Child and Family Training’s Open Courses Training Programme for 2010-2011 is now in place. This includes training on:

• Assessing parenting and the family life of children (including disabled children) using the HOME Inventory and Family Pack of Questionnaires and Scales
• Assessing families in complex child care cases using the Family Assessment
• Safeguarding Assessment Training – Evidence-based assessment, analysis and planning using the Assessment Framework in complex cases where there are continuing safeguarding concerns
• Using the Attachment Style Interview in fostering and adoption or child care contexts
• Communicating with Children: Direct work with children using the In My Shoes Interview
• Using the Attachment Style Interview -Parenting Role Interview (for those who have completed ASI training)

The Open Courses Training Programme is designed for professionals in Children’s Social Care, Health, Education and the Independent Sector.

For further information:
See www.childandfamilytraining.org.uk or contact Phythian, administrator on jane.phythian@childandfamilytraining.org.uk

Lord Justice Thorpe, an appeal court judge and deputy head of family justice, will chair the group convened by the UK regulator to review guidance for paediatricians doing child protection work.

The GMC pledged last May to set up the group, whose first meeting was scheduled for 7 July, “to provide clarity and reassurance about what is expected from those who practise in this critically important area of healthcare.”

John Goldup, development director for social care, Ofsted, said learning from inspections is “not easy” as the checks used to assess authorities are not designed for research use.

Speaking at the Children & Young People Now conference Identify Risk Early On & Keep Children Safe, Goldup said themes for improving safeguarding include:

• Clear leadership with a focused local safeguarding children board, with frontline practitioners aware of its plans and their impact
• Performance management and quality assurance that supports frontline practice rather than “creating a drag” on it
• Strong partnership working with the ownership of safeguarding as a “whole system issue”
• Effective commissioning and service planning based on a strong assessment of need, and
• A systematic approach to enabling and supporting quality practice which can include resilience development for staff or caseload support.

Registration with the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) will be halted to allow the government to remodel the scheme back to proportionate, common sense levels.

The VBS is designed to protect children and vulnerable adults by preventing those who pose a known risk from gaining access to them through their work.

Voluntary registration with the VBS for new employees and job-movers working or volunteering with children and vulnerable adults was due to start on 26 July. This registration has now been stopped.

The government recognises that many businesses, community groups and individuals see the current scheme as disproportionate and overly burdensome, and that it unduly infringes on civil liberties.

Existing arrangements under the Scheme which will continue include the following:

• since January 2009, the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) has been making independent barring decisions. It will continue to maintain two constantly updated lists, one for those barred from working with children, the other for those barred from working with vulnerable adults
• existing requirements concerning Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Access Northern Ireland checks will remain in place, and those entitled to such checks can continue to apply for them
• employers are still legally obliged to refer information to the ISA if they have moved or removed an individual because they have harmed or there is a risk of harm to a member of a vulnerable group.

The scope of the remodelling process – to be co-ordinated by the Home Office in partnership with Department of Health and Department for Education – is currently being finalised and will be announced shortly.

Inspectors praised Cumbria’s use of experienced staff in handling cases and its children’s social work team’s partnerships with other organisations.

Other councils to receive favourable reports were Merton, Norfolk, Halton and Barnsley. In Norfolk inspectors praised the council’s staff training, which was tailored to the individual needs of each staff member.

Responding to a question after her keynote speech at Community Care LIVE, Atkinson said she agreed with the questioner that risk of emotional harm and risk to the spiritual well-being of children was currently ignored “at our peril”.

She said her policy priorities over the next six months will be working out how to ensure the opening up of the family courts was implemented to ensure children did not feel they could not tell their stories and she was also going to focus heavily on safeguarding for children in young offender institutions, alternative detention options for asylum seeking children and the future shape of serious case reviews.

Read Maggie Atkinson’s speech to Community Care LIVE 2010 in full

The deadline for applications this year is 31st July 2010.

Further information

• Download the 2010 application form, eligibility criteria and guidance

If you are not currently a BASPCAN member but would like to apply for a research grant in 2010, please visit the BAPSCAN membership page for information on joining the association or contact the National Office .

The statistics, which lay bare the true impact of safeguarding pressures on councils, were collected by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, in an attempt to calculate the financial impact of current child protection concerns.

They reveal the number of children subject to a child protection plan over the past two years has increased by 32.9 per cent nationally.

In 72 local authorities, the numbers rose by more than 10 per cent and in 28 councils by more than 50 per cent.

The survey also found that initial contacts between social workers and children leapt up by 34.6 per cent and initial assessments increased by 23.4 per cent. Ten local authorities reported that numbers of initial assessments had risen by more than 100 per cent.

» Read more about the survey findings

The document sets out plans for a new Early Intervention Implementation Group which will draw on informed advice and practical experience both from within the Government and from those who deal with these practical issues every day, to make recommendations about how further impetus can be provided for effective early intervention. It also includes a commitment to commission experts to explore the potential of Social Impact Bonds to lever in additional resources to support early intervention approaches with children and young people.

• Download Early Intervention: Securing good outcomes for all children and young people

• One year on from Laming: progress and challenges
  Presentation by Heather Gwynn, Department of Health.
• National Safeguarding Delivery Unit: work programme priorities 2010-12
  Presentation by Jacky Tiotto, National Safeguarding Delivery Unit.
• Communicating concerns of NAI: a qualitative study on parents’ experiences
  Presentation by Dr Sirkka Komulainen, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Science and Research Department.
• Improving the recognition of the neglect of medical needs as a safeguarding issue
  Presentation by Drs Michelle Zalkin, Tammy Rothenberg, Piyusha Kapila, Great Ormond Street Hospital at the North Middlesex Hospital.
• Safeguarding children across culture and faith
  Presentation by Mor Dioum and Stephanie Yorath, The Victoria Climbie Foundation UK (VCF) .
• Supporting improvement: registration and inspection
  Presentation by Sue Eardley, Care Quality Commission.
• Taskforce on the health aspects of violence against women and children
  Presentation by Christine Christie, Taskforce on Violence Against Women and Girls.
• Introduction to safeguarding children and young people: a toolkit for general practitioners
  Presentation by Dr Vimal Tiwari, West Hertfordshire.