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The Victoria Climbie Inquiry was charged with investigating why an eight-year-old girl experienced such terrible suffering and an awful death. We also needed to make recommendations as to how the safeguards for children could be improved so that, as far as humanly possible, tragedies of this kind could be prevented in future.

Of course, it is not possible to eliminate all dangers to children, but those of us who worked on the inquiry were in no doubt that much more could be done to reduce the maltreatment of children.


It has been most encouraging that the government has responded to the report so positively. Comparing local services with what we recommended has confirmed just how much needs to be done before we can all be assured that the basics of good practice are in place in each of the key services. The appointment of the first minister for children and families and the transfer of some responsibilities held elsewhere in government to her department bode well for a more coherent approach at the centre of government.

The government's proposals embodied in Every Child Matters herald a fundamental change in the way we value children, respond to their development and support their families. It holds out the exciting prospect of a new dawn for children's services. Implementing it in a way that ensures the vision becomes a reality in practice is a huge and urgent challenge to us all.

It is worth recalling why these changes are being proposed. Victoria's death was not just a family tragedy. It revealed a collective administrative, managerial and professional failure by those agencies charged to protect our most vulnerable children. There were 12 missed opportunities by the social services, police and the health services to save her. Too much discussion occurred as to whether she was a "child in need" rather than a "child protection" case. The reality was that she was a child very much in need of help. One council's practice guidance was 10 years out of date. Another gave her five "unique" reference numbers. Retrieving files was as random and unpredictable as the national lottery.

Even when Victoria was placed under police protection she was never interviewed by a police officer. Haringey, which had responsibility for her welfare for seven months, lost key parts of her file, and its social worker hardly spoke to Victoria. Neither hospital to which she was admitted assessed her needs fully because it was suspected she was being deliberately harmed. An NSPCC centre failed for six months to follow up a referral. In short, she was in contact with plenty of protection services but all of them failed her.

Between 50 and 100 children die each year from abuse or neglect. Some have been the subject of inquiries, others not. Every child should receive the right help as early as possible. That is not the only way in which vulnerable children are let down by the system. Only 8 per cent of children in care receive five good GCSEs, compared with half the population as a whole. They are far more likely to truant and far less likely to remain in education after 16. Such statistics explain why vulnerable children too often end up in a cycle of poverty and crime.

Every Child Matters has two main goals: first, to protect children; second, to ensure that every child can fulfil their potential. But we must break free from a narrow pre-occupation with child protection. As well as seeking to improve procedures in children's services, the paper seeks to develop Sure Start and children's centres, where parents can access child care, toy libraries, medical support and education, all under one roof. There is a recognition, too, that preventing young offending among teenagers needs intervention at the earliest stage.

There are five aspects to the reform programme. The first is prevention - tackling those aspects of a child's upbringing that cause later problems. The green paper reminds us that children's life-chances remain unequal and that there is a long way to go before child poverty is eliminated. Tackling these inequalities means addressing the causes of poverty. Children's centres, where a range of services is brought together on a single site, and the Sure Start programme, with its 500 centres, are starting to make a difference to the lives of families in disadvantaged circumstances. Providing better support for parents is a crucial part of this process.


The second goal is early intervention. We must reach children before problems become a crisis, particularly in cases of child abuse and neglect, which often lead to truancy and crime in later life. Services should pool information about children. Each agency involved with children can benefit from a common assessment framework, where a child's case notes follows him or her. One person should have overall responsibility for the welfare of a child at risk. By working in teams which bring together the range of services, based where possible in schools or children's centres, there should be a more coherent and rapid response when teachers, child care workers and others working with children express concerns.

The third goal is to improve specialist services. It is no good identifying children with more acute needs if we do not have the therapeutic services or the foster carers who can give them the help they need. There is more money being spent on children's and adolescent mental health services and speech and language therapy. By next year, only in emergencies should homeless families with children be placed in bed and breakfast accommodation, and councils must now prioritise accommodation for those leaving care and other vulnerable teenagers. These are welcome first steps.

In its fourth goal, Every Child Matters recognises the need for services to work together to work effectively. My report revealed not only a failure to act, but also a failure to pool information, assessments and resources. I am hopeful that children's trusts, which integrate several different children's services, will become more widespread once the current pilots have run their course. The new duty to protect children should increase the priority with which child protection is seen by local services, and their ability to work together will be inspected under the leadership of education standards watchdog Ofsted.

A fifth and vital aspect of the green paper is its recognition of the importance of having the right people to do the job. Sometimes, people argue that what happened to Victoria amounts to a general condemnation of those working in our public services. I disagree. Indeed, I have contrasted the skill and dedication shown by the hospital staff and police in trying to save Victoria's life, and in conducting the murder investigation, with the earlier failures to spot what was happening. We need to invest more in recruiting and training the best people to work with children, particularly in social work. The green paper recognises the importance of fair pay and better training to improve professional skills and teamworking so that they work better together. The paper proposes a new children's workforce unit and a sector skills council for children to bring together employers.

Victoria's death could and should have been prevented. We owe it to her memory to do everything we can to seek to ensure that any child in need is identified early and provided with appropriate help and support. The well-being and proper development of every child should be our goal.

Every Child Matters sets out a new vision on the value we place on each child and the efforts we are all willing to make to ensure they are given every opportunity to achieve their potential and become fulfilled and positive members of the community. Children are citizens of society. Our task is to provide the right kinds of support, encouragement, security and stimulation throughout the precious years of childhood. Each of the key services has a vitally important part to play in working in partnership with parents. Let us hope Every Child Matters signals a new beginning in putting children first.