I have been spending some time looking at Ofsted Reports where services have not really understood what safeguarding means. Interesting to see that one large local authority with considerable provision for services for children has failed to understand the safeguarding agenda. It has some areas of deprivation but substantially it is a ‘well-off’ authority and is a local authority of some professional status.
It understands child protection well enough but not the concept of “keeping children safe”, so services for children “looked after” and children “ in need” and the actions required to ensure their safety have been shown to be inadequate and as such, poorly understood.
They are of course, not the only local authority to have their services to children deemed inadequate. The lesson for every provision providing services to children, whether in the public, private or voluntary sectors, is that it is necessary to understand exactly what safeguarding entails. There are actions that need to be taken to check that as individuals you are not resting on your laurels by thinking your provision is OK. The task is to ask yourself how do you know your own practice is really up to date?
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