Royal Colleges welcome Government move on Laming recommendations
Published: 16 March 2009
The Royal College of Nursing has said that Lord Laming’s report, The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report reinforces the RCN’s long held views that child protection is not the top priority for those who fund health and social services. The RCN has welcomed the Government’s acceptance of the report recommendations, stressing the importance of joint working and urging training needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency
RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, Dr Peter Carter said the RCN was looking forward to working closely with the Government to ensure that every health and social service professional involved in child protection has all of the necessary training opportunities and support to do the best possible job. However, he warned:
“Health professionals want to receive regular child protection training, but their employers do not set aside the necessary time and money for it to happen”.
He added:
“It is also clear that where agencies do not work closely together, children are not adequately protected from abuse or neglect. We welcome the fact that the government has moved quickly to accept all of the Laming recommendations and the intention is absolutely right. However, we now need to move quickly to ensure that every single recommendation is implemented in every part of the country”.
The RCN and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health are already working with Government to develop guidance, training and networks to share best practice between professionals working in child protection.
Further information
Read: Lord Laming urges step change in leadership and practice to improve child protection on the Department for children, schools and families website.