This article was first published by Children & Young People Now. How does a child make the journey from needing to receiving? From abuse and neglect to real and effective protection and care? This harrowing but vitally important problematic is addressed in The Child’s Journey, a second offering from Professor Eileen Munro’s review of child protection.…
Jasmine Ali (@Jasmine_Ali), children’s services consultant at the LGiU, reviews the Early Intervention: The Next Steps report for Children and Young People Now.
Chaired the [LGC] Conference today on what June’ White paper means for local government. Greatly comforted to hear that the Government is abandoning long held beliefs that only “top down” school improvement strategies work. From now on, it will be “bottom up”: school improvement will be lead by schools, supported by their local authorities. Hurrah!!!…
It was an early start on Day Three of the marathon Children and Adult Services conference in Harrogate this week, but the leaders of people services were still wide awake. And with good reason. Secretary of State for Children, Ed Balls was first up that morning and got short shrift for his refusal to reduce…
At the height of the Baby Peter case last year following the Sun Newspaper’s mass petition and vilification of public servant Sharon Shoesmith and her subsequent dismissal by Secretary of State Ed Balls the ADCS remained quiet. So it was with surprise that I learned that, on the eve of Shoesmith’s High Court Case against the…
Labour made what many delegates may consider to have been a great start on education at the party’s annual Conference in Brighton. Gordon Brown promised no cuts to the schools budget. Later Ed Balls Secretary of State detailed the party’s balance sheet on children’s services; highlights include the establishment of a sure start children centre in every community, free…
In Bournemouth today Annette Brooke MP (Shadow Minister for Children) updated the Lib Dem policy on child protection. The purpose is to renew their position following the tragic case of Baby Peter. The raft of new proposals includes a public awareness campaign to make child protection everybody’s business. Nobody would disagree with that, but more controversially, they want the…
The Social Work Task Force interim report entitled Facing up to the task was published today. It covers the important theme of the future of social work and sets out detailed programme for reform. The final report is not expected until the end of year; however the Task Force is already clear that its recommendations…
The City is abuzz with a report on social media written by a 15 year old for Morgan Stanley. But what should local authorities take from it? 1) Teenagers don’t read newspapers. Who’s reading your newsletter? Think of other ways of communicating if you want to get through to young people. 2) Avoid fads. Young…
It is with exasperation that I report that Argyll and Bute council has banned teachers from Twitter. The ban followed the inappropriate use of the site by a teacher who used it to criticise pupils. Blanket bans however understandable are rarely the best way forward and usually unworkable. What we really need here is a…