COM0017

Written evidence submitted by the NSPCC

• The NSPCC is broadly supportive of the OCC’s commitments set out in the Ambitious for Children document.

• While the document demonstrates a promising commitment to protecting children from harm, we would welcome further detail into the means of achieving these commitments.

• We welcome the OCC’s commitments to addressing current problems with CAMHS provision, but we would like to see more detailed commitments from the OCC into how some of the barriers to achieving enough, consistent, and appropriate mental health and wider therapeutic support for children who have been abused will be achieved.

Understanding and Celebrating Childhood

1. We welcome the commissioners continued commitment to a child centred approach, and are pleased to see the focus on a digital settlement driven and informed by children and young people.

2. Making children safe from abuse online is one of our central goals, and we recommend that the development of the  digital settlement considers the following:

• Inclusion of internet safety in the school curriculum, as well as running through the life of the school.
• Provision of clear, age appropriate security instructions and safe guards by internet providers to enable quick response to reports of child abuse imagery.
• Support for the 5 principles of iRights[1].

Being ambitious for every child in care

3. We support the commitment to extending and providing more consistent support for children in care. Having reviewed the Commissioners aims under this ambition we recommend that the achievement of the existing aims would benefit from a review of the responsibility and accountability of the state in its role as a corporate parent.

4. Providing therapeutic support is central to our strategic goals, but clarity would be helpful as to whether the OCC recommends that this be provided by Local Authorities, Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services, or someone else, and would money be allocated specifically for Looked After Children.

See a major reduction in children being harmed

5. We fully support the Commissioner’s aim to establish preventing and protecting children from harm as a national and local priority.

6. To support the achievement of the existing aims we encourage the Commissioner to prioritise consideration of the most effective ways to achieve culture change within services and professionals responsible for protecting children.

See sustained action to reduce inequalities for children

7. As highlighted by the Commissioner, too many vulnerable children are hidden because information is lacking. The prioritisation of developing a national resource of facts, trends and insights into all aspects of children’s lives is one we welcome.

8. Addressing the impacts of multiple adversities on children and young people is also a priority for the NSPCC, and we welcome the opportunity to work with the Commissioner to tackle these problems.

See a machinery of Government that best helps children flourish

9. We agree that the structures of government and processes used to assess policies are intrinsic to the quality of policy outcomes and their impact on children.

10. While we recognise that the aims within this ambition have merit, given their complexity we would recommend prioritisation within these aims.

October 2015