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NEW CHILDREN’S COMMISSIONER FOR ENGLAND WELCOMED – BUT ROLE NEEDS TO BE STRENGTHENED
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| The proposal for a new Children’s Commissioner for England has been welcomed as ‘a major step in the right direction’ by the Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association (CPHVA). |
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The CPHVA has consistently called for a stronger armoury of child protection measures in the wake of Lord Laming’s inquiry into the murder of Victoria Climbie.
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The CPHVA’s director, Mark Jones said: ‘While welcoming the range of proposals outlined in the new Children’s Bill, we would like the new Children’s Commissioner for England to have the enhanced powers already enjoyed by the children’s commissioners in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.’
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‘Our other main concern is that with closer inter-agency working with education and social services, the health dimension and the role played by health visitors and community nurses are not downplayed.’
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‘Needless to say, these measures will require the extra resources to make them truly effective.
This means more trained professionals working at the frontline of child protection.’
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The CPHVA is a member of the Children are Unbeatable Alliance, representing about 350 organisations,
which will lobby MPs to introduce a legal ban on parents smacking their children during the passage of the Bill through Parliament.
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Mark Jones said: ‘The CPHVA has had a long-standing policy of opposing the smacking of children and the next logical step would to be to have this enshrined in law’.
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