Vulnerable children who move may still fall through net, expert warns

Common protocols should be created to allow basic information
about vulnerable children to be shared across local authority
boundaries, a leading figure in Identification, Referral and
Tracking urged last week, writes Amy
Taylor.

Sara Tough, project manager for IRT & business manager for
local preventative strategy at Telford & Wrekin Council, said
that a common set of arrangements were needed to detect vulnerable
children moving to different areas.

Speaking at a conference on children’s services in London, she
said:  “There are no national standards that allow us to share
basic details about children who are vulnerable…We cannot
progress IRT beyond our local area without this.

“Families move around and at the moment we have no way to let
another authority know that that child has moved and share
information,” she added.

While the same type of agencies in different areas, such as
strategic health authorities, already shared information on
children, Tough warned that there might not be such a good
relationship between a strategic health authority and a school in
different regions.

IRT involves the identifying, supporting and monitoring of
vulnerable children. The new IRT pilots across Telford & Wrekin
and Shropshire were launched last week.