051 Child Protection

It certainly has been child protection week! With the Prime Minister announcing his ideas for professionals in child protection to be charged with ‘wilful neglect’– carrying a prison term of up to 5 years if they fail to report a child in danger. The fact that the Oxford cases that sparked this latest thinking specifically said that there was no evidence of wilful neglect and with all safeguarding training emphasising the necessity to share even the hint of concern with a colleague, it seems a wrong direction to take. I’ve no problem with anyone being held to account for deliberately not helping a child at risk but the terrible shortfall in staff numbers and the great need for more human and training resources would seem to be the way to go. Then, I was invited on BBC Newsnight   http://tinyurl.com/kheq4gl (32.5 minutes in)      to talk about the first conviction of a sex offender resulting from vigilante entrapment. Interesting! Finally, and I’ve included the interview on the podcast, I talked to BBC Wiltshire about a perceived  high growth in the numbers of Children in Need referrals in their region. Thanks, as always, to Alba Digital Media for their technical support in producing this Podcast.