News

• Background of Victoria Climbie case
• Laming calls for fundamental reform
• UN wins support over criticism of 'reasonable chastisement'
• UN report criticises government for failure to ban smacking of children

An influential group of MPs has responded to Lord Laming’s report by calling for a children’s commissioner in England, writes David Callaghan.

The House of Commons health select committee said in a new report the experience of a children’s commissioner in Wales has proved the worth of the post.

But the MPs disagreed with a recommendation by Lord Laming in his inquiry report into the death of Victoria Climbie that the commissioner should head up a new national agency for children and families.

The failure of senior staff to accept any responsibility for service failures leading to Climbie’s death prompted the committee to call for a clear line of accountability to be established as a “a matter of utmost priority”.

Major structural change in local government should be avoided, the committee said.

Meanwhile, the joint House of Commons/House of Lords committee on human rights has published its tenth report on the UK’s performance in upholding the standards laid down in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

It concludes that the UK’s compliance in criminal justice is “questionable”, and that “there is some way to go” before full compliance is achieved.

The joint committee agrees that there is a strong case for a children’s commissioner in England.

Main recommendations of health committee’s report:

- A children’s commissioner for England should be appointed, but not as the chief executive of a national agency as Laming proposed

- There must be a clear line of accountability from frontline practitioners to senior staff as “a matter of utmost priority”.

- The role of proposed children’s trusts in child protection is “extremely vague”

- A register of private foster carers with safeguards to ensure they meet basic levels of care

- Government should produce a memorandum to the committee by the end of this year on the progress made in implementing Lord Laming’s recommendations

- An independent review of social care funding similar to the Wanless review of the NHS

- The Children Act 1989 is essentially sound legislation, but that it may be applied inappropriately to ration services, and section 17 cases of children in need are regarded as a low priority

- Defence of reasonable chastisement should be abolished and smacking of children by parents and carers banned

- Feasibility study on Laming’s proposal for a national database of children

Main recommendations of joint committee on human rights report:

- The age of criminal responsibility be increased from 10 to 12

- Government should re-examine with “renewed urgency” its sentencing policy for young people to avoid custody whenever possible

- Children in custody should have a statutory right to education and special needs provision

- All girls under 17 should be removed from prison and placed in local authority secure accommodation

- Children of asylum seekers and refugees should also be subject to standards set in the UN convention

- Parents and carers should be outlawed from smacking