Tag: Edward Timpson

Below is the text of the speech made by Edward Timpson, the then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families, to the NSPCC Conference on 18 April 2013.

Thanks, Maggie [Atkinson, Children’s Commissioner for England]. I’m very pleased to be here and grateful for the opportunity to contribute to your conference.

As a champion of children living in fear and challenger to our collective conscience, the NSPCC has been a powerful force for good over the years. Your work to help victims of abuse and neglect through channels like ChildLine – which we’ve been pleased to support – has been especially valuable.

It’s crucial that we give young people a stronger voice. Which is why, as Maggie has said, straight after this speech, I’ll be returning to Parliament to debate our clauses in committee on strengthening the role of the Office of the Children’s Commissioner in our Children and Families Bill.

But, arguably, the NSPCC’s greatest impact has been through its unflinching mission to make us, as a society, confront what is still so often incredibly hard to face – the desperate plight of our most vulnerable children and the urgent need to do more to protect them. And the report being published today is no exception to this long and proud tradition.

I’m encouraged by its findings that, in many ways, today’s children are safer, with child homicide and child deaths from assault and suicide down and a decline in some forms of maltreatment and abuse. I’m also encouraged by your acknowledgement that we’re on the right track, with child protection services working harder than ever to reduce harm, and getting smarter about doing so.

But I agree that there’s much more we need to do – to better understand child abuse and neglect, to intervene earlier and with even greater impact.

That’s why we’re fundamentally reforming the child protection system to put the needs of children at its heart – so the system fits in the needs of children and not the other way around.

These reforms and the issues being discussed today could not be more timely. From shocking revelations about child sexual exploitation to alarm about the exposure of children to online pornography, child safety is higher than ever on the public agenda and in the public conscience.

The never-ending revolution in technology, in particular, is, taking us into uncharted territory, with new opportunities opening up alongside new dangers.

But while there’s no way we can put the digital genie back in the bottle, we can certainly do more to equip our children to stay safe. And, with toddlers manipulating iPads more confidently than their parents, it’s clear you can’t start too young.

Which is why, primary school pupils will have the chance to learn about internet safety under our proposed changes to the National Curriculum. They’ll be taught how to communicate securely and responsibly online and how to keep their personal information private – essential skills in the information age.

But, technology aside, it still very much remains the case that children are, sadly, most likely to come to harm at home and in the hands of someone they know.

This, as we know, was the terrible fate of Peter Connelly, Victoria Climbie and Khyra Ishaq.

In many of these instances – as we’ve also seen with victims of child sexual exploitation – the children’s cries for help went unheeded time and time again. They were met by indifference, disbelief and, in the worst instances, vilification from adults who should have been protecting them.

And after every such tragic case, we hear the familiar refrain ‘never again’ – until the next time.

Of course, we all know that we cannot completely eliminate risk. We should always be realistic about that.

But there will always be a next time until we learn the fundamental lesson that a child’s needs (to be safe, to have their basic needs met, to be heard) must always come first.

Ahead of the rights of abusive parents who are unable or unwilling to change their ways and ahead of adults wanting to escape criticism or any challenge to assumptions and work practices, however manifestly ineffective or outdated.

Problems with the child protection system

This is something that, over the years, many politicians and professionals have pledged to do, but, despite some good work, we know that there’s still far too much variation in child protection around the country.

There are, of course, some highly effective examples of good practice, such as multi-agency safeguarding hubs, including the one I visited in Nottinghamshire. But, it’s clear that too many local authorities and other agencies are still failing to meet acceptable standards for safeguarding children – to look for and act on signs of abuse, to intervene early enough and remove children decisively in sometimes the most appalling of cases.

Having lived and worked, for many years, with children damaged by neglect and abuse, I’ve seen, first-hand, what failure to act can mean – both in terms of the huge challenges these incredibly vulnerable children face and what it takes to turn lives around.

Now, as you may know, I grew up with over 80 foster children and two adopted brothers. Many came from chaotic, troubled backgrounds. Their behaviour was, at times, extremely challenging to say the least. I’ve seen babies addicted to heroin go into spasms. I’ve watched on as an abused and deeply angry little boy shattered every pane of glass in my dad’s prized greenhouse because he didn’t know how else to let his anger out. And I became proficient in most swear words by the age of ten thanks to the foster children who parroted back to me what they had heard at home.

But, over time, I saw how love, stability and routine helped them settle and thrive. And it became increasingly clear to me that many could have been spared immense suffering and long-term damage if they’d got consistent and reliable help earlier.

I went on to become a family barrister often representing children in care; an experience that reinforced what I’d seen at home – that timely intervention still wasn’t happening anywhere near enough.

By the time a case landed on my desk, the damage had, all too often, already been done, and it was a matter of trying to make the best of a bad job. It was apparent that cases were managed, all too often, for the convenience of adults rather than the interests of the child.

So if we’re to seriously raise our game and do better at keeping children safe, it’s vital that we reverse this wrong-headed emphasis. That we re-focus on the child protection system where it should always be – on the needs of the individual child.

What the Government is doing

Our reforms are focused on doing just that.

We’re implementing recommendations from Professor Eileen Munro’s valuable and widely-welcomed review of child protection; helping us move towards a much more child-centred system in which there’s a greater emphasis on early help, on identifying and tackling neglect and on multi-agency working – where possible, before formal intervention is needed.

One of Professor Munro’s most important recommendations was the need for guidance on the core legal requirements on all professionals working to keep children safe.

A clear framework within which professionals could exercise their expertise and judgement. And which spelled out what different agencies could expect from each other.

Working Together

We’ve delivered on this in the revised Working Together guidance, that Peter referred to, which has just come into force just this week. And we’re also producing an equivalent young person’s guide for the first time, with the Office of the Children’s Rights Director, to make sure we reach those whose needs are at its very heart.

Crucially, the guidance emphasises that safeguarding is the responsibility of all professionals who work with children, reinforcing, once again, the importance of multi-agency working.

As you know, Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards (LSCBs) are absolutely vital to driving this at a local level so that different services; police, health, education, social care, work closely together and properly share information.

This is happening in a highly effective way in some parts of the country, such as Lancashire’s excellent Engage project – a multi-agency team that has been especially successful in tackling child sexual exploitation, whether that be better prevention techniques, bringing criminals to justice or supporting victims.

I want us to do more to understand what works and why so we can spread best practice further through the LSCBs.

Serious Case Reviews

And when things do go wrong, we need to confront, honestly and openly, the mistakes that were made.

As your study, last month, into neglect, showed, one of the most critical vehicles for learning lessons – good and bad – are Serious Case Reviews (SCR).

