Children give safety top priority

Keeping children safe from harm is fundamental to every child's wellbeing, and when children and young people were asked which of the five ECM outcomes they thought was most important, safety came top of their list.

The Children Act 2004 makes it a legal obligation for schools and children's service agencies and other agencies, such as police, prrisons and NHS trusts, to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, and the staying safe agenda has a broad requirement to include everything from "maltreatment, neglect, violence and sexual exploitation, accidental injury and death, bullying and discrimination, to crime and antisocial behaviour." As Anne Whiteley, director of children and young people's services for Devon, says: "We need to think about the child's physical safety, social safety, emotional safety - their whole wellbeing both at home and in the school environment."

Kay Child, strategic manager for child protection, children's services, Walsall, agrees that safety issues are much broader now in relation to children: "My brief used to be to consider children at risk of abuse and neglect; now we think about road safety, environmental issues, self-harming, substance abuse, bullying and discrimination." She thinks this is a much better situation and, most importantly, "it challenges all the other childcare providers to think about the safety of children and to work together."

This collaborative, multi-agency approach between the different service providers who care for children and young people is the legal bedrock on which the safety agenda is based, and the duty to cooperate, including in the establishment of local safeguarding children boards, underpins their relationship.

Whiteley thinks the multi-agency approach is already having a significant impact: "The new broader focus shows very clearly that child safety is the responsibility of the whole system. and we therefore have to get all agencies working together - particularly around the early identification agenda. If we can nip problems in the bud and provide assistance at the earliest opportunity, we hope to see fewer children in care and on the child protection register."

Concentating on finding and dealing with problems earlier allows teachers in schools and professionals from other services who have concerns about a child to come together and work directly with the family to offer assistance and advice.

Whiteley explains: "A lot of problems are identified in the school setting, such as relationship difficulties, a child being withdrawn from school, a child arriving late at school, a child not developing - there would be a whole host of reasons, and the early identification and intervention model offers a universal approach to ensuring a child's wellbeing."

The early identification agenda is supported by the Information Sharing Index. This is an electronic tool that will help services working with children to identify who else is working with the child easily and quickly, so they can contact each other to share relevant information about children who need their services and protect those children who are at risk of harm. The Government is committed to introducing the index in all areas of England by the end of 2008 and it will contain basic information about every child, such as their name, address, school, GP, and any other services they may be using.

Early identification is particularly important for looked-after children (children in the care of, or accommodated by, local authorities). These children are one of the most vulnerable groups in society, and most are in care because they have suffered abuse or neglect. There are around 61,000 children in care in England alone, and a key aim of ECM, which is developed further in the Care Matters green paper, is to improve the early identification of, and support for, children at risk of abuse and neglect so as many as possible can stay safely with their families wihout the need to enter care.

Schools have been recognised as having a central role in improving outcomes for looked-after children, and this has led to much closer working relationship with social care services, and this has led to a much closer working relationship with social care services.

Diane Beardsmore is a teacher and pupil-needs leader at Chesterton community sports college in Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire, and she embraces this new relationship. "In the past we used to refer a child to social services and that was considered it, but now that we have meetings in school with social care workers before the child arrives, our views are being listened to, the child's progress is being logged and we know that he or she won't be lost in the system because we are working together."

Emma Barker, 19, has lived with foster carers since she was 15. She has managed, with their support, to do very well at school and is about to start a degree in English at Reading University. She attributes her success to the stability and security that her school and carers gave her: "Feeling safe is essential - you need to know that you have people around you who care and look after you. Without that fundamental support I don't know where I'd be."

Case study: The social worker

Monica Eneli is a social worker in the children in need team for Hackney social services, east London

Since the Every Child Matters' documentation, children and young people's services are working more effectively because it creates a statutory basis for partnership working with teachers, social care workers, youth justice workers, health visitors, the voluntary sector and others.

For example, in our team we now have a substance-misuse worker who I work jointly with on several of my cases, enabling me to have immediate access to her professional expertise and links with available support services. It has also enabled me to learn and adopt successful strategies of interviewing parents about their drug and alcohol use.

We are all focused now on working towards one outcome - to promote the safety and welfare of children. Although the system has improved, integrating teams will take some time, but we are moving in the right direction, as everyone's roles are now more defined.

The relationship between social care workers and teachers has also improved, and the education service is working better with social services. This has been enhanced by the new policies and procedures, and we are starting to build up a network.

In the past, teachers and social workers have not fully understood each other's roles and responsibilities. Since the launch of Every Child Matters, working together has helped us understand each other's roles better.

We have had a director of children's services appointed recently who, it is hoped, will help improve the image of social workers by helping us show that the whole aim of our work is to keep families together and to support them as much as possible.

It will be easier to change the public perception of us now, because it's not just social workers who are responsible for implementing the ECM document, it's everyone, whether it's teachers, doctors, health visitors, or youth justice workers. I feel this will definitely help with the agenda of change and improve the service we are able offer both children and their families. SJ