North Wales Child Abuse Tribunal

The duties of the Commissioner should include: (a) ensuring that children's rights are respected through the monitoring and oversight of the operation of complaints and whistleblowing procedures and the arrangements for children's advocacy; (b) examining the handling of individual cases brought to the Commissioner's attention (including making recommendations on the merits) when he considers it necessary and appropriate to do so; (c) publishing reports, including an annual report to the National Assembly for Wales.

Every social services authority should be required to appoint an appropriately qualified or experienced Children's Complaints Officer, who should not be the line manager of residential or other staff who may be the subject of children's complaints or complaints relating to children.

Amongst the duties of the Children's Complaints Officer should be: (a) to act in the best interests of the child; (b) on receiving a complaint, to see the affected child and the complainant, if it is not the affected child; (c) thereafter to notify and consult with appropriate line managers about the further handling of the complaint, including: (i) any necessary interim action in relation to the affected child, the complainant and the person who is the subject of complaint, including informal resolution of the complaint, if that is appropriate; (ii) consideration of the established procedures to be implemented, such as child protection and disciplinary procedures and including any necessary involvement of the police and/or other agencies; (d) to ensure that recourse to an independent advocacy service is available to any complainant or affected child who wishes to have it; (e) to keep a complete record of all complaints received and how they are dealt with, including the ultimate outcome; (f) to report periodically to the Director of Social Services on complaints received, how they have been dealt with and the results.

Any decision about the future of a child who is alleged to have been abused should be made in that child's best interests. In particular, the child should not be transferred to another placement unless it is in the child's best interests to be transferred.

Such complaints procedures should: (a) be neither too prescriptive nor too restrictive in categorising what constitutes a complaint; (b) encompass a wide variety of channels through which complaints by or relating to looked after children may be made or referred to the Children's Complaints Officer including teachers, doctors, nurses, police officers and elected members as well as residential care staff and social workers; (c) ensure that any person who is the subject of complaint will not be involved in the handling of the complaint.

Every local authority should establish and implement conscientiously clear whistleblowing procedures enabling members of staff to make complaints and raise matters of concern affecting the treatment or welfare of looked after children without threats or fear of reprisals in any form. Such procedures should embody the principles indicated in recommendation (7) and the action to be taken should follow, as far as may be appropriate, that set out in recommendation (4).

Consideration should be given to requiring failure by a member of staff to report actual or suspected physical or sexual abuse of a child by another member of staff or other person having contact with the child to be made an explicit disciplinary offence.

Field social workers should be required by regulation to visit any looked after child for whom they are responsible not less than once every eight weeks916. In the case of older children, they should be required also to see the child alone and at intervals away from their residential or foster home.

Steps should be taken through training and professional and other channels periodically to remind persons outside social services departments who are or may be in regular contact with looked after children, such as teachers, medical practitioners, nurses and police officers, of their potential role in identifying and reporting abuse, the importance of that role and the procedures available to them.

Police officers should be reminded periodically that an absconder from a residential care or foster home may have been motivated to abscond by abuse in the home. They should be advised that, when apprehended, an absconder should be encouraged to explain his reasons for absconding and that the absconder should not automatically be returned to the home from which he absconded without consultation with his field social worker.

It should be a rule of practice that any absconsion should be reported as soon as possible to the absconder's field social worker and that the absconder should be seen on his return by that social worker or by another appropriate person who is independent of the home.

When a complaint alleges serious misbehaviour by a member of staff, the Director of Social Services should appoint a senior officer to formulate an overall strategy for dealing with the complaint, including such matters as liaison with the police in relation to investigation and with other agencies as appropriate, the impact on the child and other residents, any links with other establishments, the handling of any disciplinary proceedings, treatment of any looked after children who are or may become abusers themselves, the management of information for children and parents, staff, elected members and the public.

Whenever a police investigation follows upon a complaint of abuse of a looked after child, the senior officer referred to in recommendation (18) or another senior officer assigned for the specific purpose should establish and maintain close liaison with the senior investigating officer appointed by the police for that investigation and the local authority's officer should be kept informed of the progress of the investigation.