Yet, until recently, all that was published were bland executive summaries. This certainly suited the adults who had made mistakes. But the price of sparing their blushes was paid by our most vulnerable children who were condemned to suffer from the same failings, over and over again, because we didn’t learn vital lessons.

That’s why this Government has insisted on SCRs being made public. Some local authorities, such as Leicester, north Somerset and Nottinghamshire, have responded positively to our call for greater transparency and accountability.

And we can see the benefits of publication beginning to be felt on the ground. In Southend, for example, findings drawn from SCRs triggered targeted, multi-agency audits of domestic abuse referrals to children’s social care. These audits identified that not enough was being done to engage with men in families, which had implications for children’s outcomes. So, training was introduced to raise awareness among practitioners and improve this engagement.

Yet, despite their potential to drive improvements, the number of SCRs being published remains disappointingly low – around half (99) of the 181 SCRs started since June 2010 have been completed, but only 44 have been so far been published.

This does show an increasing trend – 10 SCRs have already been published in the four months of this year compared to just seven for the whole of 2011. But too many SCRs still take too long to complete and too many are not published.

We’re keen to see these numbers rise significantly. It’s why we’re establishing a new national panel of independent experts to scrutinise and advise on LSCB decisions not to initiate or publish SCRs. One of the big issues to emerge from published SCRs and which bedevils multi-agency working is the failure to share information effectively.

Only yesterday, I met a council lead member for children’s services who was frustrated that many professionals still don’t know what facts they can share with other professionals about children at risk, often because of confusion about data protection rules – which is madness, when you consider that passing on the right information at the right time to the right organisation could quite literally mean the difference between life and death for a child in danger.

The modified Working Together guidance addresses this issue head-on, making it clear that, where a vulnerable child is concerned, the presumption should be to share information.

Health – information sharing

It’s right to say that the health service’s track record in this area has been a notable source of frustration. It’s a common complaint from LSCB Chairs that the NHS has an abundance of information, but doesn’t necessarily share it with other agencies.

So I’m pleased that my colleagues at Health are making moves to tackle this, with Dame Fiona Caldicott working on a statutory code of practice for information sharing.

And in December, there was the launch of a new system to make child protection information available to NHS doctors and nurses who suspect abuse or neglect when treating children in emergencies and unscheduled care.

The NHS Commissioning Board has also just published its accountability and assurance framework for safeguarding in the NHS, making it much easier for health professionals to understand what they need to do keep children safe.

But what we’re really grappling with, when it comes to better information sharing and, indeed, refocusing the system on the needs of the child, is the need for a shift in attitudes and culture.

Looking ahead

Fundamental to this are our reforms to bolster the workforce and improve practice.

Social workers do one of most critical, most demanding and, yes, potentially, most rewarding jobs in our society.

Something apparent when I accompanied social workers on family visits in Halton, in the north west, a few weeks ago.

One of the visits was to a family with four young children, in which the mother had learning difficulties and the father, mental health problems and suicidal tendencies. I was hugely impressed by the strong relationships and meaningful communication the social worker had established with the family.

This meant that her direct, practical attempts to support the parents by, for example, attaching a checklist of small steps to follow on the fridge, really hit home, rather than just eliciting platitudes that change nothing. I was also struck by the high morale and signs of strong leadership I saw when visiting the council offices. I was particularly interested to hear about a case file audit system they’d introduced, that had initially been greeted with unease by social workers, but had now been embraced it as a useful tool to motivate staff and manage performance.

This is just the kind of positive approach I’d like to see spread more widely – a commitment to self-improvement where professionals are not afraid to challenge one another.

And our reforms to provide greater leadership and support to the profession should go a long way towards this.

We’re appointing a chief social worker to lead the debate nationally about reform and ensure the profession has a strong voice at a national level.

Locally, each council is appointing a principal child and family social worker to lead on standards of practice and on learning locally. We’ve also set up the College of Social Work, a Step up to Social Work programme, and initiated a strengthened Ofsted inspection framework. And we’re keen to do for social work what has been done for teaching through TeachFirst.

Which is why we’re so supportive of Frontline, a brilliant idea by a TeachFirst Graduate, to get talented, committed graduates into social work.

I’m hopeful that we can get it up and running so some of our brightest and most committed graduates can start making a difference to our most vulnerable children and provide a welcome boost to the profession.

Conclusion

It’s by investing in people working on the frontline in this way that, I believe, gives us the best chance of driving the decisive shift in culture that’s needed to truly put children’s needs at the heart of the child protection system.

There’s little doubt that the fight against child cruelty continues to challenge and test us as a society as no other issue.

Even in our supposedly cynical age, we’re shocked by the extreme violation visited on the victims of child sexual exploitation. We worry about new threats to our children online.

Thankfully, as your report recognises, we’re making good progress towards keeping children safer, but it’s clear we need to do more to intervene earlier and more effectively, especially in a technological landscape that’s rapidly changing.

As I’ve just outlined, our overhaul of child protection and social work and proposals to put internet safety on the National Curriculum aim to do just that.

There’s nothing more important than protecting children from harm. Where children are suffering abuse or neglect they should be taken into care more quickly.

By re-focusing the system on children’s needs through our reforms, we’ll help ensure that each child gets the right support at the right time. And key to such timely intervention is the need to listen to the children and young people involved.

This message emerges loud and clear, time and time again, from the children who contributed to Professor Munro’s review, from the victims of child sexual exploitation and from the many letters I receive from young people.

As one of the older children interviewed for Professor Munro’s review said: ‘You’ve left me for too long.’

It’s, sadly, a plea that many vulnerable children would echo; starkly illustrating the uphill struggle they face in getting their voices heard and getting the timely help they so desperately need.

It’s only when young people no longer feel the need to make these pleas, that we can honestly say that we’re making the leap required of us – to properly protect them from harm and to reduce our chances of having to say ‘never again’ in years to come.

Thank you.

Below is the text of the speech made by Edward Timpson at Somerset House in London on 13 May 2014.

Thanks Sheila (Durr, Chair of the London Adoption Board), it’s good to be here.

Just a month ago, I was pounding the streets of London in the marathon, sporting a T-shirt with the words “I’d adopt” on it in the hope that if that got just a few people thinking about the possibility of offering a child a loving home, then it will have done the job.

Because, with 6,000 children – and around 800 in London alone – still waiting to be adopted, we must take every opportunity to bring them and prospective parents together – and to be there for them every step of the way.

And the good news is we’ve made really important progress this year.

Progress

The Children and Families Act is sweeping away many of the identified barriers to adoption and there’s been a much stronger focus on wider recruitment and better support for adopters.

And thanks to your hard work and dedication – for which I’m naturally hugely grateful – we can see this determined drive from government beginning to pay off.

