The critical situation overview into Hamzah Khan’s death was criticised by the children’s minister, Edward Timpson, for failing to apportion blame. Photograph: West Yorkshire Police/PA
Occasionally seeing the entire image is challenging when the detail is drip-fed. But soon after a 12 months of comprehensive announcements and modifications, the education secretary Michael Gove’s agenda to privatise youngster safety is becoming visible. Right here are the government’s 6 measures to little one protection privatisation.
1. Rubbish social workers by requiring that a severe situation overview into a child’s death is published in full and then describe it as “risible” if it does not provide on a plate the heads of social workers, as happened final week when children’s minister, Edward Timpson, criticised the SCR into the death of Hamzah Khan (pictured). Make certain there is lots of crucial comment to feed the press. And if there is any regional reluctance to publish in total a overview, to shield the identities and welfare of remaining children, have a nationwide panel with no sharp-finish expertise in kid protection to bully the neighborhood safeguarding young children board into publication.
2.Take care that attention is not on the role and involvement of the police, physicians, well being workers or schools.
3.Give the blame culture credibility by creating sweeping statements about politically right and naive social staff who are concerned about the rising deprivation designed by welfare cuts for a expanding amount of children and families they meet each and every day.
4.Introduce rapidly-track education for a little quantity of brilliant graduates They will form the long term cadre of leaders, with no robust roots in social operate, but who will be the ambitious long term managers in privatised kid safety. Discredit existing social work training.
5. Generate a kid safety technique nationally that is at the point of breakdown. Then fragment organisations, such as schools and well being services, that require to function with each other locally to shield young children, and set them up, as an alternative, in competition. Ensure support by way of children’s centres and Sure Start is diminished for struggling families. Drastically cut council funding so that as a lot more work piles in, councils are not able to boost their capability to deal with it. Social employees then have to lower corners and, when anything horrible occurs to a little one, are targeted for blame and abuse.
6.Use other organisations to fuel the privatisation agenda. Ofsted, as the nationwide hit-and-run inspectorate, tends to make its requirements harder to accomplish at the same time as councils’ child safety teams struggle to cope with rising workloads. Each and every separate Ofsted report focuses on the failings of individual councils, with no comment on the national context. In addition, ask folks with no experience in child protection to put together public reviews that will undermine social work practice.
So, the way has been paved for Serco, G4S and venture capitalists to make funds from kid protection. It will not only lead to rising charges, but will undermine one of the safest and strongest kid protection methods in the planet.
It really is scary that Gove’s government dogma is most likely to lead to so a lot injury and disintegration leaving young children much less protected. This has been a government journey for some time, but now the location has turn into considerably clearer.
How to privatise child protection in six easy stages | Ray Jones
