Influencing Parliament on child maltreatment, prevention and early years.
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George Hosking, CEO The Wave Trust
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Influencing Parliament on child maltreatment, prevention and early years.
- 1. Influencing Parliament on child maltreatment, prevention and early years George Hosking, CEO, WAVE Trust BASPCAN 2015 Congress – Free Paper Session 6 Edinburgh, Monday 13th April 2015
- 4. 19 Years Research Maltreatment is the Prime Cause
- 6. Future violent offenders 10 x more aggressive by age 3
- 7. - 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 Under 1s 1-4 5-9 10-15 16 and over Rates of entry, per year, on child protection register (England) – by age
- 9. • Traditional responses failing to stem tide of child maltreatment in Europe • Report calls for a preventive, public health approach • Few European countries have devoted adequate resources and attention to prevention • Compelling arguments for increased investment in prevention • Wide-ranging public health and societal benefits from prevention programmes • Reducing CM is among the mainstay of actions required to reduce inequity in Europe
- 10. 1. Develop national policy for prevention based on multi-sectoral action 2. Take action with evidence-based prevention 3. Strengthen health systems’ response for prevention and rehabilitation 4. Each country should have a national action plan with a target to reduce prevalence of child maltreatment and child homicide by 20% by 2020
- 13. What are the greatest barriers to implementation of prevention by local areas? • “The ‘sucking up’ of resources to statutory services which meet high level needs … there is a national pattern in this direction, too, over the past few years” • “Given the level of savings local authorities are required to find over the next four years it will become more and more difficult for LAs to fund non-statutory services” • “Pressure on public services in terms of funding reductions” • “Tightening of budgets in relation to Early Years and Childcare Services at local level”
- 14. What are the greatest barriers to implementation of prevention by local areas? • “Pressures to make savings … Organisational pressures to deal with current problems rather than future need” • “There is a widespread, erroneous belief in the NHS, that curative treatment services area good substitute for skilled public health, preventive services” • “Historically medicine has been seen as curing rather than preventing illness. People seek help when something is wrong, rather than in order to prevent things going wrong”
- 15. What are the greatest barriers to the implementation of prevention by local areas? • “Finite resources and perceived/actual risk means that focus tends to be on reactive services rather than preventive” • “Competing pressures between implementing a preventative plan and managing and responding to ‘today’s’ pressures and statutory duties” • “Clearly demonstrating the benefits of a preventative approach … the evidence is there on an individual basis (e.g. medical evidence), but not in regard to a conclusive argument that it will save money for the public sector in the long term”
- 16. .
- 17. Influencing Parliament • Violence and what to do about it (was also Child maltreatment and what to do about it) • Strong engagement with civil service, ministers and opposition • Led to early years’ success with Labour Government; 10 Downing Street backed our proposals; Lib Dem support for 70/30 plan to reduce child maltreatment; cross-party support built with MPs – especially Graham Allen and Iain Duncan Smith • WAVE authored Allen/Smith report Good Parents, Great Kids, Better Citizens which supported early intervention
- 18. Influencing Parliament • Created the 70/30 objective to reduce child maltreatment in the UK by 70% by 2030 • Set up a 70/30 Alliance of major charities and Think Tanks • Appointed as the early years experts in, and drafted the early years sections of, the Allen Review of Early Intervention • Created the expert practitioner group ‘The Early Years Champions’ with Andrea Leadsom MP
- 19. Influencing Parliament • Invited to comment on Govt paper ‘Supporting Families in the Foundation Years’ – pointed out gap in attention to 0-2 year olds • This led to Co-Chairing with Dept for Education an 18 month “Under 2s Special Interest Group’ study: Policies for under 2s • Wrote final report Conception to age 2 – the age of opportunity • This led to the creation of an APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group) Conception to age 2 – the critical 1001 days
- 20. Influencing Parliament • Sold principle of prevention to Cabinet Social Justice Committee: Challenge thrown down: ‘Prove it saves money within 5 years’ • Developed an approach to do so: Pioneer Communities project • A 5-year intensive, comprehensive, preventive approach to child maltreatment, tested in 6 local areas around the UK • Built Treasury, Health, Cabinet Office, and cross-party support • The goal: a major public policy to prevention in the 2020s
- 21. Influencing Parliament • Recent APPG work – 6 month Inquiry into key policies in the first 1001 days, February 2015 Report Building Great Britons • Recommendations: – Require local authorities, CCGs and Health & Wellbeing Boards to prioritise development of socially and emotionally capable children at age 2, by: adopting and implementing ‘1001-days’ strategy…with particular emphasis on fostering mental/emotional wellbeing and secure attachment, and preventing child maltreatment – Build on the ‘Early Help’ recommendations of the Munro Review by requiring and supporting all relevant agencies in prevention to work together to prevent child maltreatment and promote secure attachment