Adoptions are at record levels following a 15% increase between 2011 to 2012 and 2012 to 2013. There’s also been a 34% increase in the number of adopter approvals.

Huge numbers – over 96,000 people in 12 months – contacted the First4Adoption online information service that we fund – and whose phone number was splashed all over my marathon T-shirt. And over 6,800 of these people went on to look at an adoption agency’s website – a vital next step to becoming an adoptive parent.

We’re already aware of one couple who have gone from contacting First4Adoption to being approved as adopters and having a child placed with them. It shows what can be done if we all pull in the same direction.

Three new voluntary adoption agencies also opened last month with a commitment to attract over 300 adopters and offer hope to more children – just the latest advance in a massive £217 million push to improve the system and boost recruitment.

And there have also been welcome developments on adoption breakdowns. Professor Julie Selwyn’s recent report showed that far fewer adoptions fail than previously thought – around 3% as opposed to a 20 or 30% breakdown rate.

But this very timely and important research also reveals that we need to do much more to support adoptive families who are struggling with the fallout from earlier abuse and neglect – something I’ve seen first-hand, whilst growing up with my own 2 adopted brothers.

So there’s a lot to do, but also a lot of great work that we can build on.

Good work in London

And, the reason I’m here today is because, in many ways, London is leading the way.

Research shows that Londoners – particularly single women and those aged over 40 – are more likely to adopt than people anywhere else in England. Londoners are also more likely to contact First4Adoption’s phone line than any other group.

And this is in the face of many of the same challenges as other parts of the country, particularly when it comes to finding matches for BME children.

As we know, black children spend, on average, a year longer waiting to be adopted than white children. I know that this is as unacceptable to you as it is to me – which is why, through the act, whilst continuing to recognise its clear validity as a factor to be taken properly into account, we’re ending the undue emphasis on finding an ethnic match between adopters and children whose chances of being adopted diminish with every day they have to wait.

And we can see some really excellent and innovative practice beginning to tackle this and wider recruitment challenges head-on.

Like Redbridge’s partnership with the children’s charity Coram, which, with its keen focus on reducing delays and on tracking children’s progress right through the process, has sent adoptions through the roof – by an astonishing 175% – and, in the process, attracted a wider pool of adopters.

Southwark too has excelled with its Find 40 Families campaign to attract BME adopters, driving up the number of adopters by 50% since its launch a year ago. A fantastic achievement.

Traffic to its website has also soared by 70% through a combination of work to raise awareness and myth-bust in local communities along with imaginative approaches to publicity – for example, by adding personal touches to its website, such as profiles of children waiting to be adopted.

We’re keen to do all we can to support these kind of inspirational ventures and see many more children gain from the wonderful gift of adoption.

Adoption reforms

Which is exactly what our adoption reforms aim to do, with a strong focus throughout on boosting recruitment as well as support for adopters at every stage.

There’s no question that the 2 things go hand in hand. People are far more likely to consider adoption if they’re confident they can count on good support – not just in the early days, but years down the line if needed, which I know from my own family, can often be the case.

So, through the act, through the new Adoption Support Fund, the new Adoption Leadership Board, chaired by Sir Martin Narey, as well as through the significant funding we’re injecting into the system, we’re simplifying and improving the process every step of the way. And, crucially, giving prospective parents much more choice and control over the support they get.

So what does this mean in practice? For adopters, it means they’ll get much clearer information about their entitlements, the same pay and leave rights as birth parents and will no longer face the ‘cliff edge’ of support provided while the child was in care suddenly being withdrawn.

We’re also giving them a more active role in finding a match by opening up the Adoption Register. We’ll start testing access to the register in the summer to see how this might help adoptive families come together much more quickly. And how it might highlight, at an earlier stage, what support is needed.

Adoption Support Fund

And this support is about to ramp up as families access much-needed therapeutic services through the Adoption Support Fund.

Last year, I announced that we’ll be contributing £19.3 million to help kick off this new fund. I launched this during a visit to the highly impressive Family Futures in Islington, an adoption support service where I met several adoptive families and heard from them how successful therapeutic interventions had been the difference between them sinking and swimming.

In fact I’ve recently received a letter from one of the parents I met on my visit updating me on the terrific progress her son is making after years of, as she put it, “firefighting.”

It’s one of the main reasons why we’re currently working with 10 local areas, including Lewisham, to trial a smaller version of the fund and using the insights gained to shape the national fund, which will be fully up and running in 2015.

We’ll also be testing personal budgets, with the input of social workers to really put adoptive families in the driving seat – families, for whom, these vital therapeutic services have often remained out of reach, despite their potential to change lives.

Adoption Leadership Board (ALB)

Better support is also a big focus for the new Adoption Leadership Board, which Mark (Owers, CEO, CVAA), of course, manages.

It’s early days for the ALB, but I’m confident that the board will thrive under Sir Martin Narey’s leadership and will galvanise real improvements by bringing together local and central government, the voluntary sector and academics as never before.

Its success will rest, in large part, on effective regional boards. London, with its regional set-up, is especially well-placed to take this forward. Indeed, the London model has been discussed at Adoption Leadership Board meetings and is likely to form the blueprint for boards in other regions.

Andrew Webb at the ADCS is currently setting these boards up. Each will have a designated lead ADCS member for the region, representatives from the voluntary sector and a ‘sponsor’ from the national board.

Universal services playing their part

It’s also, of course, vital that universal services like education and health play their part. Adoptive families rely on them as much as specialist services.

An Adoption UK survey from last year, for instance, found that two-thirds of adoptive parents felt that their children faced specific challenges at school due to past trauma and neglect.

And it’s with this in mind that we’re providing extra support for adopted children through our education reforms.

From 2014, children adopted from care will be eligible for the pupil premium plus and for free early education under the programme aimed at the most disadvantaged 2-year-olds.

This comes on top of our move to extend priority school access to children adopted from care.

And I can announce today that, from now on, this will apply to all children adopted from care, not just those adopted under the Adoption and Children Act 2002.

We’ve issued new guidance about this and have asked admissions authorities to apply it with immediate effect. We will amend the School Admissions Code at the earliest opportunity.

There’s also significant work underway to improve the understanding of adopted children’s needs among health professionals. Their support is critical for adopted children, given their known high level of mental health needs.

So it’s great to see pioneering approaches like the work being done at The Maudsley, where specialist services are provided for young people who are fostered or adopted. These are highly rated by parents who report improved relationships with their children, a reduction in difficult behaviours and improved wellbeing – things we want to see many more parents achieving through improved support.

But there’s clearly more to do.

Which is why we’ve commissioned the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to produce clinical guidelines on attachment.

And why we’re encouraging national and local health service commissioners to consider adopted children’s needs when developing integrated services for vulnerable groups.

