Health chiefs fear for care of children

The NHS Confederation said there was “deep unease” about the way at-risk children will be cared for and protected following the changes which it claims will create a “more confusing, fragmented and possibly riskier system of care”.

Poorly co-ordinated services and a failure by key agencies to work together have been repeatedly identified as the root causes of major failures of child protection in the past.

Services are currently organised and provided by local councils and primary care trusts. Under the Government’s reforms, the responsibility will be divided between four different organisations, with clarification still awaited over who will take over some duties.

NHS Confederation deputy policy director Jo Webber said: “We have ample evidence from the past of what goes wrong when organisations are not co-ordinated to work together properly. Through joint work between councils and the NHS, we have made great strides since then.

“There is deep unease in the NHS that, in reorganising the system, we are resetting to a model that is potentially riskier and certainly more fragmented.

“The Government is right to try and devolve power to the lowest level possible. But outcomes for protecting children should not vary. The safety and health of some of the most vulnerable people in our society can not be subject to local discretion.

“Vulnerable children with complex needs will now find the responsibility for their care and their safety spread out between a range of organisations - and on the NHS side, all of them will be completely new. We know through painful experience that it is between the gaps in responsibilities that the most tragic and difficult cases fall.

“With nothing making these organisations work together in the way they should, we have to be honest that the risk of us failing is more likely.”

The Department of Health said: “There will be robust arrangements in place for safeguarding children in the modern NHS. This will inform revised statutory guidance which will be consulted on soon.”