification would be needed  in future on which level of the  Children’s services management structure  the principal child and family social worker would be placed.  It was noted that to be a deputy director of Children and Families service already required a social work qualification.  However  it was envisaged   that this  would be a separate post in the structure.

In response to a query on the current reporting lines of the LSCB‘s annual report, it was noted that the report was due to be considered by the Children’s Trust at their meeting in October.

 A recommendation of the Munro report outlined the protection of the discrete roles held by the Cabinet Member for Children’s services and Director of Children’s services.  The Committee commented that  this  would be an important  recommendation for the local authority to keep in mind particularly at a time when other local authorities were examining the possibilities of merging their Children’s and Adults services.