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Child protection can only work if professionals from every agency involved take far greater responsibility, argues director of social services David Wright in his submission to the Victoria Climbie Inquiry.

The social services inquiry into the death of Lauren Wright in Norfolk was crystal clear about Norfolk social services's failings. Quite simply, mistakes were made and things that should have happened didn't happen. Social services have gone through difficult times and taken a wide range of measures to help improve matters. Morale has suffered and the situation that front-line child protection social workers operate in is still far from ideal.

This situation is critically important because we know that the reality is that systems to protect children are only as good as the people who use them and those people - our front-line social workers - have one of the most difficult jobs going.

Social workers in Norfolk are handling 27 new cases per day concerning children who may face neglect or abuse. Even before an inquiry has begun, it is always the social worker that is vilified. Other caring professions are not treated in this way.

Last month the NHS inquiry published its report into the health service's failings in the Lauren Wright case.¹ The inquiry chairperson, Barry Capon, was clear about what went wrong: "The health agencies did not give Lauren Wright the best service. If they had, despite all the faults identified by social services, it is most likely that she would have been protected. There was poor communication, failure to pursue diagnosis and over reliance on other professionals to act."

The message from him is clear and fundamental to the whole issue of child protection - shared responsibility must be clearly accepted and acted upon by every professional involved in child protection. It is no good to do your bit and assume everyone else will do theirs. There must be a greater sharing of responsibility and a much clearer understanding of the part that everyone has to play. Professionals cannot carry out those responsibilities in isolation from everyone else because if they do, a child in danger is more at risk of slipping through the net.

Specific changes to the child protection system will also help in making the system more robust. After the conviction of Lauren Wright's stepmother Tracy Wright and her father Craig Wright, I wrote to Lord Laming to ask that his inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie consider the Norfolk experience.

My submission, written with Marian Brandon, a senior lecturer at the University of East Anglia, is based on our experience of the Lauren Wright case and research from elsewhere in the country and makes 18 recommendations. One of the most controversial is our conclusion that once a child has been on the child protection register, then that marker should stay with the child after the original threat has passed.

You could argue that such a marker could stigmatise a child, drawing attention to a risk that isn't there anymore. Although a child might not be in immediate danger, it is clear that having been on the register is a useful indicator of vulnerability.

The new care situation may be safer but the child might still be carrying with them the "damaged behaviour" that continues to make them vulnerable to further abuse.

Alongside an enhanced register there needs to be a new virtual agency, a system of key information with details of child protection registration and other concerns for the child's developmental risk. Every agency involved in child protection should share this system so updated information is seen instantly by all professionals involved.

However, a new virtual system, an enhanced child protection register - whatever recommendations emerge from the Victoria Climbie Inquiry - must go hand in hand with concerted action to support front-line staff and enhance the public role and perception of what they do.

It is a sad fact that that every high-profile case and inquiry stokes up the pressure further, denting morale and making it harder to recruit and retain. Mistakes will be made and we need every agency within the system to operate as an equal part of the virtual agency, to ensure that error by one can be challenged in another. Whatever emerges from the Victoria Climbie Inquiry, we can no longer leave it just to social services - and those front-line social workers - to be expected to put things right in isolation.  

- Submissions to Phase Two of the Victoria Climbie Inquiry can be found on the inquiry's website: http://www.victoria-climbie-inquiry.org.uk/Evidence/p2subs/p2subs.htm

David Wright is director of Norfolk social services

References

¹ Barry Capon (chairperson), Report of the Inquiry into the Death of Lauren Wright, Norfolk Health Authority, March 2002