Children: Social Services

(asked on 22nd November 2016) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which recommendations related to primary and secondary legislation in her Department's report entitled, The Munro Review of Child Protection: Final Report, published in May 2011, have been implemented.


Answered by
Edward Timpson Portrait
Edward Timpson
This question was answered on 6th December 2016

There is one recommendation relating to primary and secondary legislation in ‘The Munro Review of Child Protection: Final Report’ that is currently being implemented: Amending the existing statutory requirements for each Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) to produce and publish an annual report for the Children’s Trust Board.

The statutory requirement to produce and publish an annual report for the Children’s Trust Board will be removed if, subject to the will of Parliament, provisions in the Children and Social Work Bill on local arrangements for safeguarding and promoting welfare of children become law. Of course, there are a range of other recommendations made by Professor Munro which don’t relate to legislation that have already been implemented.

This includes removing the distinction between initial and core assessments in Working Together to Safeguard Children statutory guidance, and trialling freedoms from the timescales in that guidance.

The Department does not hold a central list of changes to children’s social care regulations, but records of changes to regulations are publically available through the parliament website.

Children’s social care systems around the world are underpinned by very different legal frameworks and there isn’t a direct comparator. However, information about international innovation and system reform in children’s social care is available from academic sources and is used to inform policy.

Reticulating Splines