Child protection trusts ruled out

None of the children’s trusts pilot projects will be focusing on
child protection, a senior official from the Department of Health
has revealed.

The DoH’s lead on children’s trusts Carole Bell told a children’s
services conference this week that all the government-suggested
models for children’s trusts were covered by the 45 local authority
bids, with the exception of child protection.

Bell said that children’s trust applicants felt child protection
could not be separated from wider children’s services, and admitted
that the department “was wrong” to have thought child protection
services could be hived off to a separate body.

The bids involve paediatric, Connexions and youth offending teams
services and primary care trusts might choose to monitor them for
effectiveness and efficiency.

Bell also raised the possibility of trusts dealing with disabled
children, which will initially be run by councils, being run by
hospitals in the future.

One bid has pulled out, while the remaining 44 are awaiting a
decision by the government after they made presentations to
ministers last month.

The conference was organised by the Harrogate Centre for Excellence
in Health and Social Care.