'Muddled child protection' plan revealed in Baby P-style probe

Scarborough Council bosses have revealed that a review in response to the tragic death of Baby P uncovered a "worrying gap" between theory and practice – leading them to appoint a new Tsar responsible for the safeguarding work.

There is no suggestion in the study that any child has been harmed or placed at risk because of an apparent lack of guidance to rank and file staff about how to deal with young users of council services.

But the review has underlined that the authority needs to take much more of a lead in ensuring it measures up to its responsibilities under the legislation and national guidelines on best practice.

Coun Jayne Mortimer, who led the review, said it had "uncovered a worrying gap between the theory and practice" of the council's safeguarding children arrangements.

She added: "The task group therefore welcomes the creation of a new position within the council of the health and community safeguarding officer dedicated to developing and implementing the council's children and adult safeguarding policies. The task group is recommending a number of improvements to the council's current safeguarding children policy.

"These include assigning responsibility for the clear and consistent reporting and recording of incidents to all heads of service, backed up by a comprehensive training programme for all members of staff."

The council's scrutiny committee agreed in January this year the terms of a proposed review of how well the authority is meeting its responsibilities to safeguard children.

The review was to centre on how the multi-agency approach enshrined in the Children Act 2004 was working on the ground and testing for similar areas of weakness to those highlighted by the inquiry following the death of baby Peter in Haringey.

The guiding light of the Government's vision for safeguarding children is the Children Act 2004 which heaped huge responsibilities on many local authorities, including district councils, which are involved with children and young people.

Front-line district council staff may come into contact with children and young people in many ways, including Customer First, and staff working in housing and housing benefits, leisure and parks – including swimming pools – and maintenance.

A key requirement is to ensure staff are kept in the loop about what the council's duties are. A framework which was agreed with County Hall in January 2009 was supposed to complete all the training by 2011 – but the timetable had slipped.

Until now, the council official responsible for safeguarding children has had to wear two hats, being also responsible for managing the authority's leisure and community services.

On his own, he had been unable to move things on – hence the decision to appoint a new official to concentrate on the child protection side, the report says. National guidelines suggest the town should have a whole group of officers delivering the policy. Officials say initial training for heads of service in 2007 should have been mandatory, but was not.

In a shake-up in 2008, eight heads of service departed. There has been sporadic training since, but momentum had suffered, leaving awareness across the council about its safeguarding responsibilities "very patchy".

Six front-line staff selected at random had little or no understanding of the council's responsibilities – five did not know the authority had a policy, and the sixth thought it was currently being drafted.