child protection

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone. I thought I would pass on some information and some gossip

(as journalists say, 'from impeccable sources!') and ask opinions about how

it will work. Will be very interested in comments.

As has been widely reported, there is a forthcoming 'Green paper' for consultation

about safeguarding children; it is expected in the next couple of months.

It will be part of the government's response to the Laming Inquiry (about

Climbie) and will, I guess, lead to a complete overhaul of the

child protection legislation. Threads and ideas that are seeping out include:

much closer working, and possibly a 'combination role' of health visitors

and social workers for serious cases;

far more emphasis on supporting families by social workers and in communities;

and (in order to facilitate that)

a separate, nationwide agency that will have the legislative responsibility

and power to do the 'investigation' bit of child protection that is currently

the remit of social work.

The idea behind the separate agency is less about freeing social workers

from the burden than about reducing the stigma attached to families who

receive their services, and I guess something about central funding and control

over the protection of children whose particular life circumstances are not

well catered for by current variations in local government arrangements.

This does seem to have considerable implications for health visiting, in

that (I thought) we had previously been the profession that aimed to provide

support to families. However, someone from a voluntary organisation commented

to me in passing last week, that 'health' (I think she was speaking more

broadly than just health visitors) didn't see themselves as being there to

provide support; she felt she had to use different language when seeking

support for families from the health sector.

The pilot Children's Trusts are also still in the 'ideas' stage; they might

be just about joint funding, but also seem likely to include some direct

service provision. Sure Start is just into the sixth wave, which we heard

last week would be the last, so I wonder if Children's Trusts might move

into that vacant space, for interagency and multi-disciplinary working?

All these things will be wrapped up within the Children's NSF somehow.

As always, there is enough work to go around and the important thing is

that it gets done, properly, and reaches those that most need it. But I

wondered if anyone apart from me still feels that health visitors have an

important role in family support? best wishes

[Guest guest]

I am currently out of the office until Tuesday 4th Feb. Any urgent

issues please contact my PA on: 020 7525 0404

[Guest guest]

Thanks for this. I can see that this could work for those families who have

an identified child protection need - or more precisely those who have a

child or children on the Child Protection Register. The families who are

most concerning, of course, are those who have multiple needs but who are

not Registered. I wonder how this system would identify and engage with

this group who at present benefit greatly from health visiting contact.

Moreover,the current lack of social workers doesn't bode well for the

initiative.

The preventative role of health visitors with regard to child protection

(delivered in a variety of forms - attention to parental mental health,

parenting skills, liaison and practical support) certainly needs to be

highlighted. I also wonder if we as health visitors need to clarify our

position on 'case-finding' with regard to child protection.

[Guest guest]

Is there any way you can feed this information into the CNO review of child protection which is currently up and running- feedback required by 30th January. See attached for further info. I tried to devise a similar recording document which was circulated among HV's in our Trust but am not sure how widely it was used and it didn't record length of time which is a shame. I confess I haven't started a new one for this year as I haven't had the chance to amend it.

regards Judy

-----Original Message-----From: hv-sn-forum-request@... [mailto:hv-sn-forum-request@...]On Behalf Of Libby Sent: 24 January 2004 13:54Fleur DaveyCc: hv-sn-forum@...Subject: Re: child protection

Fleur

I am a school health nurse and we don't have such a tool and I am also so aware that as school health nurses with large case loads and a significant amount of child protection per caseload and hours of only 21 in some cases that identifying a 'safe level' of cases would be an important piece of work. We have however been auditing our child protection over 12 months as it does rise and fall (slightly). We felt that a twelve month period would give us an important picture. We have looked at Case conferences, child in need meetings, report writing, LAC reviews (some of us have sig numbers of LAC), telephone calls, home visits in relation to CP etc. It has been a huge eye opener already because when you are working with it, it is hard to step back and see how much time is spent on it and it is of course not complete. When I started 11 years ago, case load sizes and hours were as they are now and for some reason SHNs were not privy to the names of children on cp reg. Times have changed drastically, cp input is significant and rightly so, but resources still do not match. Hopefully this piece of work will provide crucial evidence.

I too would be interested in finding such a tool from other colleagues.

Libby

child protection

I am currently looking for a weighting tool for child protection and cause for concern families. Has anyone used one before or a risk assessment/benchmark in order to identify a safe level of cases for school nurses and health visitors.

All ideas and comments gratefully received

Fleur Davey