Children's Commissioner will have a "very strong voice" says Hodge

Thursday, 10 June 2004 12:00 AM

The Children's Minister has said that the proposed Children's Commissioner will have a "strong voice".

Child welfare campaigners have long argued for the establishment of a Children's Commissioner who would champion the rights and interests of the children.

The Children's Bill, now currently in the Lords, envisages a shake up of child protection services in England, including the establishment of a Commissioner.

The reforms follow the inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie, who was tortured to death by her carers, despite the fact that she was known to social services.

There has been some concern about whether the Children's Commissioner would be genuinely independent of Government.

In detailed evidence to the Commons Education and Skills Select Committee, Margaret Hodge said she anticipated the Commissioner having "a very strong voice".

Ms Hodge said that there would be an amendment in the Bill to allow the Commissioner to initiate an enquiry if there is evidence of any "systematic failure of national importance".

The shift in position comes after strong representations from the Lords.

She also assured MPs that the position would be truly independent.

Ms Hodge said that all of the Government's reforms are designed to place children at the centre.

She rejected suggestions that the proposed system of children's centres would be bureaucratic and said they would be part of a "culture shift" to ensure the child's needs are met first.

These children's centres are designed to be an amalgamation of social, education and health services centred specifically around children.

The Minister suggested that most of the new centres will be located in schools, though she emphasised that the local authorities rather than central government would have the power to make location decisions.

Intervention, she argued, needed to come before things went wrong.

Much of the reform agenda comes out of best practice and what works, not think tanks, she asserted.

She said there will be clear accountability in the bill to ensure that responsibility is clear - a key failing identified in the report into the death of Victoria Climbie.

One of the key recommendations of the Victoria Climbie report was the establishment of a national database so that professionals are able to better identify when there is a body of concern about a child.

Ms Hodge said that the civil liberties implications of such a database were being considered, and trials are running, but she suggested that the Government had backed away from the idea of the database containing extensive information.

Instead, the information held will be very general and designed simply to make sure that the child can be identified.

Professionals would then be expected to meet and discuss the case rather than full details of their concerns being placed on file.

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