Improving children’s safety: new public service agreement

The government has recently published a public service agreement (PSA) specific to improving children’s safety. This document recognises the work that government departments are committed to and sets out the agreed expectations on LAs, local safeguarding children’s boards (LSCBs) and partner agencies. The government introduced PSAs following the 1998 comprehensive spending review, setting out for the first time what each department aimed to achieve in terms of targets for public service improvements. Progress against those targets has been reported every year in departmental reports.

Plans are set to run over the comprehensive spending review period of 2007. Schools, colleges and early years settings are seen as having a major role to play in these agreed plans and policies. The improvement indicators are set out in the box below.

Improvement indicators Indicator 1: Percentage of children and young people who have experienced bullying The work of the National Bullying Survey is acknowledged and its findings will be used to inform government strategic plans. In 2006 69% of children and young people reported that they had experienced being bullied. The government wants this percentage to be greatly reduced. Ofsted’s Local Area Perception Survey (Tellus 2) will examine whether current policies designed to reduce incidents of bullying are working and make recommendations on developing good practice. Indicator 2: Percentage of children and young people referred to children’s social care who received an initial assessment within seven working days It is expected that if a child or young person is referred to children’s social care because of a child protection concern, that the initial assessment will be carried out within seven working days. Last year LAs’ social care departments had a 68% achievement of this time scale. However, that 68% was an average across all LAs and the variance between LAs was between 30% and 100%. This improvement indicator will look at how quickly children’s social care can respond when a child is thought to be at risk of serious harm. The government expects an improvement in this area within the CSR 2007 period. This indicator will also serve to examine the way agencies work together as all agencies (and particularly schools), make referrals to children’s social care. Indicator 3: Hospital admissions caused by unintentional and deliberate injuries to children and young people Accidents are the leading cause of injury to children and young people and disproportionately effect children from lower socio-economic groups. 158,300 children between 0 and 18 were admitted to hospital during 2005-06 and numbers have increased in recent years. This PSA sees the number of children being admitted to hospital for injury as an indicator of the effectiveness of local agencies. The government is expecting an increase in accident prevention work to bring these figures down. Indicator 4: Preventable child deaths as recorded through child death review panel processes Child death review panels will be a statutory requirement by April 2008. The panels will review every unexpected death in their area to ascertain the cause of death and learning if anything could have been done to prevent the death. The panels will review both accidental and deliberately caused deaths. Data from the panels will be collected to help prevent death in childhood.

Delivery strategy
The delivery strategy relies on action at three levels:

• Universal safeguarding (to protect all children from harm).
• Targeted safeguarding (to reduce risk to particularly vulnerable groups).
• Responsive safeguarding (to address instances where children have been harmed).

The PSA sets out actions, roles and responsibilities, including how partners will be held accountable for the delivery of the work.  LSCBs are at the heart of the delivery strategy at a local level.

The secretary of state for children, schools and families has responsibility for coordinating delivery of the PSA and will lead on the formulation of national policies and legal framework, raise awareness of the issues and support LAs. Progress will be monitored through inspections.

LSCBs and children’s trusts will drive local initiatives including:

• ensuring safe environments
• providing and promoting child protection training for service providers
• ensuring safety on the roads
• building effective partnerships
• working within specific legal frameworks
• leading on child protection enquiries
• providing direct services to children in need.

The PSA identifies schools and colleges as having a role in the following areas:

Internet safety as part of the new information and communications technology (ICT) curriculum for 11- to 14-year-olds, which will ensure that all children in this age group are taught about the importance of keeping themselves safe online. Becta, the lead agency for ICT in education will help to educate teachers about e-safety issues and work with LSCBs to promote internet safety. The Byron Review, announced on 6 September 2007, will look at how to help parents and children get the best from technologies while protecting them from harmful content on the internet or in video games. Its recommendations will be available by the start of the 2007 CSR period.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) will work to expand its existing ‘think u know’ education programme, currently focused on secondary schools, to reach more pupils, including those at primary schools. The Office of Communications (Ofcom) and the British Standards Institute will award kite marks for internet content control software so that parents know what software applications can help them protect their children

Ensuring a safe school environment is identified as including the Building Schools for the Future programme. This programme aims to rebuild or renew every secondary school in England over a
10- 15-year period.

Tackling bullying directly, including by creating a culture of respect within the school, raising awareness among staff members and following the guidance in Safe to Learn, including specific guidance on homophobic bullying and cyberbullying. Training providers responsible for 14- to 19-year-olds will also need to be alert to signs of bullying and how to address any concerns.

Identifying concerns about children’s safety and referring on to children’s social care where appropriate. A senior designated member of staff must ensure that all staff have adequate knowledge of child protection and safeguarding issues.

Teaching about safety issues, including: road safety, accident prevention, substance misuse, sexual harassment, self-harm, internet safety and building their resilience.

Understanding and managing risks
The DCSF will carry out a research project into the best personal, social and health education (PSHE) materials for teaching about safety and will create a module of continuing professional development for teachers of PSHE about how to teach children and young people to keep themselves safe.

A safe workforce
A number of initiatives are recognised in this PSA  as crucial in developing a safe workforce, including:

• The implementation of the new vetting and barring scheme.
• The promotion of safer recruitment practices in all sectors involving work with children and young people, building on the recent guidance issued to education settings.
• Helping employers be aware of the signs of abusive intent or behaviour in the recruitment process and beyond through training and the development of allegations management.

Victims of Violence and Abuse Prevention Programme
This new programme aims to ensure that professionals in all sectors and settings are able to respond to the needs of victims of domestic and sexual violence. The programme is developing national service guidelines, which will be published in 2008 and start to drive changes in the system to help children who have been abused to access the appropriate services.

Trafficking and prostitution
The Home Office has recently published the UK Action Plan on Human Trafficking and the government will soon be publishing practice guidance Safeguarding Children Who May Have Been Trafficked following a consultation. There is a risk that trafficked children may end up in prostitution. The government intends to update current guidance, Safeguarding Children Involved in Prostitution, setting out a clear policy direction on the way in which children and young people at risk of or suffering sexual exploitation should be supported or protected.

Involving children and young people in the planning
LSCBs and children’s trusts are given the responsibility of ensuring that the views of children and young people about their safety concerns are taken into account when planning services to deliver against the priorities set out here. Some LSCBs have already carried out surveys among local children and young people to help define their priorities for action. In Staying Safe, a range of proposals is outlined, many of which will improve children’s ability to build their resilience to risk, and help parents influence local organisations.

Monitoring
The DCSF intends to continue monitoring the progress of work under the PSA and will use the Staying Safe consultation responses to gather views.

The DCSF has organised a series of regional events with practitioners working with children and young people and discussion groups with children, young people, parents and the general public. The outcomes of the Staying Safe consultation and the cross-government action plan will be vital in driving forward the delivery of this PSA. In addition, the secretary of state for children, schools and families is leading a national consultation to develop a children’s plan.

This delivery agreement will be reviewed and updated following publication of the Staying Safe action plan and the children’s plan.

This PSA includes many more initiatives than can be reported here. This article has aimed to draw attention to the sections that have most relevance to education. Protecting Children Update regularly informs readers on many of the priorities described in this PSA. On this site see articles on:

• referrals and assessments
• trafficking and prostitution
  
• road safety

Click here to read the PSA in full