The Government has commissioned me to carry out an independent review to improve child protection. I am writing to ask for your help in providing the evidence that will inform this important review.
In the Secretary of State’s letter to me of 10 June http://www.education.gov.uk/news/news/munroreview, the Secretary of State explained that we need to reform front-line social work practice and to strengthen the profession so that social workers are in a better position to make well-informed judgements, based on up-to-date evidence, in the best interests of children, free from unnecessary bureaucracy and regulation. I have been asked to produce a final report by April 2011 with an interim report due in January 2011 and a first report in September 2010.
My review will build on the work of Lord Laming’s Progress Report (March 2009) and the Social Work Task Force, drawing on the evidence submitted to these reviews and the extensive analyses undertaken to inform them. I shall be keeping close links with the continuing work of the Social Work Reform Board, and with the work taking place as part of the Family Justice Review.
I shall also pursue new lines of inquiry in order to identify new and innovative examples of good practice with an aim to understanding how they were made possible and what obstacles had to be overcome. I am also keen to learn about more cost-effective practice since I am mindful of the challenging financial climate in which local services are now operating.
I shall be seeking views and evidence in a number of different ways. I am starting today with a call for evidence of local innovations and new approaches to child protection as well as improved front-line social work practice. I particularly want to hear about examples of:
- Identifying and helping children and young people in needincluding good examples of working with the public or between professionals that have helped identify children and young people in need. This might include accounts about how responsibility for the assessment and management of risk for a child, young person and their family is shared between universal services, for example, the specific involvement of the public, various professionals involved with the child, and children’s social care.
- Improved social work practice in assessing and helping children, young people and their families. To what extent has this been because social workers have greater professional freedom to spend time with children, young people and their families, or through improved support or supervision? This might include reference to new models for organising social work practice or alternative approaches to case recording.
- Strategies for assisting social workers to have the skills to pursue difficult issues with families whose needs may be complex and/or where families are reluctant to engage.
- Strategies for shared learning from practice experience, including critical incidents that recognise accountability but counteract any tendency towards a blame culture.
- Approaches to case discussionsor other strategies which evidence the quality of front-line practice.
- Engaging social workers so that they are clear about their responsibilities and efforts to improve transparency in local safeguarding services, which would in turn improve public confidence.
I am keen to hear from a wide variety of perspectives – from the young person, parent or carer who has first-hand experience of social work practice; frontline social workers, health visitors, police officers, teachers, supervisors, managers; leaders of local services; voluntary and community organisations; and the range of other professionals with whom social workers work on a daily basis and whose support is also vital to securing positive outcomes for children and families.
Your views are important and I am very grateful to you for your time in considering these issues. This evidence will be important to me when identifying areas for further detailed study as well as to developing my thinking.
Professor Eileen Munro
Notes:
Submissions should be sent, using the enclosed template, to munro.review@education.gsi.gov.uk by Friday 30 July, 2010.
For enquiries, please contact Roger Parr, Secretariat to the Review, email roger.parr@education.gsi.gov.uk telephone 020 7340 7010.
Please feel free to draw the Call for Evidence to the attention of others you think may wish to submit evidence to the Review.