Charity chief wants professionals to shift focus away from risks and on to outcomes

A leading children’s charity head has called on
professionals to focus on how to improve outcomes for children
rather than on their risk of coming to harm.

“I would love us to get away from the terminology of children at
risk,” National Children’s Bureau chief executive Paul Ennals
told a conference on children last week.

Ministers had focused on Victoria Climbié and the Soham
girls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells when discussing the Children
Bill, despite the bill actually looking at services for all
children, he told the conference organised by the charity 4Children
(previously Kids’ Club Network).

He said he wanted to make sure that professionals did not focus
all their attention on cases of child deaths, but considered the
needs of all children.

Ennals highlighted the importance of preventive services and
said he hoped that more money would be allocated to these in the
future.

He also said it was a problem that professionals were unable to
measure the effectiveness of action they had taken to prevent
children from having difficulties.

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