Adopted children are now recognised as a key group by the NHS Commissioning Board and in statutory guidance on Joint Strategic Needs Assessments and Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies – which are important steps forward.

Improving the access that adopted children – indeed all children – have to CAMHS is high on the agenda across government at the moment and we’re working closely with the Department of Health to see what more we can do.

I have to say that this is a particular priority for me, as is ensuring that social workers are well-equipped to meet the needs of looked after and adopted children.

Which is why we commissioned Research in Practice (RiP) to produce new training materials for social workers who work in these areas. These are currently being rolled out and are now available on the RiP’s website – so would encourage you to take a look.

Conclusion

So we’re on the right track. And, together, are overturning expectations of what can be achieved when the ambition and commitment is there.

But we need to keep up the pace and continue to push the boundaries to drive up performance even further.

Adoption scorecards that show how long it takes for each local authority to place children for adoption are vital to this endeavour.

As is access to real time performance data by region – and I’m hugely grateful to the north London consortium of local authorities for helping the Adoption Leadership Board develop its new data collection arrangements to provide continued focus and insight into what works and how we can do better.

Because it’s only by continuing to inspire, support and challenge each other that we can really raise our game – on both adopter recruitment and also improved support for adoptive families.

I know just how critical this support is from seeing how my elder adopted brother Oliver continues to struggle with issues stemming from the mental and physical abuse he suffered before he came to live with us, over 30 years ago, as a 6-year-old foster child.

In those days, therapy was neither well-known, never mind easy to access. And while Oliver has gained a great deal from his adoption – as we all have in our family – I’m sure that these issues wouldn’t be affecting him as much if he’d had the therapeutic support he needed.

Which is why I’m so determined to ensure that other adopted children and their parents get the help they need, when they need it.

They deserve our utmost support, so let’s continue to work together to make sure that’s exactly what they get.

Thank you.

Below is the text of the speech made by Edward Timpson, the Children’s Minister, at an event hosted by the Council for Disabled Children on 24th February 2014.

Thanks, Christine [Lenehan, Chair and Director, CDC]. It’s great to be with you today.

And firstly, a huge thanks to you and the Council for Disabled Children and In Control for hosting this important event. The first in a series of 5 that are all over-subscribed – an indication that they are much-needed.

And to NHS England too, for their continued support in bringing these events together and for their work with clinical commissioning groups and my department to help deliver these substantive reforms to special educational needs.

I hope you’ve found it to be a productive day so far and are feeling more confident about what these changes – the biggest for 30 years – mean for the health service.

Now I know that you’ve been through some significant changes of your own in the NHS. I don’t underestimate the challenge this brings. But as your attendance today testifies, I know that you also share our ambition to do much better by some our most vulnerable children – children for whom support has, sadly, too often fallen short.

When I first took on the SEN brief 18 months ago, I kept hearing the same refrain from families; about how they faced an endless and excruciating fight with a system that’s supposed to help them. About how they found themselves falling through gaps in services that failed to work together. And how they had to repeat their stories over and over again to different agencies.

I’m afraid to say that too many singled out health as especially hard to engage and get around the table. This is particularly worrying given the significant number of children needing health support under the current system, but perhaps in some ways it’s not entirely surprising.

I think we would all acknowledge that the existing set-up hasn’t made it easy for you to do your best for these children and join up with education and social care in their interests – something that we know has caused frustration on all sides and that we know is absolutely key in securing better outcomes and a better transition to adulthood.

New duty on health and drive for integration

Which is precisely why we’re overhauling the SEN system, through the Children and Families Bill and the new 0 to 25 code of practice, to provide you with the framework and freedom to support much better integration, both for children with SEN as well as disabilities.

And through the Care Bill, currently going through Parliament, extending the provision of services beyond 18 where this makes sense, rather than using the blunt instrument of a birthday to determine need.

As you’ll already have heard from Christine, Andrew, Amanda and Martin, these changes promise to be truly transformative; requiring much closer co-operation between services and a bigger say for young people and their parents – whether through the local offer, setting out the support that’s available in an area, or through new education, health and care (EHC) plans.

But perhaps the most vital change in all of this is the new duty on health to provide the health aspect of these new plans and to work with local authorities to jointly assess and meet children’s needs.

This represents a real breakthrough; rebooting the relationship between health and social care firmly and decisively in favour of families. Dissolving the barriers in language, culture and approach that divide team from team, department from department, agency from agency. Spurring professionals to no longer just zero in on their piece of the jigsaw, but to see the whole picture from the perspective of the child and their needs.

A truly integrated approach that we’re championing in a number of ways – such as the enhanced role for mediation; making the disputes process less adversarial and, with a single point of redress for health, education and social care, making it much easier for families to navigate.

Now, I know that, with health having different structures for complaints procedures, there was concern about whether families would have to go down separate routes to challenge provision. So I’m pleased that we’ve been able to make improvements and provide greater reassurance in just this area.

We’ve also listened to worries about schools failing to support children with disabilities or medical conditions, with reports of parents being forced to come into schools to administer medication and pupils even being excluded.

That’s why we’ve introduced a new duty to make it easier to hold schools to account on managing medicines. This will be underpinned by statutory guidance – that’s currently out for consultation – based on existing good practice. So parents can have more confidence that their child’s needs, both health and educational, will be met in schools.

But, in many ways, the real acid test will be joint commissioning; with the scope it offers, for instance, to create integrated care pathways with health services. If we can get this right, we’ll not only get a better match between need and the support provided, but also generate better results as well as save costs.

All of which should make your job easier and also more satisfying – and I think it’s important to stress that this is central to our ambitions for a better SEN system. Professionals who are freed and supported to do the very best for their patients.

NHS reforms

Now, believe it or not, I don’t want to load you with unnecessary changes on top of the ones you’ve already gone through. Or demands that conflict with your broader work in the health service.

On the contrary. This drive for more collaboration on behalf of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is very much in line with the NHS constitution and reforms to the wider NHS, which advocate greater integration wherever possible.

And as you know, there’s an objective in the NHS mandate regarding children with SEND – that NHS England will be monitoring clinical commissioning groups against.

So there’s a real opportunity here, on the back of acknowledged difficulties in the past and changes to the NHS, to do things differently and better for some of our most disadvantaged children – with health playing a pivotal role as equal partners alongside social care and education.

It’s an agenda that involves us all. Quite simply, we can’t do it without you.

Progress, pathfinders and personal budgets

As has been said, the Children and Families Bill has completed its passage through Parliament and the legislation will shortly receive royal assent. But this is very much the beginning, not the end of the work that needs to be done.

