Child protection services not good enough says RCN

Published: 18 December 2008

The RCN is urging the Government to take urgent action to improve child protection services in some parts of the UK. The College said that work must not stop until the ’postcode lottery’ in child protection services has been ended.

The comments come in response to the publication of Ofsted’s 2008 Annual Performance Assessments which show a five percent decrease in councils which have been judged good or outstanding in the contribution they make to improving services overall for children and young people. Additionally four councils were assessed as inadequate overall, compared to none in 2007.

Dr. Peter Carter, Chief Executive & General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing said:

“This report shows that four council’s child protection services simply aren’t good enough and we are concerned that standards appear to be slipping in other local authorities”.

Since the case of Baby P became known, nurses have been contacting the RCN to express their concerns about the effectiveness of child protection services. The RCN will take these concerns to the relevant agencies as soon as possible.