The role of the Children's Commissioner

Baby P timeline safeguarding

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/dec/01/baby-p-key-figures

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/nov/12/child-protection-crime-baby-p1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/22/baby-p-timeline

2006

1 March: Baby P, Peter, is born.

17 July: His father leaves the family home in Haringey.

November/December: Unknown to professionals involved in the case, the mother's new boyfriend moves in to the home.

11 December: His mother and maternal grandmother are arrested after a GP spots Peter has a head injury and other bruises.

22 December: Peter is placed on the Haringey child protection register for physical abuse and neglect.

2007

26 January: Peter is returned to his mother, though she is still on police bail.

9 April: His mother takes him to North Middlesex hospital. Staff identify bruises and scratches on his face, head and body.

1 June: Social worker Maria Ward informs the police of bruising on Peter's face during an unannounced visit. Staff at North Middlesex hospital find 12 areas of bruising. Social services arrange for a family friend to supervise the baby's care.

29 June: Jason Owen moves into the home with a 15-year-old runaway girl.

25 July: At a legal planning meeting it is decided that the case did not meet the threshold for care proceedings.

30 July: Ward makes her last visit to see Peter. He has chocolate smears over his face and hands, and anti-bacterial cream on his scalp.

1 August: Peter is taken to St Anne's hospital. Dr Sabah al-Zayyat notes bruises to his body and face but does not perform a full examination because he is "miserable and cranky".

2 August: Police tell the mother she will not be prosecuted in relation to Peter's injuries.

3 August: Following a 999 call, Peter is taken to hospital but pronounced dead on arrival.

2008

August: Dr al-Zayyat is banned from working unsupervised by the General Medical Council for 18 months.

11 November: Owen and the 32-year-old boyfriend of Peter's mother are found guilty of causing Peter's death. The mother had pleaded guilty to the same charge.

1 December: A independent review declares Haringey's child protection services to be exceptionally "inadequate". Council leader George Meehan and cabinet member for children and young people Liz Santry resign. The children's secretary, Ed Balls, orders the removal of the director of children's services, Sharon Shoesmith, from her post. She is sacked later that month.

2009

19 February: Dr Jerome Ikwueke, a GP who saw Peter 14 times before his death, is suspended by the GMC.

29 April: Haringey council dismisses a social worker and three managers for failings in Peter's case.

1 May: The boyfriend of Peter's mother is convicted of raping a two-year-old girl in north London.

22 May: The second serious case review into Peter's death concludes that child protection staff should have been able to stop the abuse "at the first serious incident". The boyfriend of Peter's mother is jailed for life. His mother is jailed indefinitely. Owen, the lodger, is given an indeterminate sentence for public protection.

11 August: Tracey Connelly and Steven Barker are named as Baby Peter's mother and stepfather after reporting restrictions are lifted by a judge who says it is a necessary step to maintain public confidence in the judicial system. The decision by Mr Justice Coleridge follows pressure from several major media organisations that argued it was important to identify the pair to ensure those who caused the toddler's death were being properly held to account.

7 October: Sharon Shoesmith launches a high court case against Ed Balls to seek compensation for dismissal

2011

27 May Sharon Shoesmith wins an appeal against Ed Balls and Haringey council over her dismissal, which was ruled by the high court to have been "tainted by unfairness". A ruling on compensation for Shoesmith was referred back to the high court for "further consideration".

Communication Champion Jean Gross

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14324745
This link talks about children not knowing their own names.

"Jean Gross states there are 1.2 million children in this country with a biologically based impairment; their brains are wired differently, but on top of that we also have children where it is more socially determined," 

Jean Gross is England's outgoing Communication Champion for children.  Following on from the Bercow review she was appointed in 2009 to support children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).

