Approach for child protection reform in England outlined in report
Summary
Well-planned reform is essential for child protection as previous well-informed decisions from former Governments have led to unpredicted complications rather than improvement.
Since June 2010, Professor Eileen Munro has thoroughly analysed how children are being protected from abuse and neglect in England, with findings detailed in the first of a series of documents, ‘The Munro Review of Child Protection’.
The document sets out Munro’s approach and the features of the child protection system that need exploring in detail and that form the focus of subsequent stages of the review.
This phase of the review looks at how a child's journey from needing, to receiving the right help can be refocused. In recent history, the child protection system has focused on imposing and meeting managerial targets and regulations, and in doing so has forgotten that the needs of children should be at its core; a shift in priorities is necessary.
The observations made were grouped into three main categories:
- early intervention
- frontline practice
- transparency and accountability.
A dominant theme in the criticisms of current practice is the skew in priorities that has developed between the demands of the management and inspection processes and professionals' ability to exercise their professional judgment and act in the best interests of the child.
Professor Munro notes 'there is much good practice and research for us to build on in our efforts to better protect children and young people.'
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