Policy & Practice: Policy into practice - Safeguarding is everyagency's responsibility

Lord Laming's inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie identified weakaccountability and poor integration across the sector. Many of thereforms flowing from Every Child Matters aim to improve this, andprogress has been made. But, although the most recent joint chiefinspectors' report on safeguarding arrangements found an overallincrease in priority given to safeguarding since the previous review,progress varies considerably between agencies.

Another problem it identified was around putting policy into practice.Although safeguarding was more extensively embedded into policies andprocedures, some agencies did not monitor the implementation of thesafeguarding ethos throughout their organisation.

And particular concerns remained about specific groups of childrenincluding those with disabilities, children in custody, asylum-seekingchildren, and children living away from home.