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Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
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Child Protection Registers not fit for purpose says Welsh Liberal Democrat
April 21, 2010 12:00 AM
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson, Peter Black has called on the Assembly Government to introduce a Wales-wide child protection register after it became clear that the present arrangements are riddled with holes.
Mr. Black has written to the Deputy Minister for Social Services after visiting Accident and Emergency Departments and talking to social service professionals. He has been told that there is no national child protection register. Instead each local authority maintains its own register separately and independently from its neighbours. This is particularly disturbing in the light of a worrying rise in violence against young children recorded by Welsh researchers.
"I am very concerned about this situation for a number of reasons," said Mr. Black. "Firstly, Accident and Emergency units only hold the at-risk register for the area they are situated in despite the fact that they may well serve several local authority areas. Thus Morriston Hospital Accident and Emergency unit only holds the Swansea register though children present themselves from Bridgend, Neath Port Talbot, Powys, Carmarthenshire and sometimes from further afield. This makes it possible for parents to take an abused child to a different A&E each time without being flagged up as at-risk due to regular injuries being inflicted on the child.
"Secondly, recent Serious Case Reviews have demonstrated that at-risk children can move across local authority boundaries during their lifetime sometimes without being immediately picked up as 'at-risk' in their new home
"Thirdly, partnership working across local authority areas in the field of child protection is hampered by the fact that each Council's at-risk register is not accessible to social workers in other authorities.
"This is a matter that requires urgent attention by the Deputy Minister. We cannot allow loopholes to exist in our systems through which child abusers can escape."
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