Mandatory Reporting in Child Welfare: Developments in England

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Mandatory Reporting in Child Welfare
Developments in England

• Professor Nigel Parton
• NSPCC Professor in Applied Childhood Studies
• Centre for Applied Childhood Studies
• University of Huddersfield
• Huddersfield HD1 3DH
• England
• n.parton_at_hud.ac.uk

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• Since the public enquiry into the death of
  Maria Colwell, whilst under the supervision of
  local authority social workers in 1973/74, the
  major driver for policy, practice and legislative
  change in child welfare and protection in England
  has been public enquiries which have received
  major media coverage.

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• These issues came to a head with the publication
  of the public enquiry, chaired by Lord Laming
  (2003), into the death of Victoria Climbie in
  2000.
• The government responded with the publication of
  the Green Paper Every Child Matters (2003) and
  the Children Act 2004 which will fundamentally
  reconfigure the organisation and delivery of all
  childrens services in England and which has to
  be in place for 2008.

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• Victoria, born and brought up in the Ivory Coast,
  had been known to 5 Social Services Departments,
  2 hospitals, 2 police child protection teams, and
  one voluntary child protection agency in the 9
  months she lived in London with her aunt after
  her arrival from France.
• The enquiry argued that there were at least 12
  occasions when Victoria could have been saved but
  on each occasion there was a failure to share
  information so that the signs of her abuse were
  never recognised.
• In particular, the case was never responded to as
  a child protection case but was always seen as
  one of family support requiring the provision
  of help and services to try and better meet
  the needs of both herself and her aunt for
  example trying to provide appropriate housing.

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• The issue of the most appropriate balance between
  family support and child protection has been
  central for child welfare policy and practice
  since the late 1980s.
• The current changes are the most radical ever
  developed to response to this issue and in my
  opinion are the most radical anywhere in the
  Western World.
• To understand why this is the case it is
  important to recognise that the changes currently
  being implemented have a much longer genealogy
  than responding to the death of Victoria Climbie.
  
• The changes aim to take forward the idea that it
  is important to intervene at a much earlier stage
  in childrens lives in order to prevent a range
  of problems in later life, particularly in
  relation to educational attainment, unemployment
  and crime so that all children can fulfil their
  potential.

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• Underpinning the changes outlined in the Green
  Paper are two basic assumptions concerning the
  nature of recent social change and the current
  state of knowledge.
• First, over the previous generation childrens
  lives have undergone profound change.
• While children now have more opportunities than
  ever before and have benefited from rising
  prosperity and better health, they also face more
  uncertainties and risks. They face earlier
  exposure to sexual activity, drugs and alcohol,
  and family patterns have changed significantly.
  There are more lone parents, more divorces and
  more women in paid employment, all of which have
  made family life more complex and the position of
  children more precarious.

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• Second, the Green Paper also asserted that these
  changes have come about at a time when we now
  have increased knowledge and expertise and
  therefore are in a better position to respond to
  these new uncertainties and risks. In
  particular, we better understand the importance
  of early influences on the development of values
  and behaviour (p15).

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• we have a good idea what factors shape
  childrens life chances. Research tells us that
  the risk of experiencing negative outcomes is
  concentrated in children with certain
  characteristics and experiences (p17).
• These include
• Low income and parental unemployment
• Homelessness
• Poor parenting
• Poor schooling
• Postnatal depression amongst mothers
• Low birth weight
• Substance misuse
• Individual characteristics, such as intelligence
• Community factors, such as living in a
  disadvantaged neighbourhood

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• The other area where knowledge and expertise has
  grown and which is seen as vital to take policy
  and practice forward, is in relation to the major
  changes that have taken place in relation to ICT.
  The age of e-government is seen as having major
  implications for the reform and development of
  childrens services.
• Not only would this provide the potential for
  identifying problems and enhancing attempts to
  intervene at an earlier stage, but it would allow
  different organisations and professionals to
  share information in order to ensure that
  childrens problems are not missed and children
  do not fall through the net. The introduction
  of more integrated childrens services is seen as
  crucially dependent on the introduction of new
  ICT systems.

