Barnado’s charity calls for new child protection agency


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Barnardo’s chief executive Roger Singleton is seeking to establish a new, child protection agency consisting of professional experts drawn from legal, health and social services. He also advocates that the government should create the post of Children’s Commissioner, in the same way that the Welsh assembly has already done.

Such a post would bring numerous benefits as Mr Singleton points out, ‘Having a children’s commissioner would mean an extra layer of accountability for children’s agencies, and would put someone into the system who had the capacity to look at things objectively and to inform future policy constructively.’

He also went on to point out, ‘Many of the issues to do with children and families today can’t be put right within our normal four or five year cycle of parliament. One of the things a children’s commissioner could do, would be to take a longer and non-party perspective’.

These concerns and recommendations are raised in the wake of the death of eight-year-old Anna Climbie, murdered in London by her great aunt and her boyfriend, notwithstanding monitoring and involvement on the part of three local authorities, the police and two hospitals.

While child protection legislation has been tightened up considerably over the past twenty five years or so – specifically since the death of Maria Colwell, aged seven, in 1973 – they are now about to be reviewed again. To this end, Health Secretary Alan Milburn has launched an inquiry chaired by Lord Laming with a mandate to investigate the catalogue of failings by police, health and social services that ultimately led to Anna Climbie’s death.

The enquiry will recommend what action should be taken to improve the protection of vulnerable children. It will be mandatory for all parties involved to cooperate and the report will made publicly available.

Barnardo’s has been in operation since 1870. It no longer runs the orphanages for which it used to be so renowned, concentrating on ‘working to give disadvantaged children the help they need to build a better future’. This translates into currently co-ordinating almost 300 projects nationwide, geared towards helping children, young people and their families to overcome disadvantages and difficulties such as abuse, homelessness, poverty and disability.

www.barnardos.com

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