I've spent most of the week feeling like I am waking up with a hangover. That's because I’m still
reeling from the previous week’s excess of politicians making wrong-headed proposals for child protection
in the UK. It was not a pretty sight.
A strong stench of moral panic hung over child protection in
Britain last week. Prime Minister David Cameron and Shadow Home Secretary,
Yvette Cooper, seemed determined to out tough each other with proposals to
mandate the reporting of child abuse and neglect (Cooper) or punishments for
those who failed to report in certain circumstances (Cameron). Possible prison
sentences of five years for teachers and social workers (but bizarrely not for
doctors and police officers) who “let children down” were touted. It was
electioneering at its worst. Mindless tub-thumping some may say.
Various pressure groups joined the fray. There were plenty
of let’s-get-tough-and-hit-‘em-hard-with
a-big-stick commentators. The saner sections of public opinion were mostly
either reeling from shock, or cowering in toe curling embarrassment or saving
their powder for a better day. I like to think of myself in the last category.
The first thing to say is that shooting from the hip is the
very worst way in which to make public policy about child protection. And
trying to garner a few extra votes in the forthcoming general election by
hitting out at easy targets is a pretty low way to behave.
The truth of the matter is that there is a paucity of
research on mandatory reporting and no coherent case for introducing it or for
bringing in prison sentences to regulate professionals’ reporting. Most disasters and unwanted outcomes in
child protection result from mistakes, not deliberate professional wrongdoing,
so it would be much more sensible to look at ways of reducing these and to
focus resources on designing safer systems and on training people how to reduce error. Human factors training and human factors thinking is what is required.
There needs to be a recognition that safer services and
safer children come from safer systems which make mistakes less likely. But we
can only reduce errors if we know what they are and, most importantly, why they
happen. That can only happen in a just reporting culture, in which
professionals are empowered to talk about their mistakes and to learn from
them. It will never happen in a culture where professionals are afraid to admit
to error – for example if doing so might result in five years in the slammer.
The kind of culture we would have if the Cameron/Cooper
approach were to be adopted would be a culture of blame and fear - much worse than it is now, if that wasn't bad enough. The prospect
of professionals having to resort to legal advice and representation before
feeling safe to discuss an honest mistake is a nightmare that could easily come
true. We must all strive to make sure it doesn’t.
Somebody called Zowie Overy has had the good sense to start
a petition calling on the Prime Minister to rethink. It only takes a minute to
sign which you can do at:
