The revisions will be completed by the end of the year and will place a stronger focus on the perspective of the child. Draft guidance will be issued for formal consultation by the autumn.
Revisions to chapter eight of Working Together, which deals with serious case reviews, will be fast-tracked, with the government promising a separate consultation on this by July 2009. This is so that lessons learned from the reviews can improve local practice "as quickly as possible".
The government promised various other consultations and reviews to implement Lord Laming's recommendations in full. These include:
* A new set of national safeguarding indicators by the end of September 2009
* Revised statutory guidance on the roles and responsibilities of directors of children's services and lead members will be published in June 2009
* Revised statutory guidance for children's trusts on the scope, structure and content of Children and Young People's Plans will be published in spring 2010 following the passage of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill
* Research briefings from the Centre for Excellence and Outcomes (C4EO) on how best to intervene when there are concerns a child is being harmed will be published early in June 2009
* A wide-ranging families and relationships green paper to be published in the autumn. This will build on the Department for Children, Schools and Families' Think Family programme, which will "set a clear expectation of how children's and adults' services should adopt a more consistent approach to identifying and working effectively with families at risk"
* Updated guidance from the Children's Workforce Development Council on the Common Assessment Framework. This will be published "shortly"
* The Home Office will work with the police to develop a new strategic framework for delivering "protective services". Child protection will be a priority in this framework, which is designed to ensure that every police force has the right arrangements and resources in place to protect children
* A programme of "comprehensive reform" of social work to be published in the autumn following the Social Work Task Force's final report
* A detailed announcement "later this year" on new targets to reduce delay in care proceedings. New performance indicators should be in place by 2010/11
* A decision on whether to abolish court fees for child protection cases once a review by Francis Plowden is published in mid-September 2009
