Getting it right for children: promoting effective change

Since 2000, beginning with the Victoria Climbie case in England and the Caleb Ness case in Scotland, a recurring theme in many Enquiries and Serious Case Reviews involving the death or abuse of children has been that agencies have often held key information about the child and family but either did not recognise its significance or failed to share this information with other services who might have been able to intervene earlier in order to prevent a tragedy. It was widely recognised that cooperation between the various services working with children and families needed to be improved and more needed to be done to improve the assessment, decision-making and planning skills of all front-line practitioners.