We all know that the real hard work, the effort that ultimately pays off, doesn’t happen in Parliament, but in classrooms, GP surgeries, nurseries and clinics, not to mention family homes. A change in law must go hand in hand with a change in culture if it’s to have the impact we all want to see.

And I’m encouraged that we’re starting to see this important shift.

As the bill’s progressed and the 20 pathfinders testing the SEN reforms across 31 local authorities have made inroads, there have been growing signs of a change in the approach, understanding and involvement of health providers.

And as you’ve just heard, families and professionals are starting to feel the benefits.

The pathfinder in Southampton, for example, has developed an integrated health and social care service that has cut right back on duplication of assessments through joint visits and by co-ordinating information provided in previous assessments.

Hertfordshire, another pathfinder, has brought parents and health and education professionals together to better understand the family’s journey through the system and how this can be improved when developing new education, health and care plans.

And there’s the app, developed by Early Support, our SEND delivery partner, which helps families receive, record and share information with all manner of health and education professionals and, in doing so, offers the prospect of useful discussion without endless repetition.

I’ve seen also for myself, on visits to pathfinders in Surrey and Bromley, what a difference this level of engagement can make. How much more involved and empowered young people and their parents feel in drawing up their own package of support through the education, health and care plans.

And also what a rewarding experience it is for the professionals involved. As one consultant paediatrician put it:

I’ve found the new process really positive. The live documents we’ve generated with the parents capture a much better description of the child. Their personality really shines through.

Not something, I think, many health professionals would necessarily have said before.

Personal budgets are also having a similar effect; shifting the focus from the mechanics of provision to the potential of each young person, resulting in better conversations between families and professionals.

And giving children and their parents more choice and control over the support they receive – support such as the dedicated one-to-one health worker who was employed to help a 3-year-old girl with complex health needs that were stopping her attending nursery.

In her case, at the pathfinder in Oldham, education, health and social care joined forces to provide the funding needed to ensure that the child didn’t miss out on her education – which is surely what integration is all about.

As one parent, who is using a personal budget, put it:

It was really lovely to feel…heard on an equal footing…Now I feel part of a team…Now it feels as though there is someone on my side.

Implementation

All fantastic examples of what can be achieved when services really come together – and examples that I hope will inspire you as you gear up for the new system which, as you know, kicks in this September.

And looking forward, we all want to ensure as smooth a transition as possible for vulnerable families and for them to be able to take full advantage of the new arrangements. So now is very much the time to step up your preparations.

So I’m pleased to see that, in many places, these preparations are already underway, but we know there’s still a lot to do.

Pathfinders tell us that it takes a least a year to get ready, not least for the cultural change to take hold. So it’s essential that everyone involved; the NHS, education, local authorities and others services, intensifies their efforts.

And there’s no need to wait. Wolverhampton and Richmond aren’t pathfinders, but they’ve already begun involving families in developing education, health and care plans and a draft local offer.

Doing more now saves time and energy later and can even lead to savings, so there’s every incentive to act with urgency and make the reforms a success.

And we want to do everything we can to help you with this.

Which is why we’re providing local authorities with a £70 million SEN reform grant that they can use, with no ring-fencing, to work with health and others to deliver these changes.

It’s why we’ve made £30 million available to recruit and train – with the help of the Council for Disabled Children – over 1,800 independent supporters to help families navigate the new system.

And it’s why I’m working closely with Dan Poulter, my ministerial colleague at Health, to provide advice on implementation to clinical commissioning groups, health and wellbeing boards as well as to chief executives and lead members in all local authorities.

We’re also extending the pathfinder champion programme until March 2015, so that local areas can readily draw on lessons from those who have trodden the path, including in the vital area of health.

Listening to young people

But, in many ways, the best guide to how services should be flexed and fused comes from children and young people themselves; brought to home me most powerfully in my regular meetings with EPIC, a group of disabled young people assembled, again, with the help of the CDC. They’ve provided me with valuable advice on the SEN and disability reforms – and held my feet to the fire on a few occasions too! I’m thinking, in particular, of a highly articulate and astute young man called Cory, whose wisdom and practical insight I’ve benefited from hugely.

They remind me, time and time again, that no-one else has a keener understanding of what will make their lives better. And that services could save themselves a lot of time, money and effort if they just took the trouble to sit down and listen to them.

Conclusion

After all, they’re the reason that we’re all here today – because we want children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities to be able to aspire and achieve as other children do.

Because we want them to do well at school, form strong relationships and find success and fulfilment in work and further study as independent adults. Nothing more, nothing less than we want for our own children.

And all of you in the health service are absolutely critical to making this happen.

So I very much hope that you will continue to work with us and work ever more closely with your colleagues in education and social care to make a difference to the prospects of some of our neediest children.

Now I know that this may seem a lot to ask given all the changes that you’ve already been through – and I can’t thank you enough for the hard work and dedication you’ve put in so far.

But with the new duties on health, which reinforce wider changes in the health service, there has never been a better opportunity for you to play a full and active role in transforming SEND provision – backed by the significant support that we’re providing.

The fact we can see that this more ambitious approach is already working wonders in the pathfinder areas and beyond gives us real cause for optimism. Like you, I want families everywhere to be able to enjoy this kind of outstanding support.

Support that fits in with their needs and not the other way around. That sees children’s potential and not their limits. Support that’s truly on their side.

Thank you.

Below is the text of the speech made by Edward Timpson, a junior Minister at the Department of Education, to the Youth Sport Trust Conference on 5th February 2014.

Thank you, it’s a pleasure to be here.

Before going any further, let me get a confession out of the way: I’m a big fan of the Youth Sport Trust. Not just because your work to give every child access to sport – and change their lives through sport – is essential – but because your passionate belief in the power of sport can be – and often is – an inspiration to others.

Because any sports fan can remember those defining moments when we were inspired to go and compete.

I remember mine.

It was 1982, and I was excited. My dad was running the second ever London marathon, and I was standing with my family along the Mall, waiting for him to come cantering past. If anyone recalls Hugh Jones – one of our best runners back then – he dashed past in first place, the crowd erupting as this blur of red hair flew by, a human gazelle speeding towards British glory – and with unrivalled anticipation I waited for my dad to come through behind him.

And waited. And waited.

Two hours later, there he came, running around the corner.

Well, I say running – staggering would be more accurate.

So it maybe wasn’t first place – but I went wild as he plodded past. And over 30 years on, as I try and knuckle down to training for my ninth London marathon this year, it inspires me still.

And that’s exactly what you do – inspire and encourage and train and support – and give young people access to sport. It’s great work, and it’s great to be here today.

Collaboration in government

And the theme you’ve got for your conference – excellence through collaboration – it made me think.

It made me think about the culture that surrounds sport – its special nature – and what those 2 ideas really mean.

