Effectiveness of the new local safeguarding children boards in England: interim report
report
posted on 2009-10-20, 08:37 authored by Alan France, Emily R. Munro, Jo Meredith, Esmeranda Manful, Jacqueline BeckhellingLocal Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) were established under the Children Act 2004
and have the responsibility for co-ordinating and ensuring the effectiveness of the work of
partner bodies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children (Children Act 2004, Section
14). The functions of the LSCB are as follows:
(a) developing policies and procedures for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of
children in the area of the authority…
(b) communicating to persons and bodies in the area of the authority the need to
safeguard and promote the welfare of children, raising their awareness of how this
can best be done, and encouraging them to do so;
(c) monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of what is done by the authority and their
Board partners individually and collectively to safeguard and promote the welfare of
children, and advising them on ways to improve;
(d) participating in the planning of services for children in the area of the authority;
(e) undertaking reviews of serious cases and advising the authority and their Board
partners on lessons to be learned (The Local Safeguarding Children Board
Regulations 2006, Section 5).
Research demonstrates that Area Child Protection Committees (ACPCs) had a number of
weaknesses, including lack of statutory power, poor leadership, high variations in
membership and insufficient resources (Chief Inspector of Social Services et al., 2002; Ward
et al., 2004). In trying to understand how successful LSCBs have been in overcoming some
of these weaknesses the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the
Department of Health (DoH) have commissioned the Centre for Research in Social Policy
(CRSP) and the Centre for Child and Family Research (CCFR) at Loughborough University
to undertake a large scale research study that explores the effectiveness of LSCBs in
England.
The final report, which will draw on data from six case study areas, including: interviews with
Chairs and DCSs, 60 Board members from social care, health, education, early years the
police and others and 180 frontline professionals as well as social network analysis (in two
areas) to more fully explore the extent to which LSCBs have been able to engender change
and their overall effectiveness. [... continued].
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies
Research Unit
- Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP)
Citation
FRANCE, A. ... et al, 2009. Effectiveness of the new local safeguarding children boards in England: interim report. DCSF Report, Report RR126Publisher
© Loughborough UniversityVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Publication date
2009Notes
This is an official report prepared by CRSP and CCFR for the Department for Children, Schools and Families.ISBN
9781847754653Language
- en