Child practice review recommends change in the law

An independent report (Child Practice Review) into the death of a young child, who was home educated and not known to the authorities from the age of 13 months, is published today.

The report was authored independently by Gladys Rhodes White OBE, a national expert in safeguarding and child protection.

The purpose of a child practice review is to identify learning for future practice, and involves practitioners, managers and senior officers in exploring the detail and context of agencies’ work with a child and family.

The output of a review is intended to generate professional and organisational learning and promote improvement in future inter-agency child protection practice, with a focus on accountability and not on culpability (Protecting Children in Wales Guidance for Arrangements for Multi-Agency Child Practice Reviews, Welsh Government 2013).

The report recommends that Welsh Government change the law so that the details of all elective home educated children are kept on a register and that they are seen and spoken to and their wishes recorded on an annual basis.

At present there is no such requirement and the law does not state any general requirement for parents to inform the education directorate if their child or children were never on a school roll.

The child – who lived in a remote Pembrokeshire community with his parents and older sibling – died in December 2011 aged eight years old.

The family, the report says, were not engaged by choice with mainstream universal services.

The child had been suffering from severe symptoms of ill health and there was no evidence of any medical input regarding the deterioration of the child’s health.

The Child Practice Review calls for a multi-agency protocol to be drawn up across mid and west Wales to safeguard children educated at home. The Review also calls for CYSUR to write to the National Independent Safeguarding Board to ensure there is widespread training for all practitioners working with children, adults and families on the implications of the new guidance for the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 to ensure that assessments on individuals also consider the wider family context, including the impact on parenting and the needs of carers.

The review was commissioned by CYSUR – the Regional Safeguarding Children Board – which comprises a variety of statutory agencies including the police, probation, four county councils and two health boards.

The Board accepted the findings of the review when it met yesterday (Thursday, 7th July).

The CPR is publicly available from 12 noon on Friday, 8th July, on Pembrokeshire County Council’s website: www.pembrokeshire.gov.uk