Any disciplinary proceedings that are necessary following a complaint of abuse to a child should be conducted with the greatest possible expedition and should not automatically await the outcome of parallel investigations by the police or the report on any other investigation. In this context it should be emphasised to personnel departments and other persons responsible for the conduct of disciplinary proceedings within local authorities that: 21, 39, 62(v) (a) police or any other independent investigation does not determine disciplinary issues; (b) disciplinary proceedings may well involve wider issues than whether a crime has been committed; (c) the standard of proof in disciplinary proceedings is different from that in criminal proceedings; and (d) statements made to the police by potential witnesses in disciplinary proceedings, including statements by a complainant, can and should be made available to local authorities for use in such proceedings, if consent to this is given by the maker of the statement.

Personnel departments and other persons responsible for disciplinary proceedings within local authorities should be reminded that: (a) in deciding whether or not a member of staff should be suspended following an allegation of abuse to a looked after child, first consideration should be given to the best interests of the child; (b) suspension is a neutral act in relation to guilt or innocence; (c) long periods of suspension are contrary to the public interest and should be avoided whenever practicable; (d) depending upon the gravity of the allegation of abuse, the employment of a member of staff in another capacity not involving contact with children or other vulnerable persons may be an appropriate decision at the time of suspending or finally, having regard to the importance of protecting looked after children from abuse.

In the light of the recent experience gained in both England and Wales in major investigations of alleged wide ranging abuse of children in care/looked after children, an inter-agency review of the procedures followed and personnel employed in those investigations should now be arranged with a view to issuing practical procedural guidance for the future. In any event guidance is required to social services departments and police forces now in relation to: 82 (a) the safeguarding and preservation of social services files; (b) the safeguarding and preservation of police records of major investigations, including statements and the policy file; (c) access by the police to social services files; (d) the supply of information about alleged and suspected abusers by the police following an investigation; and (e) the sharing of information generally for criminal investigation and child protection purposes.

Social Services Departments should be reminded periodically that they must exercise vigilance in the recruitment and management of their staff in strict accordance with the detailed recommendations of the Warner committee917; and compliance with them by individual local authorities should be audited from time to time.

Similar vigilance should be mandatory in relation to all applications for approval as foster parents. In particular, any application to foster by a member of a local authority's child care staff should be stringently vetted by a social worker who is not known to the applicant.

The Tribunal endorses all five of the most recent recommendations of Sir William Utting in "People Like Us"918 in relation to the content and provision of training for staff in children's homes and the care units of residential special schools and recommends that they should be implemented as expeditiously as possible.

It should be a requirement that senior staff of children's homes (including private and voluntary homes) must be qualified social workers or, if that is not practicable before appointment, that it should be a condition of their appointment that they undertake qualifying training within a specified period.

The duty upon local authorities under section 24(1) of the Children Act 1989 to advise, assist and befriend a child with a view to promoting his welfare when he ceases to be looked after by them should be extended so as to ensure that placing authorities provide the level of support to be expected of good parents, including (where appropriate) help to foster parents to provide continuing support920.

Every local authority's fostering service, whether provided directly or by another agency, should monitor breakdowns in placements with a view to analysing the causes and remedying any faults in the service and should report upon them periodically to the Director of Social Services.

Appropriate key indicators of compliance with safeguards for looked after children should be developed, covering particularly:34, 62(i) (a) the allocation of a designated social worker to each looked after child; (b) compliance with fostering and placement regulations; (c) statutory review requirements; and (d) rota visits by elected members.

The owner of a private children's home and the owner of a private residential school approved generally for SEN children or receiving SEN children with the consent of the Secretary of State should be required, if the establishment is above a size to be determined, to appoint an appropriately constituted governing body under arrangements approved by the relevant regulatory authority, to include representation from the local social services and education authorities (as appropriate) and the local community.

The accounts and other relevant financial information relating to private children's homes and private residential schools approved generally for SEN children or receiving SEN children with the consent of the Secretary of State should be disclosed to the relevant regulatory authorities.