Linking this back in with the green paper on sen, Gross has also stated that teachers need more support to adapt their teaching to meet the needs of children with communication needs.  Just as they have suggested in the green paper that we need to check that schools do not identify pupils as have special educational needs when they simply need better teaching.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9678000/9678404.stm

http://www.communicationmatters.org.uk/news-item/2012-communication-champion-publishes-final-report

http://www.hello.org.uk/media/9632/nwm_final_jean_gross_two_years_on_report_press_release.pdf

green paper on sen and disability

I have been reading through the green paper on sen and disability and one point really stood out for me

• ensuring that schools do not identify pupils as having special educational needs when they simply need better teaching

Having watched the maths programme in Rachels lesson, this highlighted how poor some of the teachers own maths skills are, so should we have more assessment of the quality of teaching in schools, rather than assuming its the pupil who has needs?

Being a parent of an sen child I would welcome the ability to manage a personal budget, thus allowing me to decide what is needed for my child.  Although I can see the need for some parents to have the budget spending decision made for them.  The proposals in the green paper allow for both scenarios.

I too would welcome the proposal of  a single multi agency assessment having experienced telling the same thing over and over again to lots of different people over a space of time.

Green Paper SEN

http://www.edcm.org.uk/media/176/green_paper_on_sen_and_disability_edcm_initial_summary_march2011.pdf

The green paper on special educational needs and disability - Commons Library Standard Note

Published 11 January 2012 | Standard notes SN05917

Authors: Christine Gillie

Topic: Local authorities: education, Schools, Special educational needs

This Standard Note briefly outlines the current special educational needs (SEN) system in England, and highlights the main proposals in the Government’s green paper on special educational needs and disability. A selection of initial reaction to the green paper is provided. The note also provides information on the pathfinder programme to test key elements of the green paper’s proposals. It includes provision for local authorities to test in a pilot scheme the use of direct payments for educational provision for children and young people with SEN or disability.

The green paper, Support and aspiration: a new approach to special educational needs and disability, proposes:

• a new approach to identifying SEN through a single early years setting-based category and school-based category of SEN;

• a new single assessment process and Education, Health and Care Plan by 2014;

• local authorities and other services to set out a local offer of all services available;

• the option of a personal budget by 2014 for all families with children with a statement of SEN or a new Education, Health and Care Plan;

• strengthening parental choice of school, for either a mainstream or special school; and

• changing the assessment process to make it more independent.

school action and school action plus

Getting Extra Help

This page provides an introduction to getting extra help at school

Extra help in school

Your child’s school may decide that they have special educational needs because they need more or different help from other children. The school must tell you about this and involve you at every stage. You should be told about any extra help your child is given.

School Action

To start with, the school will probably provide extra help at School Action. Your child’s class teacher will involve the Special Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) at the school. The SENCO will be responsible for planning and monitoring but day-to-day teaching will be carried out by individual class or subject teachers. School support staff may also be involved.

What kind of help?

The exact help will depend on the circumstances of your child. This may include:

Individual or small group work

Social skills groups

Different learning materials or special equipment

Staff training

Individual education plans

At school action your child should have an individual education plan (IEP) setting out a few precise short-term targets with details of teaching strategies and resources. It should also set out which staff will be delivering the programme and how your child’s progress will be evaluated.


I have experience of working with children with IEP's and as discussed in class I feel that these are carried out by people who are not qualified/trained enough to carry these out effectively

Reviews

IEPs should be reviewed at least twice a year and preferably once a term. Parents should be involved in these reviews.

School Action Plus

If your child has had extra help at School Action and is still not making good enough progress, they may need more specialist help. This is known as School Action Plus and will usually involve professionals from outside the school such as a behaviour support teacher, a specialist dyslexia teacher, an educational psychologist or speech and language therapist. There should be regular IEPs in the same way as for School Action.

Some children may be put on School Action Plus straightaway without going through School Action if they need specialist help. Some children have severe or complex needs and need more help than the school can provide under School Action Plus. They may need a statutory assessment to find out what their difficulties are and the precise help they need.

social vs medical

Medical model' vs 'social model'

The 'traditional model'

A medieval woodcut of witches.

Traditionally, in many cultures around the world, people with physical, sensory or mental impairments were thought of as under the spell of witchcraft, possessed by demons, or as penitent sinners, being punished by God for wrong-doing by themselves or their parents.

