Children's services urged to prioritise adoption
Local authorities are being urged by the government to prioritise adoption for vulnerable young people although children's services leaders have warned that adoption is just one means of securing permanence and stability for children in care.
The government has said that potential adoptive parents should not be wrongly turned away to allow more vulnerable young [...]
Lack of specialist child protection in health settings places children in care at risk
A lack of specialist child protection roles within health settings reveal a system struggling to deliver a reliable service for vulnerable children and young people, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has warned.
Rising demand and workforce shortages are leading to vacancies in vulnerable children and families lead roles across the UK, the [...]
One in five adults experienced child abuse before age 16
One in five adults aged between 18 and 74 years old experienced at least one form of child abuse before the age of 16, a report by the Office for National Statistics has found.
Figures taken from The Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated that this equates to 8.5 million people experiencing emotional, physical [...]
Progress in Southampton has been too slow, says Ofsted
Progress in improving services for children in Southampton since the last inspection in 2014 has been uneven and too slow, Ofsted has said.
Some children benefit from skilled interventions and direct work that reduces risks to them and improves their daily lived experiences, but many do not. The overall quality of social work for children [...]
Technique launched to identify online groomers
A new technique designed to identify and block conversations between sexual predators and children has been launched by the Home Office and Microsoft.
The new technique which uses artificial intelligence will flag conversations which could be taking place between groomers and children and pass on the details of the flagged conversations to the relevant law enforcement [...]
Improvements made at Cheshire East since last inspection
Significant progress has been made in some areas of social work practice at Cheshire East council since the previous inspections. however, improvement is needed in other services to ensure that children receive a consistently good service, Ofsted has warned.
Since the single inspection framework (SIF) inspection in 2015, and the focused visit in October 2018, [...]
