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Protecting our children from evil
THE Local Safeguarding Children Board was created almost two years ago to take charge of the safety and welfare of young people in Northamptonshire. Features editor Joni Ager talks to its new chairman about looking after the county's children.
You might think cases of child abuse in Northamptonshire are relatively rare.
In fact, Northamptonshire Police gets around 1,400 calls a year from people worried for the safety of a child.
Some of these calls will be unfounded concerns and very few will be cases of abuse along the lines of what happened to Victoria Climbie, who died at the hands of her abusive aunt and her partner in 2002.
But there are many instances where the authorities do need to intervene and it is the job of the Northamptonshire Local Safeguarding Children
Board to bring all the key parties together.
The board has hit the headlines in recent months over the death of seven-week-old Jessica Randall.
She was sexually abused, tortured and finally murdered in November 2005, by her father Andrew, who was jailed for life last year.
Baby Jessica was abused almost every day of her short life and the safeguarding children board has ben carrying out a review into why warning signs of abuse were not spotted by any of the medical staff who had seen Jessica.
But child abuse is not the only issue the board addresses and it is beginning to look at wider issues affecting the welfare of children, such as road safety and childhood illnesses.
Chris Few became the chairman of the Local Safeguarding Children Board last month.
Mr Few has had a 30-year career with the police, starting as an officer in Edinburgh in 1978 after spending a couple of years in the Merchant Navy.
He moved to Northamptonshire Police in 1991 and from 1999 worked in the child protection unit before moving into murder and major crime.
He is the first independent chairman of the Local Safeguarding Children Board, taking over from Andrew Sortwell who was the county council's director of children's services.
The board is made up of all the key organisations involved in the safety and welfare of children, including the health trust, police, social services, probation and voluntary agencies such as the NSPCC.
So how much of a problem is child abuse in Northamptonshire?
Mr Few said: "It is not so much that child abuse is only discussed behind closed doors, in a lot of instances it is not discussed at all.
"If you carried out a survey and asked people what concerns they have about their lives in this county, it is unlikely child abuse would feature in that.
"There is greater awareness now that children do get abused but it is something people don't think about on a daily basis unless they work in that particular area.
"There are somewhere in the region of 1,400 reports of child abuse to the police every year. Not all of these are child abuse, some are instances where people are concerned about the welfare of children.
"Instances of children being abused by someone outside of the family are fairly rare and where that does happen a very small number are predatory paedophiles attacking children in the street.
"Where I have some concerns about the safety of children from outside the family are with issues around bullying in schools and more and more are internet-related crimes where it is easy for those who are inclined to abuse children to get access to them in their own environment."
One of the projects the board has already introduced is a conference in October for people working with children and young people on internet safety.
A major part of the board's role is to carry out serious case reviews where a child has died and there is a suspicion of abuse or if a child is seriously abused and there are concerns about the way the agencies have worked together.
Mr Few said: "We have a responsibility to do that and it is important where things have gone wrong. Unfortunately in some cases there are opportunities for agencies to have intervened and for a number of reasons we may not have done so.
"The review process prevents that from happening again but the intention is that children don't get into that sort of situation."
The board is due to release a report into its review of the Jessica Randall case, but there has been criticism about the time it is taking for the report to be published.
Mr Few said: "What I am keen to do is not to rush into publication until we have covered all angles and the review itself has been absolutely thorough in getting to the bottom of what happened, why and what should be done about it.
"I think it is regrettable that it has taken this long, I would have liked to see the report published six months ago, but I would like us to do a proper job."
So does the creation of the safeguarding children board in January, 2006, mean deaths like Jessica Randall's are less likely to happen again?
"It must and it will," says Mr Few. "That is why we are here.
"We need to ensure that whenever possible, those reviews are fully effective and if there are any ways in which we can make similar events less likely to happen we must make sure those issues are addressed."
Mr Few is now leading a project to set up a system for reviewing all child deaths – not just those linked to abuse – which should be in place by next April.
The system will look at what caused the death and whether anything could have been done to prevent it. For example, if a child suffers a fatal asthma attack it will prompt a review into healthcare for asthma patients and if a child dies in a road accident there may be a review of the road layout or speed limit.
He also wants to get young people themselves involved in the board to make sure they are concentrating on the issues that are important to children.
Mr Few said: "Safeguarding children is everybody's business and that includes professionals, adults and children and young people themselves.
"I want to get to a situation where everyone in Northamptonshire thinks keeping children safe is something they are responsible for."
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