Munro report on child protection released today…
1st February 2011
England’s child protection system is more focused on bureaucracy than keeping children safe, according to Professor Eileen Munro, who discussed the issue on Radio 4′s Today programme this morning.
Professor Munro was speaking ahead of the second report from her review of children’s services, which is due to be revealed later this morning.
During the interview, Munro said: “The unintentional, cumulative effect of the last 20 years is you have ended up with a system where people’s attention is on paperwork, regulation and Ofsted criteria, so we are not giving enough attention to whether we are protecting children.”
“The basic procedural manual for working together between police, social workers and health was 7 pages long in the 70s and is now approaching 400. When you have a document that big, you can’t see what the crucial, central rules and procedures are. I want to look at that document and strip it down so you have the very small, but essential rules.”
She added: “One of the problems is that rules give people a false sense of security, want I want to do is reduce bureacucracy and increase people’s judgement, to give them more responsibility for what they do.”
The full second report will be covered here later in the day…
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