Recently in wales Category

The Welsh government has opened a consultation on practice guidance to support the new child practice reviews framework, due to replace Wales' serious case review procedures.

It follows last year's announcement from Gwenda Thomas, deputy minister for children and social services, that the Welsh government planned to develop a new national programme for reviewing and learning from cases involving the serious abuse or neglect of children.

You might also be interested in this helpful CC Inform guide to serious case reviews.

Gwenda Thomas, Welsh Deputy Minister for Social Services, has invited consortia of local authorities and local health boards to bid for £1.1m to initiate the second phase of the Integrated Family Support Service (IFSS) in Wales.

Designed to provide support for families affected by substance misuse who have complex needs., the Service is delivered by multi-disciplinary, multi-agency teams with a focus on evidence-based interventions.

Two new pioneer areas are being sought for 2011/12. These are in addition to the existing pioneer areas established in  September 2010;  Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taff, Newport and Wrexham delivering IFSS jointly with Cwm Taf, Aneurin Bevan and Betsi Cadwaladr Local Health Boards.

Local authorities with their LHB partners are invited to submit bids for the two new pioneer areas in 2011/12.  Details will be published on the IFSS website early in the new financial year.

A serious case review published jointly by Neath Port Talbot, Caerphilly and Pembrokeshire councils says practitioners failed four children who were victims of sexual and physical abuse, as well as neglect, over a number of years.

The review says: "There were gaps in communication across agencies, a lack of urgency, and procedures were not consistently applied or followed. There was often a lack of child-centred focus and there were weaknesses in risk assessments. Arrangements for sharing information between agencies concerned with managing dangerous offenders in the community and child welfare agencies did not always work well together."

A painful passage in the review says that when contributing to the review, the children said that their voices were not heard despite many attempts to tell workers about what had been happening to them.

The Neath Port Talbot Safeguarding Children Board has apologised to the children involved.