There should be an urgent review of the legislation governing the regulation of private residential schools to include particularly:71 (a) approvals and consents under section 347 of the Education Act 1996921 and for provisional registration of schools, (b) the Notice of Complaints provisions and the procedures for the withdrawal of approvals generally, and (c) the interaction with the provisions for registration of private children's homes, with a view to establishing a stricter and more readily enforceable regulatory regime.

Any placement of a child by a local education department or by a social services department in a residential school should be preceded by: (a) consultation between the departments as to whether an assessment by an appropriate social worker of the child's needs and family situation is needed as well as an educational assessment; and (b) in the light of (a) and any subsequent assessment, a decision about the need for (and extent of) any further involvement of the social services department with the child to ensure continuity of planning for the child's long term welfare and protection of the child's rights.

Without prejudice to the continuing role generally of the Social Services Inspectorate for Wales, an independent regulatory agency for children's services in Wales should be established, with a local base or local bases in North Wales, and charged with the responsibility of inspecting:38, 62(iv),68 (a) all local authority, voluntary and private children's homes; (b) the welfare provision in residential schools; (c) fostering services; and (d) the other components of children's services.

The agencies responsible for educational and welfare inspections of private residential schools accommodating children with SEN pursuant to section 347 of the Education Act 1996 should be required to agree joint programmes of inspection and reporting.

Copies of reports of inspections of private and voluntary children's homes and of private residential schools should be sent to the Director of Social Services of any placing authority with a child at the school and of the authority in whose area the establishment is located.

The responsibility for policy and service development and for oversight of the delivery of a local authority's children's services should be assigned to one member of the social services department management team of at least Assistant Director status.

Staffing resources at intermediate management level for a local authority's children's services should be sufficient in number and quality to enable positive and close supervision and support to be given to residential establishments and the fostering service.

Local authorities in Wales should review their current arrangements for management training and development for senior managers, including social services managers, giving particular attention to the development of skills in strategic planning, policy implementation and performance appraisal.

It should be the explicit duty of the Director of Social Services to assist and support elected members in discharging those responsibilities and, in particular:40 to 42, 62(vi) to (viii), 63 (a) to inform elected members of all matters of concern touching upon children's services, including reports upon them, whether adverse or favourable; (b) to provide information on comparative spending on children's services by local authorities in Wales and an analysis of that information; (c) to submit an annual report to the Social Services Committee on the department's performance in relation to children's services including its record of compliance with required safeguards for looked after children.

The willingness of councillors to visit children's homes should be a pre-condition of appointment to the committee responsible for the homes and the importance of fulfilling the duty to visit and to report on visits conscientiously should be emphasised to them. Elected members should be provided with appropriate guidance, including reference to the need to be vigilant in protecting the interests of the child residents as well as to be supportive of the staff.

An Advisory Council for Children's Services in Wales comprised of members covering a wide range of expertise in children's services, including practice, research, management and training, should be established in order to strengthen the provision of children's services in Wales and to ensure that they are accorded the priority that they deserve.

The functions of the Advisory Council should include: (a) advising on government policy and legislation with regard to their likely impact on children and young people; (b) commissioning research; (c) disseminating information and making recommendations.

There should be a nationwide review of the needs and costs of children's services based on local authorities' development plans and leading to a comprehensive and costed strategy for those services, including any necessary education and health elements.

Local authorities, in collaboration with voluntary and other relevant organisations and acting together with other local authorities where appropriate, should prepare costed development plans for children's services as a prelude to the proposed nationwide review, such plans to ensure (amongst other things) that:37, 62(iii) (a) there is an adequate range of residential care provision of appropriate quality, including secure provision, within reasonable reach of a child's family or other relevant roots;Para 54.21 (b) such residential provision includes safe places where children can recover when relationships break down; (c) as in (a), there is an adequate range of fostering facilities available of similar quality and accessibility;Para 54.23 (d) all residential placements are designed to be developmental and therapeutic rather than merely custodial; (e) full educational opportunities are available for looked after children, including remedial education.24, 58(v)