Progress on safeguards for children living away from home
On 15 November 2004, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)
announced two reports as a follow up to the 1997 publication People like us: the report of the Review of Safeguards for Children Living Away
From Home (The Stationery Office, 1997). The reports
examine what has happened since that report was published and the
current state of safeguards for children and young people. One
report (Progress on safeguards for
children living away from home: A review of action since the People
Like Us report) covers all the recommendations in
People like us and one (Safeguards
for vulnerable children: Three studies on abusers, disabled children
and children in prison) examines issues of sexual abuse;
children in prisons and disabled children in more detail. Findings
include:
- Legislation, policy and procedures
have been much improved but effective implementation has been more
problematic.
- The main groups of children living
away from home do now seem better safeguarded but worries remain
for some of the most vulnerable groups - those in private foster
care, prisons and in some health settings.
- Safeguards do not pay full
attention to more marginalised groups of children such as disabled
children and those with emotional and behavioural difficulties.
- The regulation and inspection of
schools with boarding provision have been transformed since 1997,
but it is too early to judge whether the changes are improving
safeguards.
- In dealing with sexual abuse,
there has been progress in:
- increasing awareness of the risks: but gaps remain in the
information available to the public, parents, carers, staff and
children themselves on how offenders operate;
- establishing procedures for preventing abusers from working with
children: but these are not being implemented consistently and,
with most abusers unconvicted, there is a danger of relying too
much on criminal checks with little use of 'soft' information;
- establishing appropriate arrangements for abused children giving
evidence in court: but implementation is slow and under-resourced.
- In dealing with sexual abuse,
there has been no or little progress in:
- bringing abusers to justice and securing convictions;
- providing adequate help and treatment for abused children;
- providing adequate treatment and supervision arrangements for
abusers, especially young abusers and women; opportunities to
reduce re-offending are being lost.
- The researchers conclude that the
scale of the problem of sexual abuse of children is such that a
major rethink of policy is needed - with much greater emphasis on
prevention and early intervention.
A summary of the research can be viewed
on the
JRF website
