A series of reports published Tuesday in Wales on child protection agencies stressed the need for Criminal Records Bureau check for all the staff.
The three reports published are:Safeguarding and Protecting Children in Wales: the review of Local Authorities and the Local Children safeguarding Boards.
Improving Practice to Protect Children in Wales: An examination of the role of the Serious Case reviews.
Safeguarding and Protecting Children in Wales: A review of the review of the arrangements in place across the Welsh National Health Service.
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Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW) found that in relation to local authority social services, much attention has been given to strengthening the response to initial concerns about child harm and abuse since the first national review carried out by Social Services Inspectorate of Wales in 2004.
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The review said: “Protecting children should not be about waiting for things to go wrong before individuals and organisations once again focus on how to do things better.
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"These reports provide clear evidence of the improvements that have been made by local authorities and other organisations to safeguard and protect children in Wales. They also identify where attention and effort now needs to be focussed in further strengthening and improving joint working to safeguard and protect children. The challenge for all organisations and professionals working with children and their families is to deliver this."
HIW’s review undertaken in tandem with those of CSSIW specifically set out to answer 2 key questions:
Are all those working in healthcare organisations aware of their responsibilities in relation to child protection and safeguarding and do they know how to properly deal with suspected child protection/safeguarding issues?
Are children and young people safe when accessing health services or visiting healthcare premises?
The HIW report identifies some progress and improvement in relation to child protection and safeguarding arrangements across healthcare organisations since the last full review undertaken, by HIW, in 2007. It highlights that staff were found to be generally alert to child protection issues and aware of the appropriate reporting and escalation procedures. However, the report also states that some staff working in adult services still appear to not accept that they also have a role in child protection.
In the report concern is also raised that not all staff working in the NHS have been Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checked and that there are inconsistencies in the way CRB checks are undertaken across NHS Wales. Variations in the consistency with which health professionals share information inside their own organisations, as well as with other agencies and sectors have also been identified. In some areas, staff expressed concern about breaking patient confidentiality and the effect that this may have on their future relationship with the individual and their therapeutic needs.
The report contains twenty six recommendations aimed at improving child protection and safeguarding arrangements across healthcare organisations in Wales.
Peter Higson, Chief Executive of HIW, said:
"The sharing of information and the CRB checking of staff continue to be the biggest issues for the NHS and it is clear that there is still a lot of work to be undertaken in these areas. Organisations need to be clear about when and how information is shared. They need to understand that the safety and welfare of children and young people is of the utmost importance; patient confidentiality should not be used as a barrier to protecting and safeguarding them.
We will require all those organisations and agencies, for which we have made recommendations for improvement in our report, to prepare an action plan setting out how they intend to take the recommendations forward. These action plans will be monitored as part of the performance management arrangements for those organisations".
Gwenda Thomas, Deputy Minister for Social Services, said, “It is not acceptable that in some places Criminal Records Bureau checks have not been made consistently. This cannot continue.”
Keith Towler, Children’s Commissioner for Wales, said: “It is unacceptable to find ourselves in a situation whereby an indeterminate number of health professionals are working without CRB checks.”
Source-Medindia
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