A Community Care survey of more than 1,000 social workers has found that 71% of practitioners believed the threshold for child protection had risen in the past 12 months. Of those who felt the threshold for abuse had risen, 74% believed it had risen for neglect, while 39% felt it had risen for cases involving sexual abuse and exploitation.
Directors of children’s services are less convinced. In a safeguarding pressures report by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) in 2014, 56% of directors of children’s services did not feel that thresholds had changed in the past two years.
However, a previous version of the ADCS’safeguarding pressures report published in 2012 found that 71% of directors did not feel thresholds had changed, showing that, over time, more directors are starting to feel that the thresholds for children’s social care are changing.
In order to further understand the differences between frontline and managers views, Community Care conducted an analysis of all of the Ofsted inspections carried out under the single inspection framework up to August 31 this year.
The analysis of 59 Ofsted inspections found confusion around thresholds in 26, or 44% of, local authorities. Often, the understanding of thresholds in partner agencies, and within children’s services, was not consistent.
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Source: CYPNow – click here for the full article
