News From Gloucestershire

From The Citizen, we hear with regard to the sentencing of Eunice Spry, that the judge

"condemned social services and health workers who failed to spot the abuse".

and

"Care services claim changes have already been made to protect children in the future. The Gloucestershire Safeguarding Children Board, the body now charged with overseeing various agencies involved with child care, said this could not have happened with systems currently in place. In a detailed statement, it claimed information was now shared between agencies so signs of abuse can be spotted earlier. It said issues raised in the official review into the Spry case are addressed. The review carried out by an independent expert identified key recommendations about changes in practice which include:

Ensuring that children are always seen by themselves if concerns have been raised.

All records should contain a brief up to date chronology of significant events and interventions in order to provide an overview.

Increasing safeguarding for children educated at home

Ensuring that professionals in private practice, such as dentists, are aware of child protection issues and know how to respond."

So how, we wonder, do they intend to increase the safeguarding of children educated at home? We are yet to hear.

It seems to us that we are already required to do all that is necessary - for example, home educators are effectively registered as such as a result of the implementation of the Information Sharing Index (I personally refuse to use the euphemism Contactpoint). LA workers can already share information about all families across any number of different agencies. If there is reason to suspect that there is any sort of problem, social services and education welfare officers already have perfectly adequate powers to intervene. Nothing more need be done.