JRF launches review of action to prevent abuse of children living away from home
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is launching a two-year study to assess progress in improving the safety of children living away from home. The research will consider whether safeguards for children in residential care, foster care, boarding schools and other situations have been improved in response to People Like Us, the 1997 report for the Department of Health and the Welsh Office by Sir William Utting, a former Chief Inspector of Social Services.
Sir William, who coined the phrase ‘quality protects’, made 20 principal recommendations designed to prevent child abuse in residential and foster care settings. He warned that existing safeguards gave no grounds for complacency and described his own investigations as “a crash course in human wickedness”. The Government subsequently promised additional public money and resources to ensure that children were adequately protected and concluded there could be “no more excuses”.
The JRF study will be carried out by Marian Stuart, an independent consultant and former senior civil servant at the Department of Health who was a member of its safeguards review team. She will:
- assess the overall impact of the Utting report;
- discover how far its recommendations have been implemented;
- consider how far the promises in the Government’s response have been fulfilled and what further action may be needed.
Sir William Utting, a JRF Trustee, will chair an advisory group for the project. He said: “The report of my review team was widely endorsed. It is now time to determine whether the improvements needed to make life safer for children living away from home have been delivered.”
