Children in care need better support say MPs.Byline: NICK LAVIGUEUR HUDDERSFIELD Huddersfield, city (1991 pop. 147,825), Kirklees metropolitan district, N central England, on the Colne River. Its textile industry, including cotton, woolen, and rayon goods, is important. Other products are machinery, iron goods, chemicals, and dyed fabrics. MP Barry Sheerman Barry John Sheerman (born 17 August 1940, Middlesex) is a politician in the United Kingdom. He is Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament (MP) for Huddersfield. He was educated at the London School of Economics (BSc Economics 1965) and at London University (MSc 1967). has called for a reduction in child misery following a new report into the care system. The Children, Schools and Families Select Committee said children who are taken into care do not receive enough support from the Government. It also blamed their "poor" experiences on the high turnover rates of social workers and inconsistent support for foster carers. Mr Sheerman, who is chairman of the committee, said he was pushing for crucial changes to revamp re·vamp tr.v. re·vamped, re·vamp·ing, re·vamps 1. To patch up or restore; renovate. 2. To revise or reconstruct (a manuscript, for example). 3. To vamp (a shoe) anew. n. the care system.. He acknowledged that there were many excellent social workers and foster carers out there but said all too often the system let them down. He said social workers in Denmark were given greater resources and achieved much higher levels of child satisfaction. But, referring to two recent Huddersfield child murders, Leticia Wright and Sanam Navsarka, Mr Sheerman said even Denmark had not managed to cut the rate of deaths from abusive Tending to deceive; practicing abuse; prone to ill-treat by coarse, insulting words or harmful acts. Using ill treatment; injurious, improper, hurtful, offensive, reproachful. parents. He said: "There is too high a turn over of social workers. Good ones are often promoted into management. "But there's no doubt that recruitment and training could be better. "But what we found in some of the evidence was even some of the most well resourced countries like Denmark still have a rate of child murder. "It's not possible to bring down (the rate of) murder but we can bring down child misery. What we're calling for is stability, consistency and quality. We need something to energise v. i. & t. 1. Same as energize. Verb 1. energise - raise to a higher energy level; "excite the atoms" energize, excite alter, change, modify - cause to change; make different; cause a transformation; "The advent of the automobile may the system. "Firstly we need to listen to the children and ask them what do they think? "When you talk to children who have been in care, a very high proportion had a bad experience. "Secondly we've got to have the sort of inspections (of local councils) that rolls up its sleeves and turns up at at every one of the 125 authorities and does the job on the ground. "But we do have this gap in our knowledge, if no-one has phoned care services between the age of nought and three, there's an absence of knowledge, which is worrying. "But if we can have a better system which makes care an attractive option, that will be a step forward. "There's no excuse for leaving children in misery." Children's charity Barnardo's "strongly urged" the Government to take action.. A spokeswoman said: "It is essential that the Government invests in the care system to ensure that every child who enters into care has the support and opportunities that we would want for our own children. Care should be a positive option and not a last resort." Clare Tickell, chief executive of Action for Children, said: "For the happiness of children to be at the heart of the care system, more must be done to prioritise Verb 1. prioritise - assign a priority to; "we have too many things to do and must prioritize" prioritize grade, rate, rank, place, range, order - assign a rank or rating to; "how would you rank these students?"; "The restaurant is rated highly in the food their emotional wellbeing, especially with almost half of children in care experiencing a mental health problem. "Children in care don't always get the same support or opportunities as their peers. " CAPTION(S): PLEA: Barry Sheerman |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion