Conservatives would publish serious case reviews in full

Shadow children’s minister Tim Loughton last night confirmed that a future Conservative administration would publish serious case reviews in full.

In a studio discussion on BBC2’s Newsnight, also involving Professor Ray Jones, Loughton also said that the bureaucracy facing social workers was the biggest factor preventing services intervening on children’s behalf more effectively.

The studio discussion followed a report on the publication of a review of Doncaster social services’ flawed handling of two looked-after children who will be sentenced this week for seriously assaulting two boys in nearby Edlington.

Jones, who has authored many serious case reviews himself, said that he did not agree with the publication of them in full, because it would expose many more people than necessary – some of whom were vulnerable – to the ‘full glare of the media’.

Jones stated that some of the bureaucracy faced by social workers was ‘a distraction’, while some procedures introduced in the wake of  the Victoria Climbie Report, was necessary.

Loughton was more condemnatory, describing the majority of bureaucracy as an impediment to frontline workers.

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