Care comes first

It would be unwise for the sceptics at Cathays Park to the regard the concerns of Welsh local government over plans to rationalise Safeguarding Children Boards as a outward sign of attachment to the present flawed system.

No-one seeks to retain the status quo and most accept that the number, scope and rationale of the current 22 joint agency review bodies badly needs an overhaul. And as much as Lib Dem spokesman on children, Aled Roberts, might express concern, even he will acknowledge that his own former authority has had its issues, many of which require more that the current arrangement in order to achieve a full and final resolution.

The truth of the matter is that Safeguarding Children Boards serving Wales are better practiced at publishing ‘balanced’ reports than performing their key function of identifying the extent of failings and forcing individual agencies to address them. What is needed is a robust, and as far as possible transparent, mechanism that can make individual practitioners – including those caring for vulnerable adults - accountable to a sanctioning authority other than their respective professional bodies.

Whether the proposed changes by Lesley Griffiths will achieve the stated outcomes is debatable, and hopefully will be appropriately challenged as necessary. Nonetheless it is the effectiveness of the changes that must be the primary consideration rather than professional turf wars over whether local heath boards should become the dominant care bodies in Wales.