Well, It’s Creating Work For Somebody…

The children's trusts created by the government after the death of Victoria Climbie have made little difference in child protection, a new report claims.

Did anyone really think that it would…?

The study from the public sector spending watchdog is the first independent assessment of the trusts since they were formally created by the Children Act 2004 to co-ordinate children's services.

It found "little evidence of better outcomes for children and young people" and said too much time was being spent on "structures and process" at the expense of improving the lives of children, young people and their families.

Well, of course! Those taxpayer pounds won’t spend themselves on conferencing, networking, training and employing consultants to help the ‘teamwork process’, etc, etc…

Local agreements worked better than the "centrally-directed" approach, the report concluded.

There’s a surprise!

Minister Beverley Hughes said she was "disappointed" in the Commission's handling of the review.

"Not only are the headline messages a misrepresentation of what their own report as a whole says, but it is based on fieldwork which is now almost a year old.

"Significant changes have taken place since then, not least the publication of the Children's Plan, which sets out very clearly our high ambitions for children and the strength and role of children's trusts in delivering them."

Nice! Can I ignore the next government report that has taken a year to complete, then, Bev?

And nice of you to counter evidence of what is not happening (despite the promises made in 2004) with evidence of what you’ve said you plan to do in the future. That’ll work, I’m sure…

Ah, but the vultures have scented a nice, fresh corpse and are descending on outstretched wings for their share:

NSPCC policy officer Vijay Patel said the report made "some important points" and the recommendation for closer links with schools was important.

He said "professionals are still not consistently talking to colleagues in other sectors", and called for further investment to achieve a "cultural change" in welfare services.

Hmm, I see a pattern emerging…

Janet Davies, executive director of the Royal College of Nursing, said the report showed there had been "insufficient investment" in the training of nurses and other professionals.

"This has created a protection postcode lottery where safeguarding services vary significantly across the country," she said.

More taxpayers money! That’ll fix everything…