Professor Munro was asked in June 2010 by the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove MP, to conduct an independent review to improve child protection. The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children & Families (Tim Loughton MP) stated that the fundamental review should pose the question:
What will help professionals to make the best judgments they can to protect vulnerable people?
The review was intended to be in-depth and wide-ranging and, whilst set against the background of the Climbié and Baby P tragedies, was the first review not to be initiated as a direct response to the death of a child.
The review had previously published two interim reports, the first setting out the systems approach of the review and the features of the child protection system that would be explored in detail and the second examining a child’s journey from needing to receiving effective protection from abuse and neglect. The earlier reports had concluded that the child protection system had become defensive due to the strength of public reaction to the death of a child; the readiness to focus on professional error without looking deeply enough into its causes; the undue importance placed on performance indicators and a belief that the complexity and uncertainty of child protection work could be eradicated.
Focus on the Child
The thrust of the reforms proposed by the Munro Review is a stripping away of the regulatory and bureaucratic framework surrounding the provision of social care, including:
- removing the specific statutory timescales for completing assessments of children, young people and families: on the basis that, whilst the underlying principle of timeliness is important, the prescribed timescales distort practice – a position that was previously considered controversial by Kirsten Anderson, Head of Research and Policy at the Children’s Legal Centre;
- revising the statutory guidance that social workers must follow: Professor Munro had previously commented that the guidance is 55 times longer than when it was published in the mid-1970s, leading to a culture of “doing things right” (i.e. following procedures) rather than “doing the right thing” in helping children and young people. A clearer division between core rules and professional advice is encouraged;
- reducing or removing national procedures and approaches – such as assessment forms, IT systems and performance indicators in order to encourage local innovation and the exercise of professional judgment. Leaders in local authorities should have more autonomy and greater responsibility for the range of services and methods of working.
- ceasing to hold announced OFSTED inspections: because social care teams currently spend too much time preparing for OFSTED inspectors, inspections should be on an unannounced basis only. The new inspection framework should have a wider remit including effectiveness of the help provided and the efficacy of the contributions of all local services, including health, education, police, the probation service and the justice system.
The report also recommends new proactive measures including:
- creating a duty on local authorities and their statutory partners to secure the sufficient provision of local early help services for children, young people and families: Professor Monroe considers that preventative services do more to reduce abuse and neglect than reactive services. Consequently, the Government should specify the range of professional help that should be available to children, young people and families through statutory, voluntary and community services against the local profile of need. Professor Munro’s vote of confidence for early help services may, however, come too late for beleaguered services such as the Sure Start Centres, which face public funding cuts;
- changing the career and management structure: to correct the faultline between frontline and management staff, which Professor Munro describes as a fundamental error in the profession. The review considers the development of expertise is currently hampered as senior social workers cease to have frontline experience once promoted to a managerial role. The review recommends that a more varied career path is implemented to allow both practitioners to become specialised and maintain practice skills amongst senior managers;
- increasing focus on a learning culture: including a greater emphasis on continuing professional development and a radical improvement of the knowledge and skills of social workers with greater emphasis on the Professional Capabilities Framework created by the Social Work Task Force and the Social Work Reform Board;
- clarifying accountabilities: the greater emphasis on local autonomy and responsibility should be supported by clear line of accountability, and the review considers that roles such as the Director of Children’s Services are vitally important and should be protected in the face of public services reforms;
- improving analysis of performance measures – performance indicators should not be treated as an unambiguous measure of performance and should be subjected to greater analysis – for example, low numbers of children being removed from their birth families can arise either from skilled help to protect children or poor assessment of risk;
- amending the approach to Serious Case Reviews: Serious Case Reviews [SCRs] occur when a child dies and abuse or neglect is known or suspected to be a factor. Professor Munro considers that OFSTED should no longer evaluate SCRs as its approach is too formulaic, and instead accredited, skilled and independent reviews should be appointed to work on SCRs. The panel should adopt the in-depth, systems-based and causation-focused approach used in the healthcare and aviation industries;
- creating new appointments at a national and local level: a Chief Social Worker, equivalent to the Chief Medical Officer, should be appointed at a national level and each local authority should designate a Principal Child and Family Social Worker to report the views and experiences of the front line staff to all levels of management.
The recommendations in this review are geared towards creating a better balance between essential rules, principles, and professional expertise. Helping children is a human process… The recommendations are ot be considered together, and the review cautions strongly against cherry-picking reforms to implement… The review also cautions against taking a short-term approach to reform – the depth of change recommended in this report means it will take time for the necessary knowledge and skills to be developed and for experiences of working to accumulate to the point where they can be fully effective. Taken together, these reforms will redress the balance between prescription and the exercise of judgment so that those working in child protection are able to stay child-centred.” [§21]
For the Munro report to truly make a difference to children’s lives, these reforms will need to be implemented in full with clear support for frontline staff and backed with appropriate resources.”
We wholeheartedly agree with Professor Munro’s recommendation that getting early and local help to children should be a priority. We know that quick responses to children’s problems work best through the intervention work we do with troubled families across the country.
Children & Young People Now reports that Matt Dunkley, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services considers that some of the reforms should be immediately implemented but current funding will be insufficient to do so:
If local authorities and their partners are to invest in early help, in developing the workforce and in developing a broader vision for providing help to children and families, central government will need to provide additional funding to make this possible.”
It will also require a change in culture that genuinely supports professional practice and does not seek to blame social workers when things go wrong”
Keeping children safe must be a shared responsibility, and the Government needs to do more to address how we make child protection and safeguarding everybody’s business. The message must be clear to everyone – doctors, teachers, parents, neighbours and the community alike: don’t look the other way if you suspect a child may be ‘at risk'”.
The process of implementation, even if commenced immediately, is likely to take some time. To achieve the undoubtedly laudable aim of increasing the amount of meaningful contact social workers have with children, young people and their families, a greater level of responsibility will be placed on local authorities at a time when the report recognises that many social workers require a radical improvement in knowledge and skills and managerial staff lack frontline experience. How successful this shift will be is a matter of great import for children and young people, their families and the wider community alike.
The courts may also find they face a shifting and increased burden in balancing Article 8 (family life) and Article 3 (protection from inhumane and degrading treatment) rights of children and parents as the changes are implemented.
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