Thanks for responding! this what I have so far, does it sound ok? feel like my head is going to explode!
The murder of Victoria Climbie in Feb 2000 was a terrible tragedy that highlighted the serious failings of a system that struggled to co-ordinate and share information amongst agencies. There were twelve separate occasions when the opportunity to intervene and, perhaps save Victoria’s life, had been missed. Victoria’s death led to a public inquiry by Lord Laming which would eventually lead to the Green paper Every Child Matters and the Children’s Act 2004.
However Victoria’s tragic and untimely death was not the only case where the murder of a child could find a path leading back to the inadequacies of the child protection system where the NHS, social services and the police failed to work together to protect a vulnerable child; Lauren Wrights death in 2001 and Peter Connelly (‘Baby P’) in 2007 – Peter even died in the same borough (Haringey) that had failed Victoria 7 years earlier.
Working together in partnership with all agencies involved in the care of a child is vital to safeguarding, from government legislation to local guidelines on safeguarding. It is crucial that all agencies communicate and cooperate together to promote the safety and well being of children.
The Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) is the key statutory mechanism for agreeing how the relevant local organisations will cooperate to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, and for ensuring the effectiveness of what they do. The scope of the LSCB role includes activities that safeguard all children and aims to identify and prevent maltreatment, or impairment of health or development, and ensure that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with safe and effective care. The LSCB should be proactive in its approach to target particular groups and make arrangements for responsive work to protect children who are suffering, or at risk of suffering, maltreatment.
The death of Peter Connelly in 2007 led to inquiries into the role of all agencies involved in his case and death, including the health authority, police and Haringey Council. The General Social Care Council were to conduct an internal review into potential breaches of its code of practice. In addition Lord Laming conducted a nationwide review of his own recommendations after the Victoria Climbie inquiry. This review highlighted the fact that previous recommendations had not been taken up by all authorities.
In the event of a death or a child is suspected of being a victim of abuse or neglect, a serious case review (SCR) will take place.
It is the role of the local safeguarding children’s board (LSCB) to consider whether a review should be undertaken where a child has been seriously injured through abuse or neglect or been subjected to a serious sexual assault and whether there could be other children involved i.e. siblings.
The purpose of the SCR is to establish whether there are lessons to be learnt from these cases, what these lessons are, how they can be acted on and what can be expected to change as a result, ultimately this will improve inter agency work and better safeguard for children and young people.
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