On 1 July 2010, Professor Munro issued a call for evidence to inform her review of child protection. She asked professionals, children, young people and families with a wide variety of experience to send details of local innovations and new approaches to child protection and good front-line social work practice.
Professor Munro’s call for evidence closed on 30 July 2010. Overall, more than 450 organisations submitted over 1000 pieces of evidence, covering areas such as:
- identifying and helping children and young people in need -including good examples of working with the public or between professionals that have helped identify children and young people in need
- improved social work practice in assessing and helping children, young people and their families
- 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 discussions or 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.