And I came to the conclusion that we’re probably on the same page.

For instance, collaboration is at the heart of our approach at a national level.

We all know that school sport is important for so many different things.

It’s important for health.

I’m not sure if anyone saw the figures on child obesity released before Christmas. Obesity rates in children fell to 14% in 2012 – the lowest level since 1998.

That’s encouraging, though it’s certainly not enough to be complacent. But we’re so used to bad news on child health – a creeping barrage of headlines about an inactive, inert generation. These numbers show it just isn’t inevitable.

We all know that school sport – getting children active – is an essential weapon in the fight against obesity.

And I’m sure I don’t need to convince you that sport and PE have a real and lasting positive effect on pupils’ wider attitude towards school.

Sport offers children something quite distinctive. A chance to compete, to push yourself – but also lessons about teamwork and people. We even have a word – sportsmanship – for the particular respect and ethos that sport, at its best, creates.

Whether it’s generosity in victory, discipline in training – or simple humility after an absolute thrashing at the hands of a better team – sport isn’t a bad way to learn about life.

Put that way, it sounds like quite good training for politics, too.

So sport is about health, and about competition, confidence and character. And if it’s something that affects so many aspects to growing up – often referred to as our physical literacy – then we need to get the health, education and culture departments all working together.

That’s why we set up a cross-ministerial working group last year, so that different departments are all working together – really working together – for the first time. It’s collaboration, at the heart of government.

We meet every month, bringing together colleagues from across government and real experts from the sector – including, of course, Sue and John from YST.

Sport for all children

And we don’t just want sport to be for the minority, either.

Many of you I’m sure will know of Rachel Yankey. She plays for Arsenal and England.

She’s the most-capped England player of all time – beating Peter Shilton by just 1 game – which is fine by me, because anyone who’s talked to me for more than 5 minutes will know my hero is the goalkeeper Joe Corrigan, and Peter Shilton kept Joe out of the England men’s team for most of the late 1970s.

So, that 1 extra cap makes all the difference.

Anyway – when she started to play football aged 7, Rachel and 2 male friends tried to join a local club.

Except the club was boys-only.

So she said her name was Ray – which was near enough the truth – and cut her hair short to fit in.

And she got away with it for 2 years. I’m not sure her parents approved of the new hairdo.

But she went on to become England’s first ever female full-time professional footballer.

I think we can all agree that it’s just wrong if ambitious girls like Rachel have to fight against the system to get a chance to play. About two-fifths of all boys over 14 play sport each week. But for girls, it’s just a third. That’s such a waste of talent.

But if we look over the Atlantic to the USA, we see the rewards for letting that talent blossom and grow into a national force. There are now 1.7 million women registered with US Soccer – not far behind the 2.5 million we have. It can be done.

That’s why Maria Miller, the Sport, Culture and Media Secretary, set up a group to look specifically at how to encourage more girls into sport – bringing in high-profile businesswomen, athletes and sport experts.

And that’s why Sport England’s Active Women campaign got £10 million from the lottery to work with low-income women. There’s a £2.3 million project in Bury, too, called ‘I will if you will’, seeing what sort of activities would bring more women and girls into sport. And we funded the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation to understand where future efforts should be directed.

And the same goes for disabled sport. It’s wrong for special educational needs or disability to prevent access to sport, or physical activity.

So 10,000 disabled children now have the chance to play meaningful, competitive sport . Fifty schools – like the Marjorie McClure School in Bromley that I’ve visited – run the Project Ability strand of the School Games, which aims to increase sporting opportunities for disabled young people. And for the first time, Change4Life clubs now offer the Paralympic sports, boccia and wheelchair basketball.

Now, everyone remembers the Olympics opening ceremony, with Sir Tim Berners Lee sending a tweet that flashed around the stadium – saying ‘this is for everyone’.

He was of course talking about the internet – but he may as well have been talking about sport.

Because not everyone will win an Olympic medal. Only a few will ever score for Arsenal. Or win the London marathon.

But everyone can get excited about sport if we encourage them – and if we give them the opportunity.

That, to me, is what collaboration really means – working together, government departments and sport experts, so that the passion and excitement and sheer fun of sport is accessible to every child, at every level, from every background.

So collaboration is a principle that runs through our work.

Excellence in sport

But what about the other theme of this year’s conference – excellence?

Well, we’re backing excellence through competitive sport.

With your help, with substantial support from the National Lottery and from Sainsbury’s, the School Games are growing year on year.

Last year, around 16,000 schools took part – that’s almost two-thirds of all schools.

I’ve met headteachers and children who took part in the finals in Sheffield, and the excitement and pride was obvious. The games really were the talk of the playground and staffroom alike.

We want them to go on, growing each year – so that every child, in every school, has access to competitive sport – to have the chance to excel on a national stage, to have the chance to surpass their personal best.

And as you know, PE remains very much part of the national curriculum – and compulsory for children at all 4 key stages.

We think PE teaching is a specialist role too. So it deserves bespoke support.

That’s why we’ve invested three-quarters of a million pounds in creating a new intake of specialist primary PE teachers. The first 120 trainees will be qualified to teach from this September – and it’s already attracted some high-calibre graduates who want to share their love of sport.

But it’s not just about what we do in central government.

We want to see these principles at a local level, too.

Local lead for school sport

Look at the primary sport premium, for example. We’ve committed over £450 million up to 2016. It’s the only money for schools that’s ring-fenced.

But it’s up to schools to work out how to spend it. Whether it’s bringing in specialist sports experts to work alongside staff, or buying new equipment, investing in facilities, or using that money for continuous professional development or staff training – we’ve given real discretion over how it’s used.

And across the country, with the help of the Youth Sport Trust and others, we’re seeing some schools taking some really imaginative approaches.

Some are pooling their money, for example. They realised that they get better economies of scale for buying equipment, or benefitting from a PE specialist. That they can share facilities, or staff. So they’ve joined forces, and created their own local networks.

And again, it’s not just about education. Health and wellbeing boards are getting involved too – because in health, like in education, local conditions vary – so local organisations should lead.

And it’s not just primary schools benefitting.

We’ve always been eager for schools of all ages to work together.

Projects like Access to Schools in Birmingham are trying to find ways to get better use of secondary school facilities by the wider community, while Sport England aims to have 4,000 ‘satellite clubs’ at secondary schools by 2017.

And we’re now seeing that the sport premium is bringing primary and secondary schools together.

In Southwark, for example, Bacons College has taken the lead in setting up a network, the London PE and School Sport Network. They work with YST and 72 primary, 17 secondary, 5 special and 4 independent schools across the borough – working together to give the best PE teaching possible, and make the most of that premium money.

So we might be keen on collaboration at a national level.

But I’m even more delighted that schools have taken it on at a local level.

There are no one-size fits-all policy solutions for school sport.

And this sort of local energy and teamwork is exactly what we hoped the premium would foster.

Tribute to the Youth Sport Trust

And in that context, I want today to pay tribute to the work of the Youth Sport Trust.

Because you’re at the forefront of grassroots work. Your help with using the premium wisely. Your sessions for cluster co-ordinators. Your essential work with the School Games. Your training for PE coordinators in schools, National School Sport Week, your sport camps and more – all these things drive up interest and participation in sport.

And nowhere more so than with the Youth Ambassadors programme.

It’s so important to make sure the memory of that amazing summer in 2012 doesn’t die. I’ve been fortunate to meet some of the hugely impressive ambassadors who, up and down the country, are keeping the spirit of 2012 alive.

And today, I’m delighted to announce that we will be renewing the funding for the programme.

We will extend funding for an additional 12 months – £250,000 for 2014 to 2015 – to help continue the Ambassador’s efforts – and get more and more children into sport.

So at a national level, at a local level – collaboration and excellence – that’s what we want.

I think we all agree on that.

Conclusion

Now arguably, in sport, collaboration can go too far.

At the first ever London marathon – the year before my dad raced Hugh – the first 2 people to cross the line, American Dick Beardsley and Norwegian Inge Simonsen held hands in a public display of sportsmanship.

Now I’ve run a marathon with my wife. We ran the London marathon together in 2012, the Olympic year. And I’m ashamed to say that, although we ran stride for stride the whole way, as we came to the finish line on the Mall – almost on the same spot I’d stood and cheered my dad on 30 years before – rather than grab my wife’s hand in a gesture of solidarity, mutual respect – and dare I say, love – I grunted a self-motivating ‘come on’ and did a Linford Christie style dip – in order to come 7,836th rather than 7,837th.

My excuse? On the field, collaboration sometimes has to take second place to excellence.

But when we’re talking about how all of us can inspire the next generation – about how we build up and maintain active, healthy kids who enjoy sport and get everything it has to offer – it’s a different story. Collaboration and excellence are 2 things we should insist on.

And as we move forward with a sustained drive to push them both through the power of sport, I thank you for your help, and commitment, in making it happen.

Below is the text of the speech made by Edward Timpson at the Sexual Exploitation Conference held by the LGA on 13th February 2013.

Thanks, David [Simmonds, Chair LGA Children and Young People Programme]. I’m glad to be here.

I’d firstly like to say how extremely grateful I am to the LGA, Ann [Coffey] and others here today from many sectors for their efforts to combat child sexual exploitation.

I would echo much of what Ann has just said, especially her emphasis on how pivotal local agencies are to the fight against this most horrific of crimes. I know how deeply Ann cares about this subject – her thoughtful insights on it are always greatly valued.

Now, let’s begin with some good news.

More perpetrators are being prosecuted and jailed; sending out the message, loud and clear, that those who prey on children face stiff punishment.

And there’s also increasingly focused and effective work underway to fight this most horrific of crimes – we’ll be hearing more about this from speakers representing councils in Birmingham and Kent. It’s also good to see Rochdale represented here today, to share lessons learned from when things do go wrong.

But there’s clearly much more to do.

I was very interested to hear what you had to say, David, about doing some further work to raise awareness of child sexual exploitation and producing more resources for councils on this.

I very much welcome this because, as we know, greater recognition of this despicable form of abuse is fundamental to the fight against it.

It’s fair to say that awareness has improved locally, but we know there are still too many areas that haven’t got to grips with the problem, even though it’s become increasingly apparent that it’s a much more widespread than previously thought.

Barnardo’s – which, of course, has done much to highlight this issue and is being represented here by Anne Marie Carrie later today – recently reported an alarming rise in the number of cases known to them, with increasing numbers of children being trafficked around the country and victims getting younger.

So, as a first step, it’s crucial that local areas urgently establish the true scale and nature of the problem.

Key to this, I believe, is the need for a major re-think of our attitudes towards victims and their families.

Understanding that this manipulative and coercive abuse can happen to any family and that the children affected are to always be treated as victims means that this abuse is less likely to go undetected – making it easier to track what is really is going on the ground.

This greater awareness and understanding is also more likely to galavnise the partnership work that’s so vital to tackling this issue.

Because it’s a poor understanding of the issue; particularly disbelieving attitudes towards the young victims, that has largely kept this scourge in the shadows for so long.

Having grown up with many foster children and worked in the care system as a family barrister – including on cases involving sexually abused children – I have some experience of living and working with traumatised and damaged children.

But it’s hard to comprehend the extreme violation and suffering to which these children have been subjected.

They deserve our every support and yet, too often, agencies haven’t listened to them or believed their allegations, meaning more children being abused for longer. It is clearly completely outrageous and unacceptable for the young people affected not to be treated as victims.

I’m absolutely determined that we should do all we can to change this. To make sure we punish and prevent child sexual exploitation wherever and however it occurs. And, crucially, put victims and families first.

Progress so far – national action plan, CSE round table and LSCB meeting

This is why that we’ve made raising awareness of this abuse and promoting partnership work central elements of the national Child Sexual Exploitation Action Plan we launched last year.

Last July, we published a progress report on the plan and followed this up with a roundtable meeting in December, which I chaired, involving other Government Ministers and a range of organisations.

We discussed the progress we were making, but also challenged each other on whether we were all really doing  everything we could.  I’m keen to hold more of these meetings so we keep up the momentum.

And just a few weeks ago, I chaired a meeting with the Association of Independent Local Safeguarding Children Board Chairs (LSCBs).

I was pleased to hear that they’re taking a number of important steps to prioritise action in this area – for example, making it easier to share the best approaches to tackling child sexual exploitation through the creation of a Practice Development Group. And through regional leads on child sexual exploitation, supporting all Local Safeguarding Children Boards in addressing the issue.

Given their key local role, I’ll be watching the progress made by the Boards with great interest.

Raising awareness

There’s much positive work for them to build on.

Over the past year…

Over 8,000 professionals, from health, social work, the police and other agencies, have benefitted from sessions to raise awareness delivered by the National Working Group (for Sexually Exploited Children and Young People).

We’ve just re-issued a step-by-step guide for frontline professionals on what to do if they suspect abuse, so they should be better placed to intervene.

Frontline police officers will also be better equipped to deal with child sexual exploitation thanks to a new training film on the subject issued by the Association of Chief Police Officers. The film is also freely available online for others to use.

And we’ve also raised awareness among young people by, amongst other things, re-running a Home Office teenage rape prevention campaign in December and January. We will also be re-running a teenage relationship abuse campaign from this month to the end of April.

