Children & Young People Now
September 2011
Comment
Christine Davies
CBE – Director – C4EO
From our inception C4EO has worked with local areas and services to gather examples
of excellent local practice that have led to significantly improved outcomes for
children, young people and their families. Where we have classified examples as
"validated local practice", these demonstrate strong evidence of improving outcomes
for children, young people and their families. They are also judged to be capable
of being scaled up. Those classed as "promising practice"' provide a clear description,
good rationale and some evidence of impact on outcomes for children.
C4EO is now interested in "emerging practice", capturing new or relatively recent
examples of services being re-designed to be efficient and cost effective at the
same time as improving outcomes. We recognise it is likely to be too early to demonstrate
direct impact on children and families, but the thinking behind changes and the
way they are implemented could be of value to others facing similar challenges.
Our bank of effective local practice continues to grow week by week and there are
now more than 140 examples on the C4EO website. We know, however, that there is
still much more excellent practice that should be shared more widely.
Over the summer, C4EO, in close consultation with the Association of Directors of
Children's Services, children's service heads, chief executives, lead members and
others, has been carrying out a consultation exercise to create data profiles for
each local authority area. The profiles contain a list of potential indicators for
early years, families, young people, care and adoption, and educational attainment.
Following the Munro Review's recommendation for a new "information set", a separate
profile will be produced specifically on safeguarding. The consultation will help
ensure C4EO develops helpful data and data tools that will support local partners
to assess their own performance and that of others.
Finally, C4EO is calling for evidence of effective local practice in both fostering
and adoption. We would welcome contributions from across the children's sector in
these critical areas of work.
Making the difference
Bullying Young people support and advise their peers
Young mentors are at the heart of a service that has been designed to help others
who have been bullied
CyberMentors receive training in offering advice on bullying to their peers as an online service
Bullying Young people support and advise their peers
Young mentors are at the heart of a service that has been designed to help others
who have been bullied
The CyberMentors scheme, run by the charity Beatbullying, launched in March 2009
and is an example of good practice validated by C4EO.
Hundreds of young people aged 11 to 25 have been trained as mentors to support and
advise their peers, either face-to-face in schools or via an online service.
They help those affected by bullying including cyberbullying, which can include
abuse online, via email and text messages. The online service means young people
always have somewhere to turn as bullying often happens after school and in the
evening.
Young mentors are supported by qualified adult counsellors and there are clear child
protection protocols. Other issues around a young person's wellbeing and emotional
and mental health often crop up.
At the end of July this year, there had been just over 770,000 mentoring interventions.
"Children and young people are using the internet and other technology more and
more and things like Facebook have become a part of everyday life," says Beatbullying
deputy chief executive Richard Piggin. "This creates new opportunities and also
new dangers.
"Children and young people who have been the target of cyberbullying still struggle
to tell someone. Telling a teacher or parent can be difficult and more often they
turn to their friends, finding it easier to talk to someone of their own age."
The charity has found that using peer mentors has many advantages.
"They can give young people relevant advice and talk to them in a language they
understand, which is really important," says Piggin.
"We've also found evidence that young people find it easier to confide in someone
online rather than face-to-face."
Independent evaluation found training to be a CyberMentor boosted young people's
self-esteem and confidence.
Meanwhile, 97 per cent of young people mentored through the service felt it had
helped and 92 per cent said they would return for further assistance.
Key lessons
- Online safety is absolutely crucial when dealing with vulnerable young people. You
need robust safeguarding policy and procedures
- Ongoing evaluation helps understand how to improve provision
- Your service must be flexible and able to adapt quickly to the changing issues faced
by young users
- Young people must be at the heart of developing the service
Need to know
Child deaths New data could help reduce risks
New data on the deaths of children and young people should help local authorities
and others take steps to cut the annual death toll.
For the first time panels who review all child deaths have been required to provide
details on the age, gender and ethnicity of children who died.
Since April 2008 all Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) have had a statutory
duty to review the deaths of all children from birth to 18 who live in their areas.
This involves setting up a Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) to look into deaths,
identifying if there were any "modifiable" factors and if any lessons could be learned.
A "modifiable" factor is something that could be changed either locally or nationally
to reduce the risk of future deaths.
The latest figures for child death reviews completed between April 2010 and March
2011 were provided by all 148 LSCBs on behalf of 94 CDOPs.
A total of 4,061 child death reviews were completed during that period and of those,
800 – 20 per cent – were identified as having "modifiable" factors.
Deaths due to trauma and external causes such as road accidents and drowning had
the highest proportion with modifiable factors – 68 per cent.
Of deaths caused by "malignancy" – where deliberate harm was intended towards a
child or young person – just four per cent were found to have modifiable factors.
Modifiable factors were identified in a higher proportion of deaths of older children
– 38 per cent in those aged 15 to 17, compared to 16 per cent among children aged
under one.
Of all child death reviews completed in England in the year to 31 March 2011
67%
were for children under one
Source: DfE: Child Death Reviews Completed in England: Year ending 31 March 2011
Of all child death reviews completed in England in the year to 31 March 2011
20%
were found to have "modifiable" factors
Source: DfE: Child Death Reviews Completed in England: Year ending 31 March 2011
Of deaths completed involving suicide and deliberate self-harm
63%
were found to have "modifiable" factors
Source: DfE: Child Death Reviews Completed in England: Year ending 31 March 2011
Where to go next?
Emerging practice
A multi-agency team that screens all child protection referrals to Haringey Council's
children's services is among examples of "emerging practice". C4EO is seeking early
stage case studies that show how services have been redesigned.
Information on how to submit
examples.
Interactive maps
Children's services professionals can now access a range of online tutorials to
help them make the most of C4EO's interactive maps to look at data. The sessions
cover everything from the use of maps to compare different local authorities' performance
to more complex area profiles.
Tutorials can be found by going to the data section of
the C4EO website.
Social finance schemes
C4EO is seeking examples of local social finance models to improve outcomes for
children and young people.
It wants to hear from local authorities and community and voluntary sector organisations
involved in this work, such as using investment funds to boost social enterprise
or buy community assets.
More information on how to submit social finance scheme examples.
Top
