Fife's child protection arrangements adjudged to have improved
Agencies in Fife have made substantial progress in improving child protection arrangements, according to a new report by HMIe inspectors.
- By Craig Smith
- Published in the Courier : 05.05.11
- Published online : 05.05.11 @ 07.47pm
The latest joint follow-through inspection of services to protect children and young people in the Fife Council area has suggested that "very good" progress has been made in numerous areas since the HMIe produced a damning report on the issue back in 2009.
That highly critical report highlighted weaknesses in eight of 18 key indicators measured, with a lack of participation of children and families in key child protection processes among the flaws identified.
The inspectors also criticised guidance on information sharing, related support and training; the processes used to assess the risk and the needs of individual children; and a lack of planning to meet children's needs. They questioned the role of chief officers and senior managers in directing and monitoring the effectiveness of the child protection committee and key child protection processes.
Positive sign
However, four out of five areas measured in the new HMIe report have been rated as "very good," with the fifth rated "good" — a major improvement on 2009's showing.
Significant strides have been made in improving the sharing of information, training, involving children and families in decision-making and evaluation and monitoring systems, while the improvement in the processes used to meet individual children's needs had also improved to a "good" standard.
In light of the new report John Myles, the independent chairman of Fife's multi-agency Child Protection Committee, stressed that work is ongoing to ensure continuous improvement.
"A huge amount of work has gone into improving how we protect vulnerable children — staff from the council, Fife Constabulary, NHS and other agencies have worked really hard," he said. "However, while our progress has been very good and has been recognised in the report, we are not complacent.
"We will continue to find new ways of working across the agencies to keep children safe."
Several improvements in recent years have been hailed as vital in turning things around, such as the development of a multi-agency child's plan and the co-location of police staff at the public protection unit at police HQ which addresses child protection, adults at risk and domestic abuse.
The council's head of service for children and families Alistair Gaw said, "The protection of children is of the highest priority for all partnership bodies.
"Very good progress has been made but we are not complacent and have a collective commitment to excellence."
Those sentiments were echoed by Fife Chief Constable Norma Graham, who also chairs the Chief Officers' Public Safety Group.
She said, "I welcome the report which provides an extremely positive platform on which to build and improve in the future. It is pleasing that the considerable efforts of staff working together for children across Fife have been recognised."
08.18am - 06.05.2011 T. Butchers - Dundee, uk Report This
Huge improvements on a bad report may mean very little. One assumes that those managers responsible for the shoddy outfit in the past are still there. Once again council process shows; 'it's all about the staff', service users an afterthought at best.
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