Partnership work – prosecutions, criminal justice system

Much of what’s being achieved powerfully demonstrates the benefits of partnership working.

An impressive illustration of this is the work of Engage, a multi-agency team from Lancashire. Since it was set up in 2008, the team has secured almost 500 years of custodial sentences and achieved a 98 per cent prosecution success rate. And in working with over 1,500 children experiencing or at risk of sexual exploitation, the team has also driven down school absence and cases of children  missing from home or care.

A fantastic example of what can be done, even against a difficult economic backdrop, when agencies come together and are determined to act.

It’s good to know that other Local Safeguarding Children Boards around the country; in Rochdale, Bradford, Sheffield and Oxford, are following Lancashire’s lead and setting up similar multi-agency teams. I want to see others following suit.

An important lesson that local areas would do well to heed from Engage’s experience is the team’s decision to involve parents in developing a “victim and witness care package”. This has not only helped boost conviction rates, but reduced the distress of victims going to court, a significant factor in their chances of recovery.

It’s true that court appearances can heap further trauma onto children who have already been through so much. So I want to see the criminal justice system continuing to strive to make sure victims of child sexual exploitation are treated with much greater understanding.

Work is underway in this area. The Crown Prosecution Service will be publishing new legal guidance on prosecuting child sexual exploitation cases early this year, which will include advice on information sharing and improved support for victims. This complements existing work to make it easier for young victims to navigate the criminal justice system – such as giving child witnesses more choice about how they give evidence.

Action on missing children, NHS database

Engage’s success in reducing the numbers of children going missing is also highly significant.

Because as Ann has said, these absences are one of the key warning signs that a child is being groomed or exploited. It’s a risk factor that’s also been highlighted in checklists issued by several organisations, not least my own Department, and by Sue Berelowitz, as part of her inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups.

We know from Sue’s inquiry and Ann’s work on the Joint All Party Parliamentary Group Inquiry, that children who go missing from care are at particularly serious risk of being exploited and harmed.

As a first step to keeping them safe, it’s clear we must have robust data on the numbers going missing.

The Working Group we set up last year to look at this has now reported and I announced last week that we will begin piloting a new data collection in the next few months.

This will, for the first time, collect information on all children who go missing from their placement – not just those missing for 24 hours – enabling better analysis and more effective practice to prevent and combat the problem.

In addition, we will shortly issue revised statutory guidance on Children who go Missing from Home or Care based on the best local practice. This will complement guidance issued to police forces by the Association of Chief Police Officers.

Ofsted’s new looked after children inspections and the new multi-agency inspections, which will begin in June, will also shine a powerful light on agencies are working together to protect children.

Sharing information about children at risk is a vital part of this joint work. We can see this happening, for example, with the launch of a new project, in December, that will help the NHS do more to protect vulnerable children.

This initiative will link local authorities’ children’s social care systems with systems in the NHS; making critical child protection information available to healthcare professionals who suspect abuse or neglect when treating children in emergencies and unscheduled care. And making life harder for sexual predators.

Residential care reform

Predators who, as well as benefitting from gaps in information, are also exploiting weaknesses in the residential care system – particularly an “out of sight out of mind” culture, which has seen too many children being placed in children’s home many miles from family and friends.

In March 2011, children’s homes in 15 local authorities were entirely occupied by children from other local authorities.

At the same time, 13 other local authorities, which had children’s homes in their area, made no placements in these homes; instead preferring to send their children to homes in other areas.

Good children’s homes provide young people, for whom other placements aren’t suitable, with just the intensive, caring professional help and stability they need.

But we know that there are some homes where support for children and security are poor. Which are located in parts of the country with meagre facilities and, worse still, where there are disproportionately large numbers of sex offenders often synonymous with organised criminal activity.

We know that these children in these homes, many of whom are already damaged, are especially vulnerable to these dangers. We’re determined to do much more to protect them.

We’re already on track to make it possible for Ofsted to share information on the location of children’s homes with the police and we will be urgently consulting on a number of further changes…

That require local authorities, at a senior level, to take more responsibility for out of area placements that are a significant distance away.

That ensure there’s rigorous independent scrutiny of the quality of care in each home.

And that clarify the roles and responsibilities of the placing authority, the children’s home and the area where the home is located, so there’s a real, shared responsibility for safeguarding the child and promoting their welfare.

We’re also proposing to reform the qualifications framework to address the low level of qualifications among staff in children’s homes.

By this summer, we’ll publish a revised data pack on residential care which will include more detailed information about children’s homes by local authority and region. This should go some way towards helping local authorities make much better choices.

Given the vulnerability of children in care to these and other kinds of dangers, it’s crucial that we do all we can to keep them safe which is why I’m delighted that Sir Martin Narey, the government’s adoption advisor has agreed to expand his role and will advise us more generally on children’s social care. His experience and expertise will, I’m sure, make a significant contribution to progress in this area. As a first step, the Secretary of State has asked Sir Martin to look at the quality of education and training for child and family social workers as part of the on-going reform of social work. Today we have also advertised the Chief Social Worker posts; they will play a pivotal role in driving up quality and the status of the workforce.

Conclusion

In all of this, we will continue to work with you all to find the best way forward.

Because, as the national action plan makes clear, what happens at a local level is absolutely critical. It makes clear that child sexual exploitation must be seen in the context of wider safeguarding responsibilities that cut across sectors and agencies.

So it’s vital…

That local authorities and LSCBs map the extent and nature of the problem in their area as a matter of priority.

That they work together and share information; across children’s social care, health services, education, the police and the courts, to spot the warning signs early, take swift and co-ordinated action and reduce the opportunities for abusers.

And that they transform attitudes, at a senior level and on the frontline, towards victims and their families.

Doing this will not only help save young people and their families from terrible suffering, but, as Ann has said, should help save money in the long run.

I would urge you, wherever possible, to work in partnership with young people and parents – their experience and insights are critical to battling these abhorrent crimes- and, of course, in the long, hard road to recovery.

Statutory agencies and voluntary organisations need to be mindful that those affected may need support to avoid becoming victims again and to pick up their lives for a long time after the abuse has ended.

I recently met a group of parents whose children had, tragically, become victims of this abhorrent abuse. Their heartbreak at this appalling betrayal of childhood innocence was tangible. But I was also deeply moved by their courage and determination – to support their children, but also to make the world a safer place for all our children.

They’re counting on us. To change our mind set and see the child in need of protection. To act and fulfil our first duty to keep them safe.

I know you’re as committed as I am to doing this; to fighting this abuse head-on; ensuring perpetrators pay for their crimes and making sure children and their families get the support they so desperately need and deserve.

Thank you.