Child Protection

Wednesday February 24th 2010, Guoman Charing Cross, 09:00 - 16:00

Working Together to Safeguard Children: Implementing Lord Laming’s Recommendations

“Serious case reviews are a critically important part of our child protection arrangements, enabling lessons to be learnt, and action to be taken to prevent deaths and serious injuries in the future. We know that in many areas, serious case reviews do result in changes to improve policy, professional practice and inter-agency working. But there is also evidence that steps can be taken to improve their quality, consistency and overall impact.”

Delyth Morgan, Children’s Minister, Department for Children, Schools and Families, July 2009

Overview

Following the trial, which resulted from the tragic death of Baby Peter in Haringey, Children’s Secretary, Ed Balls, last November asked Lord Laming to prepare an urgent, independent report on the progress of national safeguarding arrangements. In his report, The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report (12 March 2009), Lord Laming acknowledged that Government reforms, introduced through Every Child Matters, provided a firm foundation, but there now needs to be a renewed commitment to child protection at every level of government and across all local services.

In May 2009, the Government announced a wide ranging package of measures setting out how it will deliver the step-change in child protection called for by Lord Laming in his recent progress report. The action plan commits to a greater openness and public scrutiny of local child protection arrangements, as well as more investment in training and support for front line social workers. This reform will be driven forward by a new cross-Government delivery unit working alongside Sir Roger Singleton, the first ever Chief Adviser on the safety of children.

The package also outlines a £58 million six-point plan to transform the social work profession, including:

Sponsoring 200 university places from September
New recruitment campaigns specifically targeting social workers
Funding a new practice-based Master's in social work
A new Advanced Social Work Professional Status programme
Coaching and development for frontline social worker managers to boost leadership and management skills

This new money brings the total investment in the workforce to £109 million over the next two years.

Children’s Minister Delyth Morgan also launched (July 2009) a consultation on guidance on serious case reviews (SCR) in order to improve their quality, consistency and impact. In his recent progress report, Lord Laming made a number of recommendations to strengthen and clarify the serious case review process. His recommendations were accepted in full by the Government with an undertaking to update statutory guidance set out in Chapter 8 of Working Together to Safeguard Children.

Since the publication of Lord Laming’s report, the Government has announced a number of measures to improve child protection services. This forum will offer delegates the opportunity to consider the practical implications of Lord Laming’s Report, and discuss and share best practice on how we can work together to better safeguard children.

Agenda

09:00	Registration and Coffee
09:50	Chair’s Welcome Address Shaun Kelly, Head of Safeguarding, Action for Children (CONFIRMED)
09:55	Morning Keynote: Implementing Lord Laming’s Recommendations: Strategies to Better Safeguard Children The impact of Lord Laming’s recommendations, what steps are necessary for successful implementation The remit of the new National Safeguarding Delivery Unit and its mode of operation Promoting better collaborative work at all levels Preventing abuse by co-ordinating child protection work Enhancing public understanding of what safeguarding vulnerable children involves Enhancing the skills requires to undertake a Serious Case Review Early intervention to meet children’s needs Deborah Ramsdale, Professional Adviser, National Safeguarding Delivery Unit, Department for Children Schools and Families (CONFIRMED)
10:15	Driving Forward Change for Social Workers: Building Confidence Amongst Practitioners and the Public Developing a children’s service workforce that is confident and skilled at making the right decisions and provide the right report Return to Social Work scheme Address recruitment and retention issues, raising the morale of the profession Supporting newly qualified social workers to ensure they are adequately trained and given appropriate caseloads How can the workforce raise the profile of safeguarding work and restore outside confidence Keith Brumfitt, Director of Strategy, The Children’s Workforce Development Council CWDC (CONFIRMED)
10:35	Strengthening the Information Framework for Protecting Children and Other Vulnerable Groups The Independent Safeguarding Authority’s approach to vetting and barring Understanding the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act Nick Smith, Policy Advisor, Safeguarding & Vulnerable Groups Act Implementation Division, Department for Children, Schools and Families (CONFIRMED)
10:55	Questions and Answers
11:05	Coffee and Networking
11:25	Building a Safe, Confident Future Update from the Social Work Taskforce Reforming ICE ICS to better support record-keeping and case management Simplifying national requirements and strengthening local authority ownership of the system Promoting frontline practices Commissioning systems that meet local needs Reducing the burden on practitioners by ensuring their systems are fit for purpose Sue White, Professor of Social Work, Lancaster University & Member, The Social Work Taskforce (CONFIRMED)
11:45	Improving the Health and Wellbeing of Children Developing the health visiting workforce Healthy Child Programme Action on Health Visiting Programme Defining the role of health visitors and their contribution to safeguarding children Development and career opportunities for the current workforce Maggie Ioannou, Assistant Chief Nurse, NHS London (CONFIRMED)
12:05	Special Keynote Address: Strengthening the Voice of Children Ensuring that those with the power to improve children’s lives do live up to their responsibilities Ensuring children are actively involved in the decision that affect their lives Ensuring the provision of suitable services for children are in place Sue Berelowitz, Deputy Children's Commissioner & Chief Executive, 11 Million (CONFIRMED)
12:25	Questions and Answers Session
12:45	Lunch and Networking
13:45	Protecting Children Through Better Inspection The safeguarding inspection programme Safeguarding in the schools inspection framework The inspection workforce The evaluation of serious case reviews How can we ensure inspection supports improvement? John Goldup, Director Development, Social Care, Ofsted (CONFIRMED)
14:05	Local Leadership and Accountability: Safeguarding our Future Embedding a culture of early intervention to safeguard those most at risk Future role and remit of Children’s Trusts and The Children’s Trust Board Developing successful Children and Young People’s Plan Future role of Local safeguarding children boards (LSCBs) Relationship between Children’s Trusts and LSCBs Sue Beer, Independent Chair, Local Safeguarding Children Board (CONFIRMED)
14:25	Coffee and Networking
14:45	Working Together to Safeguard Children: The Police’s Role A new Strategic Framework for delivering Protective Services and the Child Protection Delivery Plan Keeping up to date with frontline issues Police and serious case reviews Sophie Butt, Staff Officer to ACPO Lead for Child Protection and Abuse Investigation, The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CONFIRMED)
15:05	Strategies to Better Safeguard Children in Highly Diverse Communities Meeting the safeguarding needs of BME children - what does the literature tell us? Wider dialogue with BME communities Some practical solutions Developing an integrated strategy to address the needs Renuka Jeyarajah-Dent, Director of Operations, Coram (CONFIRMED)
15:25	Children and Young People's Perspectives on Making Childhood Better: Safeguarding Through Early Intervention How The Children's Society's Good Childhood report maps onto Lord Laming's recommendations Child's-eye view on how these might contribute towards creating a better and safer childhood for all children Katherine Hill, Parliamentary Advisor, The Children’s Society (CONFIRMED)
15:45	Questions and Answers Session
16:00	Close

*programme subject to change without notice

Exhibitor

Department for Children, Schools and Families

Audience

Delegates will be drawn to this forum central government departments and agencies, local authorities, housing organisations, trade unions, children’s trusts, welfare groups, third sector organisations, regional development agencies, think tanks, schools, colleges, elected officials, solicitors, adult and community learning providers, businesses and employers, primary care trusts, community care teams, youth offending teams, police officer, local, regional and national health services, regional development agencies.