The 'medical model'

With the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century, came a more scientific understanding of the causes of impairment and, with it, a sense of confidence in medical science's ability to cure, or at least rehabilitate, disabled people. Some disabled people (often for social or political reasons) were deemed incurable and placed in long-stay institutions and special schools (or, today, in day-care centres). A notion of 'normality' was invested with great pseudo-scientific significance. It was based on assessments of impairments from a deficit point of view against normality: what one cannot do, instead of what one can do. This has been called 'medical model' (or 'individual model') thinking by the Disabled People's Movement over the last 30 years. This is not to deny the very necessary role of medical science in keeping many disabled people alive, and reducing their pain and discomfort, but it is to argue that disabled people should not be reduced to just their impairments.

The 'medical model' sees disabled people as the problem. They need to be adapted to fit into the world as it is. If this isn't possible, then they should be shut away in a specialised institution or isolated at home, where only their most basic needs are met. The emphasis is on dependence, backed up by the stereotypes of disability that bring out pity, fear and patronising attitudes. Usually, the impairment is focused on, rather than the needs of the person. The power to change disabled people seems to lie with the medical and associated professions, with their talk of cures, normalisation and science. Often, disabled people's lives are handed over to these professionals. Their decisions affect where disabled people go to school; what support they get; where they live; what benefits they are entitled to; whether they can work; and even, at times, whether they are born at all, or allowed to have children themselves.

In addition, the Disability Movement points out how the built environment imposes further limitations on disabled people. Medical model thinking would say these problems are due to the disabled person's lack of rehabilitation. The Disability Movement perceives the difficulties disabled people experience as the barriers that disable them and curtail their life chances. These difficulties include in school and higher education, in finding work and suitable work environments, accessing leisure and entertainment facilities, using private and public transport, obtaining suitable housing, or in their personal, family and social life.

Diagram showing the effects of medical model thinking.

Powerful and pervasive medical model views are reinforced in the media, books, films, comics, art and language. Many disabled people internalise negative views of themselves and develop feelings of low self-esteem and underachievement, which reinforce non-disabled people's assessments of their worth. The medical model, plus the built environment and social attitudes it creates, lead to a cycle of dependency and exclusion which is difficult to break.

This thinking predominates in filmmaking, leisure, work and education. In schools, for instance, special educational needs are considered the problem of the individual, who is seen as different, faulty and needing to be assessed and made as 'normal' as possible.

Increasingly, today, the medical model is being rejected. Many people feel strongly that treating disabled people as needing to be adapted to existing circumstances or, if this is not possible, caring for them in specialised institutions, is wrong.

The 'social model'

Disabled people rally together to demonstrate for their rights.

In recent years, the disability movement has advocated a different way of looking at disability, which they call the 'social model'. This starts from the standpoint of all disabled adults' and children's right to belong to and be valued in their local community. Using this model, you start by looking at the strengths of the person with the impairment and at the physical and social barriers that obstruct them, whether at school, college, home or work. The 'social model' defines 'impairment' and 'disability' as very different things:

"Impairment is the loss or limitation of physical, mental or sensory function on a long-term or permanent basis.

Disablement is the loss or limitation of opportunities to take part in the normal life of the community on an equal level with others due to physical and social barriers." Disabled People's International 1981

Impairment and chronic illness exist and sometimes pose real difficulties. Supporters of the disability movement believe that the discrimination against disabled people is socially created and has little to do with their impairments, and that, regardless of the type or severity of their impairments, disabled people are subjected to a common oppression by the non-disabled world. Disabled people are often made to feel it's their own fault that they are different. If some part, or parts, of your body or mind are limited in their functioning, this is simply an impairment. It doesn't make you any less human. But most people have not been brought up to accept all people as they are; in other words, to value difference. Through fear, ignorance and prejudice, barriers and discrimination develop which disable some people. These are often reinforced by images in the media. Understanding this process allows disabled people to feel good about themselves and empowers them to fight for their human rights.

Diagram showing the problems as perceived by 'social model' thinking.

The 'social model' approach suggests disabled people's disadvantage is due to a complex form of institutional discrimination, as fundamental to society as sexism, racism or heterosexism. The disability movement believes the 'cure' to the problem of disability lies in changing society. Unlike medically-based cures, this is an achievable goal and benefits everyone.

