Integrated services - An essay demonstrates knowledge of current legislation, policy and practice in an Integrated children\'s and young people\'s service. PDF

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This essay will demonstrate my knowledge of current legislation, policy and practice within children and a young people’s integrated service. Integrated services is where everyone who works with children and young people work together to ensure that the children’s needs are met. It is all for the in...

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This essay will demonstrate my knowledge of current legislation, policy and practice within children and a young people’s integrated service. Integrated services is where everyone who works with children and young people work together to ensure that the children’s needs are met. It is all for the interest of the children or their family. Integrated services are initially used to promote safeguarding for children and young people through using legislation. Integrated services means that different services attempt to work together in a multi-agency approach to prevent problems from occurring and they attempt to improve the children or families needs and improve outcomes. It has been stated that,

‘It’s by coming together to share information and raise concerns that we can increase the likelihood of protecting children from harm and promoting their welfare.’

(Multi-agency working, 2011)

A key event that influenced integrated services was the case of Mary Ellen Wilson in 1874. Mary Ellen was adopted by a couple but when her adoptive father died her adoptive mother could not cope and took physical abuse out on her. It was only when neighbours were concerns about her welfare that they got the Department of Public Charities and Correction involved who then got in communication with other agencies like the city’s almshouse, workhouse, insane asylums, orphanages, jails, hospitals and an investigator to investigate her case (Markel, 2009). The investigator Etta Angell Wheeler was frustrated that there was a lack of child protection laws and she went to the A.S.P.C.A. who got a judge involved who finally got Mary Ellen’s adoptive mother sent to jail. From Mary Ellen’s case the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was founded in late 1874 and it is believed to be the first child protection agency in the world. The society has now been able to help children who have been abused by working with similar agencies from Mary Ellen’s case and has been able to put in place laws that protect the children from their abusive families (Markel, 2009).

A significant event that highlighted concerns within integrated services was the Cleveland case in 1987 when one hundred and twenty one children were removed from fifty seven family homes after being diagnosed as sexually abused (Valios, 2007). The case highlighted that there was a lack of communication between the police and social services because other professionals failed to recognise requirements. However following the Cleveland case 1987 the Children Act 1989 was implemented. The act was put into place to reform and strengthen family law. One of the key principles of the act is that ‘children are best looked after within their families’ (DFE, 2015, P.13). The act ensures that the children’s parents should have a full part in their child’s life unless there is a need to have a compulsory intervention in their family life (DFE 2015, p.13). Although this legislation was put into place for child protection and for different agencies to work together, the murder of Victoria Climbié in 2000 by her great aunt and aunt’s partner resulted in the change of the Children Act 1989 to the Children Act 2004 because different professional failed to protect children from the abuse as there poor communication between the different agencies. It was found out that there was inadequate implementation of the legislation as the agencies responsible for safeguarding Victoria failed to intervene twelve times before her death. The Children Act 1989 was a success but because none of the agencies worked together it failed to safeguard the children. The Lord Laming Report 2003 was carried out after the death of Victoria Climbié. The Report suggested that there was failure in the system and that the needs of protecting children were overlooked and was seen as a low priority. There was a lack of information sharing between agencies and a lack of agencies working together (Laming Report, 2003, P.3 and 4). After the Laming Report the government published a key document called ‘Every Child Matters’. The document has a clear framework and five outcomes that all professional working with children and young people need to follow. The five outcomes are being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, make a positive contribution and achieving economic well-being (Tassoni, 2007, P. 239). Then subsequently the Children Act 2004 was passed. The act was brought in so that social and health services could work together. Local safeguarding boards were set up which took on responsibility for multi-agency child protection training.

Furthermore the Working Together to Safeguard Children 2006 was set out so that professional working with children and young people can see how they need to safeguard and promote the children’s welfare. In the document it outlines that professionals have a shared responsibility and have ‘different roles and expertise are required if children are to be protected from harm’ (HM Government, 2006, P. 10). Even though this was put into place after the death of Peter Connolly in 2007 there was then another Lord Laming report carried out in 2009. Peter Connolly was found 48 hours after a doctor failed to spot his severe injuries which included a broken spine and he suffered more than 50 injuries. (Garboden, 2008). Although he was on the Haringey Council’s child protection register his family had been seen by various agencies including social services and the police who never spotted the harm and abuse. Lord Laming published The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report in 2009 after the death of Peter Connolly. The report was criticised by many people and Lord Laming said that he thought that public bodies had not done enough to make the recommendations in the 2003 report in to a reality in practice. Lord Laming suggested,

‘In such circumstances it is hard to resist the urge to respond by saying to each of the key services, if that is so, 'NOW JUST DO IT!’

(Laming, 2009) Another criticism was that child protection felt like a ‘Cinderella service’ and it was felt like social workers were losing their confidence because there was such a big focus on progress and targets (The Telegraph, 2009). The report is Lord Laming made some recommendations for working within integrated services which include more child protection training for student social workers and directors of children’s services should have an experienced social work manager to support them. Council leaders should have child protection training provided by the government (Ahmed, 2009). Another significant event is Daniel Pelka’s death in 2012 even after all the legislations have been put into place and social services, police and other professionals have been involved

still child deaths seem to happen. There was a serious case review following Daniel’s death in which it shows how there was poor communication on the sharing system between health services and there was insufficient staff training so the staff did not know about child protection. The staff had noticed that he was losing weight but his mother told them it was a medical condition and believed her explanation. Within the case review is states, ‘This may have led staff members into a false sense of security that they were doing more than they actually were’

(Lock, 2013, P.60, 7.18).

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015 has made some improvements but it was not a major review from the 2013 guidelines. It outlines that local authorities should now have a designated officer for management who can supervise them when allegations are made against people who work with the children. Local authorities will now have to report incidents to Ofsted, for instance if a child has died and abuse is known or not know and if a child has been seriously harmed or neglected (Piper, 2015). The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) is an assessment where practitioner will gather and record information about a child who they may have concerns about. They will identify the needs of the child and decide how the needs can be met. All the professional need to consider the child carefully and make the decision they think is best, like Fisher stated,

‘It is an ideal strategy for when you have to choose or make a decision, for it encourages you to withhold judgement to reflect on all factors.’

(1995, Page 77)

The CAF is put into place so that professionals from different agencies all working with children can communicate more effectively. It is there to support early intervention and joint working to support a common goal. In the present day child abuse is still happening even after all the legislations have been put in place. In reports coming out about child abuse it is stated that when the children are being abused at home the children do not always know who they should tell or what the right words are to say. The report shows that one in eight children are being abused from a young age but do not tell anyone until they are older because of being afraid and even when they do tell someone the abuse continues to happen. Even when children choose to tell the police they were still not being protected. The children’s commissioner is now trying to think of new ways and look in more detail at what needs to be done about child protection (Holt, 2015). To sum up this essay on integrated services it is clear to see that even though the legislations are successful the child abuse still continues to happen. Professionals working in integrated services need to understand the challenges of integrated services but also the responsibility they have to protect children, like suggested here,

‘Recognise when a child or young person’s... likely to suffer harm, and take action to protect them.’

(Tarr, Whittle and Evans, 2011, P. 48)...