Progress report paints mixed picture of child protection reforms

One year on from her review of the child protection system, Professor Eileen Munro’s first progress report paints a mixed picture of the reforms to date.

It insists that an “urgent culture change” in the system is under way, signalling a departure from the old “defensive rule-bound culture” and “excessive bureaucratic demands”.

But she argues that changes to health and policing and “conflicting” government policy on families could undermine efforts on joint working and slow the pace of her reforms.

She cites changes in the health service as a particular challenge, stressing the urgency for clarity on account-abilities, adding that a number of government policy changes on families “risk fragmentation”. For example, the adoption and family justice reforms introduce new timescales and targets – something her review sought to reduce.

Munro is urging the government to speed up plans to reduce statutory guidance for social workers, after delays in consulting the public on a slimmed-down version of the Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance.

Children’s minister Tim Loughton has pledged to publish that consultation in a matter of weeks, and admitted the pace of reform does need to be “accelerated”.

Debbie Jones, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, says social workers and managers are inspired by the opportunity to improve practice through increased professional freedom. But she admits that a fundamental change in the culture of child protection social work is a “significant challenge”.

“The Department for Education must provide the framework within which this can take place, including being braver about the need to reform serious case reviews, assessment and guidance,” she says.

“The guidance itself is only a beginning; it creates the space for professional development of frontline professionals and the building of a culture in which social workers can act in the best interests of children and young people.”

Jones argues that new guidance must strike a fine balance – between allowing professional discretion and setting clear expectations about joint working.

“Bringing partner agencies together to shape services in this changing context requires clear expectations on the roles and responsibilities of every agency,” she says.

Here, we examine progress in four key areas.


Local flexibility

Last year, Munro recommended that the government revise statutory guidance on child protection and remove timescales for completing assessments to increase professional flexibility.

The government accepted the recommendation, but the consultation on a new version of Working Together to Safeguard Children is yet to be published.

Her progress report states that these delays have made some councils hesitant to embark on her reforms. However, she claims the government’s draft of the revised guidance looks promising, as it sets out professionals’ duties, roles and principles, while allowing for local control over how they are implemented.

Munro admits that a number of professionals have raised concerns about “removing guidance”. But she says: “It is more accurate to say that the revisions are ‘moving some guidance’ – from the statutory to professional and local control”.

Her report addresses fears that local autonomy could lead to a “proliferation of assessment forms and procedures”. She says: “Standardisation has value when we know how to do something to a high standard but, in safe-guarding children, we still have much to learn and so it is premature to create a detailed, nationally prescribed way of working.”

The councils that have removed fixed timescales for assessments as part of Munro’s trials report having more time to plan and reflect, but say a change in the deadlines will make little difference without an accompanying focus on improving practice.


Social work practice

Munro’s review last year called on local authorities to redesign the way that child and family social work is delivered to suit local needs. It suggested designating a principal child and family social worker in every council, as well as a chief social worker at national level, to make sure that practising social workers could rise up the job ladder.

Her progress report says that local areas are coming up with innovative improvements to practice, such as training staff in reflective supervision and using evidence-based interventions with families, including multisystemic therapy and parenting programmes.

A number of councils are adapting the “Reclaiming Social Work” approach to redesigning services, developed by the London Borough of Hackney, in which teams are led by senior consultant social workers and include administrative support staff, so that social workers can spend more time with families.

Munro cites Cornwall as an example of good practice. The local authority has appointed one senior principal child and family social worker, as well as a principal social worker on each of the children’s social care teams. The principal social workers are advanced practitioners, who work alongside and are on the same pay grade as team managers.

The senior principal child and family social worker is responsible for leading on the redesign of social work in Cornwall and reporting the experiences of the frontline to management, among other duties.


Learning & improvement

The government accepted Munro’s recommendation to introduce the so-called “systems approach” to learning.
Her progress report concedes that one year on, there is still confusion over what the approach actually means in terms of how serious case reviews are conducted.

She uses her progress report to outline four key features of the approach: understanding why someone acted as they did; finding out whether problems are specific to that case or widespread; a focus on the context affecting individuals considered in any review; and the use of research to underpin the reliability of the review’s findings.

Part of Munro’s rationale for introducing more flexibility into the child protection system was that it would make it easier for professionals to learn from and reflect on practice, and therefore improve.

Her report states that while the use of methods such as peer review is increasing, better monitoring of the impact of services is needed to move from a “culture of compliance” to one of child-centred learning.

She praises the work of the Children’s Improvement Board for giving every local authority the opportunity to have a peer review by 2014, arguing that this will help further test and develop the approach.

The report also urges more focus on learning about effectiveness at a case level. “There is very variable practice in clarity and specificity of objectives in working with a family,” she says. “Clearer goals allow professionals to notice when they are failing to make progress and need to rethink the help they are offering.”


Joint working

A focus on the “child’s journey” and looking at support from the viewpoint of the child rather than the provider was a key plank of Munro’s 2011 review. She emphasised the importance of joint working and recommended that government introduce a statutory duty on services to provide sufficient early help. The government decided against this.

Her report says that local areas have been advancing joint working arrangements since the last government’s Every Child Matters agenda, but that these developments could be at risk as a result of radical changes to health, policing, education and family support.

She urges councils to prioritise joint working using local flexibility to redesign services and co-locate multi-agency teams. Her report cites the example of Milton Keynes, which has replaced its children’s trust with a children and young people partnership. It has been signed up to by three elected members representing each political party as well as representatives from health, education, police, probation, and social care. It has also created children and families practices, which are multidisciplinary, locality-based teams that respond to family problems that are below the threshold for specialist services, but still of concern.

Munro calls on the government to publish its framework for safeguarding accountability in the NHS as a matter of urgency. Nevertheless, she argues that new health and wellbeing boards are well placed to co-ordinate preventative services for children, young people and families.

Munro proposed a new multi-inspection process to support joint working and monitor how agencies contribute to safe-guarding. This will start next year.