Leadership

Growing Up Neglected: A Multi-Agency Response To Older Children

This joint report, from inspectorates Ofsted, HMI Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and HMI Probation, examines the multi-agency response to older children who are living with neglect.

The joint report from inspectors says professionals often focus on the behaviour of older children, losing sight of their back stories and that they are vulnerable and in need of affection and support. They looked at how older children were treated by social, education, health services, and police, probation and offending teams.

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      string(6006) "ResourceEXTENDED SCHOOLS: ACCESS TO OPPORTUNITIES AND SERVICES FOR ALLOriginal DocumentExtended schools: Access to opportunities and services for all. By 2010, all children should have access to a variety of activities beyond the school day. This 32-page prospectus sets out some information on developing extended services.KeywordsExtended schools, 2010, Every Child MattersSummaryThe Every Child Matters: Change for Children programme is a shared national programme of system-wide reform designed to ensure that children’s services work better together and with parents and carers to help give children more opportunities and better support. It focuses on five outcomes key to children’s well-being:· to be healthy· to stay safe· to enjoy and achieve· to make a positive contribution· to achieve economic well-beingThe government has set out a core offer of extended services for children, accessible through schools by 2010:· High quality ‘wraparound’ childcare provided on the school site or through other local providers, with supervised transfer arrangements where appropriate, available 8am–6pm all year round· A varied menu of activities to be on offer such as homework clubs and study support, sport (at least two hours a week beyond the school day for those who want it), music tuition, dance and drama, arts and crafts, special interest clubs such as chess and first aid courses, visits to museums and galleries, learning a foreign language, volunteering, business and enterprise activities· Parenting support including information sessions for parents at key transition points, parenting programmes run with the support of other children’s services and family learning sessions to allow children to learn with their parents· Swift and easy referral to a wide range of specialist support services such as speech therapy, child and adolescent mental health services, family support services, intensive behaviour support, and (for young people) sexual health services.· Providing wider community access to ICT, sports and arts facilities, including adult learningKey elements of the core offer:· By 2010 all parents of primary-age children will be able to access affordable childcare at or through their school from 8am to 6pm, all year round.· By 2010 all secondary schools will be open from 8am to 6pm all year round, providing access to a range of activities for young people  to do such as arts, sports or special interest clubs, and other study support such as ‘catch up’ and ‘stretch’ opportunities.· By 2010 all three and four year olds will receive 15 hours of free integrated early learning and care for 38 weeks of the year (increasing from the current 12.5 hours). Parents will have flexibility to use the free entitlement over a minimum of three days and to purchase additional hoursApproaches to delivering childcare:1. Direct delivery – employing staff and administering and charging for the provision.2. Delivering with third parties3. Working in clusters with other local schools4. Providing care for younger children – for example, co-locating with a children’s centre which makes provision and support available for children from birth as well as wider support for families.Benefits:Through School Improvement Partner (SIP) conversations, schools will be challenged and supported in how extended services can contribute to their school improvement priorities. Providing extended services:· Supports improvement in standards· Enables children to have fun and develop wider interests/new skills· Enhances support for vulnerable children and those most at risk· Encourages greater parental involvement in children’s learning· Makes better use of our school facilities by opening up sports, arts and ICT facilities to the community· Provides better help to staff and parents to address children’s wider needs, such as support from visiting multi-agency teams· Provides additional opportunities for staff in schools for example, childcare and support staff may be interested in additional work in some of the services· Enables parents to return to work and so reduces the number of children living in poverty· Reduces health inequality through greater take up of school-based health and social care services such as smoking cessation clubs or midwifery servicesMeeting the costs of providing extended services:Some services, such as health and social care, will be provided free of charge. 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Leadership