- 22. Scotland: Putting the Baby in the Bathwater Coalition • Signatories to coalition have risen from 50 in 2013 105 • Breadth and depth of coalition, plus merits of case, led to cross-party support for prevention recommendations, changes to legislation • Amendment to Children and Young People’s Act 2014 created statutory duty for prevention and early intervention element in every local authority Children’s Services Plan • Changed support to parents of ‘looked after children’ to include parents of ‘children at risk of becoming looked
- 23. Scotland: Putting the Baby in the Bathwater Coalition • Lobbied for major increase in Health Visitors – new 500 planned • Secured ministerial commitment to coalition involvement in developing regulations, guidance and interpretation • Ongoing engagement of coalition with civil servants, ministers and key parliamentarians agreed and implemented • Working e.g. to end ‘justifiable assault’ defence for hitting babies • 4 characteristics have underpinned success of PB in B coalition:
Editor's Notes
- 1. Fewer than 50 organisational and individual signatories (but still an usually high number) to Putting the Baby IN the Bath Water when submitted as part of the Scottish Parliament's consideration of the Children and Young People Bill in 2013 ; 80 by the time it became an Act in 2014; 98 when our coalition's first annual report -- Social Justice Begins With Babies -- was published last autumn; and 105 today (with more in the process of joining). Not a single signatory has withdrawn. 2. The Scottish National Party has an absolute majority in the Scottish Parliament -- as well as the party discipline to have passed the Scottish Government's original Bill 'as is'. That made influencing the process more difficult. But, cross-party support was gained for the amendments actively (and collectively) encouraged by our coalition -- and the SG was willing to consider them, too. This was based on not only the merits of our recommended improvements, but also respect for the breadth and depth of our coalition. 3. There were four 'victories' acheived by our coalition in relation to the Children and Young People Act 2014. One was an amendment that, for the first time in Scotland, created a statutory duty to have a prevention and early intervention element built into every Children's Services Plan of every local local authority (and other public bodies). Public bodies must report on what they have done, and they will be held accountable for, this prevention and early intervention component. 4. The second was changing a section in the Bill on 'counselling services to parents of looked after children' to a part in the final Act about 'all relevant services to the parents of children at risk of becoming looked after". This broader and far more prevention-focussed amendment begins with pregnancy and continues through the first 1,001 days (and beyond). 5. The third was an announcement made by the Scottish Government that it would fund an additional 500 early years 'health visitors' across Scotland. This was one of the key recommendations from Putting the Baby IN the Bath Water. 6. The fourth was the Ministerial commitment made during the parliamentary debate on the C&YP Bill that our coalition would be involved in the development of the regulations, guidance and other next steps toward interpreting and implementing this major new Scottish legislation. 7. This Ministerial commitment to our coalition has largely been honoured -- and persistently pursued. In the year since this Act was passed, there have been productive meetings with civil servants, Scottish Ministers, and key parliamentarians. This has resulted in, for example, a strong prevention section in the SG's proposed statutory guidance on the GIRFEC (Getting It Right For Every Child) part of this Act. This guidance mirrors the principles stated in Social Justice Begins With Babies. 8. Beyond the C&YP Act, our coalition has advocated for modifications to other key legislation. We have called for an end to the 'justifiable assault' defence for hitting one's own babies. We have also encouraged an amendment to Scotland's landmark Additional Support for Learning Act 2004, so it will become available to all children from birth (not just from the age of 3). Watch this space. 9. There are five characteristics that have allowed our coalition to be influential. We have collectively: a) Sought, and built upon, the common ground -- the principles and points on which everyone agrees -- among the organisational and individuals signatories; b) Taken a positive approach with the Scottish Government and Parliament that offers our collective support and expertise to help deliver on the prevention and earliest intervention principles they espouse and to which they aspire; c) Maintained a focus on two issues only, i.e, promoting primary prevention (keeping harm from happening in the first place) and improving the first 1,001 days of life (pre-birth to pre-school) -- without allowing any 'mission creep'; d) Operated in a transparent, non-hierarchal, informal, democratic manner that encourages active engagement among participants, rather than passive agreement. WAVE Trust has had the honour -- and borne the expense -- of co-ordinating this coalition since its inception, without seeking to own, dominate or control it; and, e) Committed to working together until the intended beneficiaries of the C&YP Act become the actual beneficiaries.
