The protection of children in England : a progress report

IntRoDUCtIon"Children become the victims or the beneficiaries of adult actions." Hugh Cunningham 1'Please keep me safe'.This simple but profoundly important hope is the very minimum upon which every child and young person should be able to depend.Sadly, sometimes even our imaginations fail to help us understand the dependency of young children or the vulnerability of adolescents, regardless of their displays of bravado.Most adults recognise that children and young people need security, stability, love and encouragement.As the Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks put it, "Children grow to fill the space we create for them, and if it's big, they grow tall". 2 The years of childhood pass all too quickly and become the foundation upon which the rest of life depends.Policies, legislation, structures and procedures are, of course, of immense importance, but they serve only as the means of securing better life opportunities for each young person.It is the robust and consistent implementation of these policies and procedures which keeps children and young people safe.For example, organisational boundaries and concerns about sharing information must never be allowed to put in jeopardy the safety of a child or young person.Whilst children and young people's safety is a matter for us all, a heavy responsibility has rightly been placed on the key statutory services to ensure it happens.But it serves no one, least of all children, if the scale of the task is under estimated.For example, Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) information shows that on 31 March 2008, 37,000 children 3 were the subjects of care orders (of 60,000 children looked 1 Cunningham, Hugh, The Invention of Childhood (BBC Books, 2006) 2 The Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, on 'Thought for the Day', BBC Radio 4, 12 December 2008.Quoted with the permission of The Chief Rabbi 3 DCSF SSDA903 data collection 31 March 2008 (available online at www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000810/index.shtml)Frontline staff in each of the key services have a demanding task.Their work requires not only knowledge and skill but also determination, courage, and an ability to cope with sometimes intense conflict.This must be recognised in their training, case-loads, supervision and conditions of service, and their managers must recognise that anxiety undermines good practice.Staff supervision and the assurance of good practice must become elementary requirements in each service.More should be done to ensure the well-being and confidence of the staff who undertake such an important task on behalf of us all.To support staff in this vitally important task of protecting children, central government and local agencies must immediately take the following action:First and foremost, the Secretaries of State for Health, Justice, the Home Office and Children, Schools and Families must collaborate in the setting of explicit strategic priorities for the protection of children