Extended schools: Access To Opportunities And Services For A

1 Jan 2005

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Leadership Briefing Issue 8.09 (93)"
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      string(5005) "able to provide robust evidence of their evaluation and challenge about the effectiveness ofmulti-agency working to tackle neglect. ■ Those local authorities providing the strongest evidence of the most comprehensive action totackle neglect were more likely to have a neglect strategy and/or a systematic improvementprogramme across policy and practice, involving the development of specific approaches toneglect. ■ The challenge for local authorities and their partners is to ensure that best practice in cases ofneglect is shared in order to drive improvement.RecommendationsThe government should: ■ review the social work reform programme and ensure that training, both before and afterqualification, includes mandatory material on neglect, focusing on its identification andassessment, as well as comprehensive training on child development, attachment theory andchild observation ■ require (through revised regulations) that all LSCBs develop a multi-agency strategy to increasetheir local understanding of the prevalence of neglect and to improve the identification of, andresponses to neglect.LSCBs should: ■ have access to and regularly examine data and quality assurance information to enable them to Leadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.monitor the quality of practice in relation to neglect across early help, child in need and childprotection interventions ■ ensure that all agencies, including adult mental health services; drug and alcohol services;police and social work services working with families where there is domestic abuse; andservices for adults with learning difficulties, work effectively together to assess and agreeplans for children who experience neglect ■ ensure that practitioners and their managers have access to high-quality specialist training onthe recognition and management of parental non- compliance and disguised compliance ■ ensure that the training provided for front-line practitioners and managers enables access tocontemporary research and best practice in working with neglect ■ ensure that all staff are aware of their duty to escalate concerns when they considerthat a child is not appropriately protected and/or is suffering from neglect, and that allagencies have appropriate escalation policies and procedures, including a procedure forchallenging the decisions of children’s social care services where cases are not accepted forassessment or child protection investigation.Local authorities should: ■ ensure that there is robust management oversight of neglect cases, so that drift and delayare identified and there is intervention to protect children where the risk of harm or actualharm, remains or intensifies. ■ prioritise the training and development of front-line practitioners, focusing on the skillsneeded to engage in direct work with families and the development of good assessmentsthat describe what life at home is like for children. ■ support social workers and managers in the use of models and methods of assessment thatenable them to effectively describe and analyse all risk factors in cases of neglect and thentake decisive action where this is required ■ prioritise the development and use of plans to support and protect children suffering fromneglect, ensure that those plans set out clearly, with timescales, what needs to change andthe consequences of no or limited change; plans should be subject to routine managementoversight given the complexity of work with neglected children. ■ ensure that social workers have specialist training and supervision to enable them to exerciseprofessional authority and challenge parents who fail to engage with services, particularlywhen their children are subject to child protection plans; this process should be subject torobust, regular management oversight and practice audit ■ ensure that there is clarity about the threshold for care proceedings to be initiated in casesof neglect, and that the threshold is understood, consistently applied and monitored by localauthority social care staff, senior managers and their legal advisers ■ oversee the written evidence presented to courts so that it is clear, concise and explicitlydescribes the cumulative impact of neglect on the daily life of the child.WEB LINKIn The Child’s Time: Professional Responses To Neglecthttp://www.ofsted.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/surveys-and-good-practice/i/In%20the%20child%27s%20time%20-%20professional%20responses%20to%20neglect.pdf"
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Leadership

In The Child's Time: Professional Responses To Neglect

27 Mar 2014

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      string(3975) "http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/approaches/parental-involvement2. Parents’/Carers’ Attitudes Towards School Attendance DES 20053. Ibid4. Ibid5. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The Role of Aspirations, Attitudes and Behaviour in Closing the Educational AttainmentGap, Charlotte Carter-Wall, Graham Whitfield, April 2012 http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/aspirations-attitudes-educational-attainment-roundup6. Education and Poverty – a critical review of theory, policy and practice, Joseph Rowntree Foundation 20077. National Centre for Social Research, Disengagement from Education among 14-16 year olds, Andy Ross 2009 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/189435/DCSF-RR178.pdf.pdf8. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The Role of Aspirations, Attitudes and Behaviour in Closing the Educational AttainmentGap, Charlotte Carter-Wall, Graham Whitfield, April 20129. Drivers and Challenges in Raising the Achievement of Pupils from Bangladeshi, Somali and Turkish Backgrounds. DSCF2010 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/189385/DCSF-RR226.pdf.pdf10. http://www.outcomesstar.org.uk/family-star/ A Troubled Families Star which references Work as an area for assessmentand support is currently in developmentThe Family Action learning on tackling exclusionChildren who exhibit very challenging behaviours in school may be witnessing traumatic events in the home, includingdomestic abuse, which present child protection issues. They may have special needs that require a response fromservices.Getting children to talk about their emotions is key if they are to gain self-awareness and consider alternative socialstrategies to aggression and joining gangsExtra-curricular activities may help boost the self-esteem of children who are not able to display academic prowess inthe classroom.What schools can doSchools have much to gain from co-ordinating their response to truancy and exclusion with the local Troubled FamiliesProgramme and working in multi-agency partnership with health and social services.Early identification of vulnerable pupils will assist with early intervention before pupils reach crisis point. Free schoolmeals data can help schools with targeting help at the most disadvantaged children for example using the PupilPremium.It is vital that schools use the Pupil Premium on interventions that are proven to work in responding to disadvantagedchildren and young people.The Sutton Trust toolkit is a useful starting point for key ideas that are proven to work; and the DfE website pageson the Pupil Premium also showcase some of the great work that schools are already doing in this area. The Childrenand Young People’s Mental Health Coalition also offer Resilience and Results a useful briefing for schools on charityprogrammes that could benefit childrenTruancy and exclusion increase in secondary schools. It is vital to raise awareness among parents of primary school agechildren of their role in providing a home life that supports children being ready for school every day. Family Actionand the National Association of Head Teachers are teaming up for a year to provide a programme of free resourcesthat primary schools and children’s centres can use to engage parents o the theme of Ready to learn Every Day. Theseresources will be available from May 2013.Rhian Beynon is Head of Policy and Campaigns at Family Action.nnnnnnnnhttps://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/189385/DCSF-RR226.pdf.pdfhttp://www.outcomesstar.org.uk/family-star/http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/approaches/parental-involvementhttp://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/premiumhttp://www.cypmhc.org.uk/resources/leading_children_and_young_peoples_charities_offer/www.family-action.org.uk"
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Special Needs

