Michael Gove: We are acting now to reform child protection

The Evening Standard’s campaigns to boost apprenticeships, Get London Reading and bring relief to London’s dispossessed remind us all why papers are so vital to our democracy. The Standard’s reporting this week on those children failed by our care system is in that noble tradition.

Their stories resonate with me so strongly because I spent the first four months of my life in care. I know how great social workers and loving foster or adoptive parents can transform lives immeasurably for the better. As does my colleague Edward Timpson, who grew up with more than 80 adopted and foster siblings and became a family lawyer and then children’s minister with the sole aim of improving life for children in care.

Because this is unglamorous work it rarely gets political or media attention, unless something goes wrong. But I was determined from the moment I got into government to do something about the weaknesses in the child protection system we inherited — the system which had allowed Baby Peter Connelly to die in agony while professionals looked the other way.

So I asked the child protection expert Professor Eileen Munro to review what needed to change. And I’ve been pushing through a series of reforms in this area since 2010.

First, we needed to tell the truth about what had gone wrong in the past. We now insist that reports into child protection failures — serious case reviews — are published, not kept confidential as under the last government. By sharing what went wrong we can all work together to put things right in the future.

Second, we need more support for social workers on the front line. Social workers have to help irresponsible — or damaged — adults to change their behaviour for the better while also recognising that if improvements aren’t serious and sustained then children have to be taken out of harm’s way. That requires delicate judgment, emotional intelligence and mental toughness. Which is why we’re doing everything we can to get the very best people into social work.

We’ve recruited a chief social worker, the amazing Isabelle Trowler, to help overhaul social work training and she’s being advised by my own child protection guru, Sir Martin Narey, formerly of Barnardo’s. We’re backing their work with real money. More than £400 million is going into attracting more great people into social work. New programmes like Frontline, modelled on Teach First, are a route into social work open only to exceptionally gifted graduates from top universities. Entry is fiercely competitive and already its first crop of recruits is stunningly impressive.

The third thing we’re changing is the approach of councils. Many local authorities are still failing to protect vulnerable children. So we have sharpened Ofsted inspections, made more information available on how well councils are looking after the children in their care, and taken swift, decisive action when necessary. Under this scrutiny, local authorities are — rightly — prioritising child protection, and expenditure has risen under this Government by 1.2 per cent when other services have been cut.

All children have a fundamental human right to protection from abuse and neglect. This week’s report shows why our reforms are so sorely needed. There’s still further to go — but our reforms now ensure that vulnerable children face a brighter future.