- 1. Fewer than 50 organisational and individual signatories (but still an usually high number) to Putting the Baby IN the Bath Water when submitted as part of the Scottish Parliament's consideration of the Children and Young People Bill in 2013 ; 80 by the time it became an Act in 2014; 98 when our coalition's first annual report -- Social Justice Begins With Babies -- was published last autumn; and 105 today (with more in the process of joining). Not a single signatory has withdrawn. 2. The Scottish National Party has an absolute majority in the Scottish Parliament -- as well as the party discipline to have passed the Scottish Government's original Bill 'as is'. That made influencing the process more difficult. But, cross-party support was gained for the amendments actively (and collectively) encouraged by our coalition -- and the SG was willing to consider them, too. This was based on not only the merits of our recommended improvements, but also respect for the breadth and depth of our coalition. 3. There were four 'victories' acheived by our coalition in relation to the Children and Young People Act 2014. One was an amendment that, for the first time in Scotland, created a statutory duty to have a prevention and early intervention element built into every Children's Services Plan of every local local authority (and other public bodies). Public bodies must report on what they have done, and they will be held accountable for, this prevention and early intervention component. 4. The second was changing a section in the Bill on 'counselling services to parents of looked after children' to a part in the final Act about 'all relevant services to the parents of children at risk of becoming looked after". This broader and far more prevention-focussed amendment begins with pregnancy and continues through the first 1,001 days (and beyond). 5. The third was an announcement made by the Scottish Government that it would fund an additional 500 early years 'health visitors' across Scotland. This was one of the key recommendations from Putting the Baby IN the Bath Water. 6. The fourth was the Ministerial commitment made during the parliamentary debate on the C&YP Bill that our coalition would be involved in the development of the regulations, guidance and other next steps toward interpreting and implementing this major new Scottish legislation. 7. This Ministerial commitment to our coalition has largely been honoured -- and persistently pursued. In the year since this Act was passed, there have been productive meetings with civil servants, Scottish Ministers, and key parliamentarians. This has resulted in, for example, a strong prevention section in the SG's proposed statutory guidance on the GIRFEC (Getting It Right For Every Child) part of this Act. This guidance mirrors the principles stated in Social Justice Begins With Babies. 8. Beyond the C&YP Act, our coalition has advocated for modifications to other key legislation. We have called for an end to the 'justifiable assault' defence for hitting one's own babies. We have also encouraged an amendment to Scotland's landmark Additional Support for Learning Act 2004, so it will become available to all children from birth (not just from the age of 3). Watch this space. 9. There are five characteristics that have allowed our coalition to be influential. We have collectively: a) Sought, and built upon, the common ground -- the principles and points on which everyone agrees -- among the organisational and individuals signatories; b) Taken a positive approach with the Scottish Government and Parliament that offers our collective support and expertise to help deliver on the prevention and earliest intervention principles they espouse and to which they aspire; c) Maintained a focus on two issues only, i.e, promoting primary prevention (keeping harm from happening in the first place) and improving the first 1,001 days of life (pre-birth to pre-school) -- without allowing any 'mission creep'; d) Operated in a transparent, non-hierarchal, informal, democratic manner that encourages active engagement among participants, rather than passive agreement. WAVE Trust has had the honour -- and borne the expense -- of co-ordinating this coalition since its inception, without seeking to own, dominate or control it; and, e) Committed to working together until the intended beneficiaries of the C&YP Act become the actual beneficiaries.