Getting to the root of exclusion

18 Jun 2013

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      string(4977) "ResourceCHILDREN’S SERVICES: CSCI FINDINGS 2004-07Original DocumentChildren’s services: CSCI findings. This CSCI report on children’s services highlights the key messages coming out of the CSCI’s knowledge, regulation, inspection and performance activity since the Commission was set up in 2004.KeywordsChildren’s services, inspection, regulation.SummaryAs from 1 April 2007, the new Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) will take responsibility for the children’s social care functions previously carried out by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) since 2004. This Report highlights the key messages coming out of the CSCI’s knowledge, regulation, inspection and performance activity since the Commission was set up in 2004.Main findings:Children and young people want many of the same things that anyone else receiving social care services wants. There are seven qualities that people particularly value:· Choice· Flexibility· Information· Being like other people· Respect and being heard· Fairness and non-discrimination· Safety· Good social care makes a big difference to children’s lives, their development, opportunities and achievement. Positive outcomes must be the driver for all social care, regardless of structures for its strategic commissioning, purchasing, delivery and regulation.· Every Child Matters has been the main policy driver for children’s services over the past few years. Changes are still being embedded but much is going well. Children in care comment favourably on their experience of social services. There is better protection of children from harm and improvements in placement stability. The progress made in implementing Every Child Matters has been impressive. The development of truly integrated services that place an emphasis on safeguarding children, and let the voice of the child, their family and carers be heard, is a challenge.· Financial pressures lead to high eligibility criteria and service thresholds. Children and families do not always get the help they need when they need it. Services are available to fewer families and for limited periods. Most councils offer too small a range of services to support the families of children in need.· Agencies must recognise the complexity of people’s lives and help children and young people achieve their potential.· Commissioning strategies are improving but there are shortfalls in the analysis of current and projected need. It is still not truly multi-agency in nature.· Separate children’s services and adult social services present a challenge for making sure that the needs of children and their families are effectively met. Young people and their families face difficulties when responsibility for their support and care transfers to adult services. Services must make sure that the needs of children in families are recognised by adult social services. In particular, eligibility criteria for adult services should recognise the need to protect a child as a trigger for service provision to parents.· There is not enough support for children in care once they are in a placement. The same effort should be put into preventing placement breakdown as into preventing family breakdowns. More should be done to manage behaviour patterns and levels of distress that children bring into the care system.· Access to CAMHS should be improved. There are shortfalls in services to vulnerable children and young people with mental health problems, and for children in care and their families.· Councils that do well have strong leadership at a political level and senior managers with a strong vision for children and young people.  High-performing councils, those that tangibly improve children’s life-chances, demonstrate:· An unambiguous commitment to support families under stress.· Strategic plans, developed with partners, with specific aims, targets and a clear monitoring process.· Capacity to evaluate need, articulate a vision, move resources to meet changing need and develop new services.· Consistent responses to people when they first meet services.· Performance management systems that track children and their outcomes.· Leadership from councillors and senior managers and investment in staff development.  ActionNotesAuthorRaspal Chima, Questions PublishingDate CreatedApril 2007Enquiries to:rchima@qiis.co.uk (Authoring Unit)Month / YearPage 1 of 1©Birmingham City Council"
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    array(1) {
      [0]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(10) "Leadership"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Leadership

Children’s Services: CSCI Findings

12 Apr 2007