#child-safeguarding

#child-safeguarding

Custody is being used as a waiting room for hundreds of children who are being unnecessarily locked up while awaiting trial or sentencing due to failing services, the children's commissioner for England has warned. Dame Rachel de Souza said many children were being placed in custody not because they posed the greatest risk, but because the systems designed to support them were failing.

Many health visitors were sent to work in other parts of the NHS at the beginning of the pandemic. Alison Morton, CEO of the Institute of Health Visiting, told the inquiry it was "inappropriate" as they "were needed most on their own front line". NHS England's Chief Nursing Officer Duncan Burton told the inquiry its response to safeguarding did not stop throughout the pandemic despite staff being diverted to critical services. Health visitors in almost two thirds of trusts in England were redeployed in March 2020, according to research by University College London.