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• As the title of the Green Paper - Every Child
  Matters implies the changes apply to all
  children as all are seen as being potentially
  vulnerable at some time in their lives.
• It is seen as important to ensure the integration
  of universal, targeted and specialist services,
  so that universal services are conceptualised as
  offering early intervention to prevent the
  emergence of specific problems before they become
  chronic.

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• A key element of the changes aimed to improve
  integration is the need for a wide range of
  health, welfare, education and criminal justice
  agencies to share information where there is a
  cause for concern concerning a childs health
  and development.
• In effect and for the first time England is
  introducing a mandatory reporting system, based
  not on evidence or risk of child maltreatment,
  but upon the notion of a cause for concern for
  a childs health and development but where there
  is no definition of a cause for concern either
  in the legislation or as yet regulations.

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• Section 12 of the Children Act 2004 empowers the
  Secretary of State to establish and operate
  databases about children. The national database
  will be called the Information Sharing Index (IS
  Index) and all 150 local authorities in England
  will be responsible for compiling a database on
  all children in their area.

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• The database will contain
• The childs name, address, gender and date of
  birth
• A number identifying the child
• The name and contact details of any person with
  parental responsibility or who has care of
  him/her at any time
• The name and contact details of any educational
  institution, primary medical services, or any
  specialist or targeted service which is, or has
  been, provided to the person by, or on behalf of,
  a local authority
• The name and contact details of a lead
  professional for that child (if appointed) and
• If Child Benefit is being claimed, the name and
  address of the claimant.
• Disclosure of this information is mandatory
  and regulation 4 provides that it may be made
  even if a rule of common law might otherwise
  prohibit or restrict the disclosure or provision
  of information

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• Section 12 also allows for the inclusion of any
  other information, excluding medical records or
  other personal records, as the Secretary of State
  may specify by regulation.
• For sensitive services (i.e. those relating to
  sexual health, mental health, and substance
  abuse) information will only be included on the
  database with the consent of the person or young
  person.
• The lack of consent can be overridden in certain
  circumstances to be specified in future
  regulations, but will include cases where there
  are genuine child protection concerns.
• Access to the contact details of personnel in
  sensitive services will be restricted to index
  management teams.

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• In addition to the information about services in
  contact with the child, Section 12 allows for the
  inclusion of information as to the existence of
  any cause for concern in relation to him (the
  child).
• While the current regulations do not specify how
  this will operate current government guidance is
  that professionals will have a facility to enter
  an indication on one of three criteria
• To show that there is information to share
• An assessment has taken place
• Action has taken place
• The degree to which entering an indication will
  be optional or mandatory is unclear but, to date,
  all elements of the database that have been
  implemented have been on a mandatory basis

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• A benefit for the government in making entering
  data on the database mandatory is that it becomes
  compliant with the Data Protection Act 1998 which
  allows for information sharing if there is a
  statutory duty to do so.
• Whether this strategy is compliant with the Human
  Rights Act 1998 is not clear and is likely to be
  settled through court action.

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• Whether or not entering an indication is
  mandatory, it will involve professional judgement
  in determining whether a case meets the criteria.
  Therefore, the precision of the definitions of
  the criteria will be crucial in determining the
  efficiency and reliability of the reporting
  system.
• A cause for concern includes concerns about
  abuse and neglect but such concerns are not
  treated any differently from other problems or
  needs which a child might have in relation to
  their health and development since the Index
  cannot contain sensitive case information.

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• A major effect of the changes will be to
  fundamentally reconfigure the relationships
  between the state, professionals, parents and
  children for new and wide-ranging systems of
  surveillance are being introduced. England is in
  the process of introducing a mandatory reporting
  system but not based on any notion of child abuse
  but on the basis of a cause for concern, which
  is not defined in legislation.
• The accumulation and exchange of information
  about children takes on a key role to ensure that
  children do not fall through the various nets
  designed to protect them from social exclusion,
  delinquency, or poor educational achievement and
  ensure they receive early help and thereby fulfil
  their potential.
• Abuse becomes only one of many causes for
  concern.
• In attempting a policy and practice shift which
  aims to both prioritise prevention and early
  intervention while strengthening protection, the
  role of the state both broadens and becomes more
  interventive and regulatory at the same time.