The obsession with finding medically-based cures also distracts people from looking at the causes of impairment or disablement. In a worldwide sense, most impairments are created by wars, hunger, lack of clean water, exploitation of labour, lack of safety, and child abuse and these should be addressed more robustly, rather than just responding to the injuries and impairments that result from them.

Challenging prejudice

Chart comparing the attitudes of medical model and social model thinking.

Social model thinking has important implications for the education system, and particularly primary and secondary schools. Prejudiced attitudes toward disabled people and all minority groups are not innate. They are learned through contact with the prejudice and ignorance of others.

Therefore, it is appropriate that the challenge to discrimination against disabled people should begin in schools. The fight for the inclusion of all disabled people, however severe their impairments, in one mainstream social system, will not make sense unless people understand the difference between the social and medical models of disability.

The social model has now been adopted by the World Health Organisation.

Who is disabled?

Children of a Lesser God (1986, Randa Haines, USA)

People who have an impairment and experience some form of social exclusion as a result are disabled people. Many people have impairments, such as those who use glasses or contact lenses. They are not usually discriminated against. Whereas, people who are deaf and use hearing aids are usually discriminated against by barriers in communication. Therefore, disabled people includes people with:

• Physical impairments;
• Sensory impairments (deaf people, blind people);
• Chronic illness or health issues, including HIV and AIDS;
• All degrees of learning difficulties;
• Emotional, mental health and behavioural problems.

The definition also includes people with hidden impairments, such as:

• Epilepsy;
• Diabetes;
• Sickle cell anaemia;
• Specific learning difficulties, such as dyslexia;
• Speech and language impairments;
• Children labelled as 'delicate';
• People who identify as 'disfigured';
• People of diminutive stature;
• People with mental distress.

Training and legislation

Anti-discrimination legislation, such as the Disability Discrimination Act, 1995, is rights-based. It draws on social model thinking and requires schools and colleges to anticipate the needs of disabled pupils/students and make reasonable adjustments to the establishment's policies, practices and procedures, so that disabled pupils/students are not placed at a substantial disadvantage or treated less favourably.

"A person has a disability if he has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities."

Definition of disability under the Disability Discrimination Act, 1995.

The Disability Rights Commission estimates that there are 9 million people in the UK who come under this definition: 6.9 million of working age and 1.1 million under 24 years of age (5-6%).

A range of recent statistics identify that disabled people are discriminated against, and highlight the need proactively to change policies, practice and procedures, as well as to include in the school curriculum the study of how society has portrayed and treated disabled people in the past and today. For more details, see the data in Statistics.

Disabled people fight for equality

In the last 30 years, disabled people have campaigned for and won a human rights-based approach to disability. It is beginning to be accepted that disability discrimination, prejudice, negative attitudes and stereotypes are not acceptable. The struggles of disabled people to gain civil rights have led to legislation in the USA (The Americans with Disabilities Act 1990); in the UK (The Disability Discrimination Act 1995); and many other countries, including South Africa, India and Australia. The United Nations adopted the UN Standard Rules on Equalisation in 1992.

In all these measures, the onus is on eliminating discrimination by bringing in enforceable civil rights legislation, based on the idea that adjustments need to be made to services, buildings, transport, workplaces, environments, communications and equipment to allow disabled people access. Prejudicial attitudes and practices are outlawed and institutional discrimination, in the form of organisations which exclude disabled people, is being challenged.

However, negative attitudes, stereotypes and distorted portrayals of disabled people's lives still predominate in commercial films. The increasing capacity of the world media system to recycle moving image media means that, despite worthy legislation, negative views are continually reinforced through film.

smacking debate

http://www.itv.com/daybreak/lifestyle/familiesandparenting/thesmackingdebate/

The smacking debate

The smacking debate

start of 2012

Happy new year everyone!!! I haven’t blogged in a while but thought I would start as I mean to go on.  I am looking forward to starting again although I will be returning a week later than everyone else!! Hopefully this means I have more time to prepare.......
Happy blogging in 2012 everyone see you all soon xxx

Child Protection a Timeline

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/may/18/childrensservices2

This links to a timeline: a history of child protection