, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
There's absolutely no doubt that third sector organisations, particularly organisations like the National Youth Advocacy Service, that are working very closely with children and young people, do amazing work supporting those people, particularly those young…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
Good question. [Inaudible.]
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
Safeguarding boards, obviously—I'm sure all the committee members know this, but, for the record—include health boards, they include NHS trusts, they include local authorities, education and social services, they include police and others. So, all of the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
And I would say, one of the things that I've been very keen to ensure that we see right across the 22 local authorities and health boards, following on from what Alistair was just saying, is consistency of practice. I think we see too much inconsistency. We…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
It is, and it's still quite early days, isn't it, and we're working with them. We're having a seminar—a summit—in December.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
So, we now have 56. Well, actually, it'll be more than that now—it will be 60, and if the final local authority signs up, it will be 61 public and third sector organisations that have signed up. We're asking all of those organisations to work with us to…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
Yes, indeed. I'm really very encouraged, actually, by where we are with the corporate parenting charter. We now have all health boards and trusts signed up to that now, and I believe, Alistair—I want to say this—we're down to just one local authority that has…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
The corporate parenting charter, yes?
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
They do develop specialisms, yes.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
I think that's something—. We used to always have specialist social workers, didn't we, and I think we kind of moved away from specialism to generic. I mean, Taryn, is there a view within the profession at the moment around that?
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
Specialist social care teams?
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
Absolutely, and that was a serious concern that we had as well, Cefin, and actually why the single unified safeguarding procedure wasn't introduced earlier. But I'll ask Alistair to say a bit about this, because there have been some very difficult…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
And it still is.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
Well, obviously, the White Paper on ending homelessness was published at the end of last year, and the analysis of those responses is now being undertaken. I think the proposals within that White Paper really are rooted in the parental responsibilities, and…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
It's been replaced, and that has been confirmed, so there's been no cut to the budget for joint inspections.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
We do, we do—sometimes. [Laughter.] We do speak to each other. We have a Cabinet meeting every week, and the current topics are discussed every week, and there is very much a push towards cross-departmental and portfolio working wherever that is appropriate…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
So, this is new, this is a first for the UK. I think we should shout very loudly about the fact that we're trailblazing this process for the rest of the UK. The new UK Government Ministers are expressing an interest in it, and I'm going to be meeting with…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
Thank you. Before I do answer those questions, Gareth, I think it would probably be worth me just mentioning this again for the record, because this is very important to safeguarding and how we learn lessons from safeguarding reviews—so, on 1 October we're…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
There are extensive examples of multi-agency working, but there's still a huge amount to do. I'll ask the Cabinet Secretary just to say a bit about this, because, of course, her work involves multi-agencies, including justice and so on.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
Early days, Julie, but promising signs, yes.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
Thank you for that question, Gareth. It’s one of the things that I am particularly concerned and exercised about, the social care workforce, right the way through from social care workers through to social workers, and right the way through the social care…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
Thank you, Tom. As we have talked about already, the national delivery plan is going to be covering all forms of sexual harm, including sexual exploitation, and has been the subject of four successful stakeholder-led workshops. So, that work is currently…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
Yes. Well, as I say, that’s not something that we’re ruling out, Chair, it’s just something that we have not been able to establish evidence of consensus around at the moment. And what we don’t want to do is force on children something that there isn’t a…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
She's gone. [Laughter.]
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Children and Young People on the margins - evidence session
I think there are two things about that, Lesley: one is that the offer in England, or the statutory provision in England, is actually only an offer of an interview—it's not that the interview itself is mandatory or statutory. And I go back to the question I…
