Daily Archives: March 3, 2015

What Happened To The Families Test? And Other Lost Trinkets

03 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by in child welfare, Children

≈ 9 Comments

During a cynical moment, in which we mulled over the possibility that our Prime Minister’s latest offering, which attempts to deter child abuse through criminal sanctions was nothing more than an election stunt doomed to get lost in a cabinet shuffle and never see the light of day, we suddenly remembered the Families Test.

The Families Test was another one of the PM’s initiatives, albeit in collaboration with the Department for Work and Pensions and other stakeholders inside the child welfare sector. Implemented last year, it was designed to ensure that all appropriate policy and legislation was family friendly, by putting it through a Families Test, to ensure that it promoted stability and did not undermine the family unit. We were a bit concerned that the woolly nature of the test would result in it being nothing more than a box ticking exercise at the time, and so we decided to make a Freedom of Information request, to find out how it’s getting on. This is what we wrote:

Dear Prime Minister’s Office,

I’m writing to ask you for an update on the Families Test, which was implemented last October. Specifically:

Have the guidelines been developed further since the October 14th, 2014 Guidance?

What policies and legislation to date have been tested using the Families Test?

Your guidance recommends the creation of a standalone document for analysis regarding the Families Test, in order to have a record of the process – how many departments are using such documents?

What was the outcome for each policy or piece of legislation tested?

Who is given authority to carry out the Test?

Who is in charge of checking that the tests are carried out properly?

What happens if a policy or piece of legislation does not meet the test?

Yours faithfully,

Natasha Phillips, Researching Reform

If we get a response, we will of course update the site and share it with you.

This got us thinking about other bizarre proposals that seemed to have fallen by the way side.

Remember Cinderella Law? Despite being met with abject horror by sensible child welfare campaigners, this law, which was given a nod in the Queen’s Speech, sought to make emotional abuse a criminal offence and send perpetrators away to jail (without clearly defined parameters on what constituted such abuse and without detailed thought as to whether it might cause children greater harm by denying them of a parent who may just have needed counselling and support). Since its introduction in 2014, things have gone eerily quiet – no mention of the law anywhere. What happened to it? Where did it go, we wonder?

Governments make promises about reforming the child welfare sector all the time. But can they keep them?

Trinkets

New Criminal Sanctions For Those Who Fail To Protect Children From Sexual Abuse

03 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by in child welfare, CSA, CSE

≈ 13 Comments

Prime Minister David Cameron, along with Home Secretary Theresa May and other key stakeholders in health, justice and education will meet in Downing Street later today, where the PM is expected to unveil new plans to crack down on child sexual exploitation. 

The press release tells us that newly appointed Commissioner for Rotherham Sir Derek Myers, Professor Alexis Jay, Sarah Champion MP, the new Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield, and the national policing lead Chief Constable Simon Bailey will be among the attendees at Downing Street’s CSE Summit today.

The new measures will include criminal sanctions for anyone who fails to protect children from sexual abuse. The government is considering implementing the sanction by extending the new criminal offence of wilful neglect of patients to children’s social care, education and elected members.

Other measures include:

  • Ensuring local areas have long term practical plans to uncover child sexual exploitation (CSE)
  • A new helpline to report bad practice
  • Tackling the culture of denial through the use of police and education inspections as well as a new Child Sexual Abuse Taskforce designed to trouble shoot in the social work, law enforcement and health sectors

At the landmark Summit, David Cameron will say:

“We have all been appalled at the abuse suffered by so many young girls in Rotherham and elsewhere across the country. Children were ignored, sometimes even blamed, and issues were swept under the carpet – often because of a warped and misguided sense of political correctness. That culture of denial which let them down so badly must be eradicated.

Today, I am sending an unequivocal message that professionals who fail to protect children will be held properly accountable and council bosses who preside over such catastrophic failure will not see rewards for that failure.

Offenders must no longer be able to use the system to hide their despicable activities and survivors of child sexual abuse must be given the long-term therapeutic treatment they need to re-build their lives. But it is not just about introducing new policies. It is about making sure that the professionals we charge with protecting our children – the council staff, police officer and social workers – do the jobs they are paid to do.

We owe it to our children, and to the children who survive horrific sexual abuse, to do better and ensure the mistakes of the past are never repeated again.”

The government’s report, “Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation” is also expected to be published today.