Is Pickles trying to abolish vital child protection legislation?

By Lisa Nandy / @lisanandy

This week, quietly and with very little notice, Eric Pickles put out a consultation document on the DCLG website. As part of the crusade to cut down on ‘over-regulation’, Pickles wants to look again at council’s legal responsibilities.

The consultation makes for extraordinary reading. Amongst the measures Pickles plans to review are the landmark Children Act 1989 duty on Councils to investigate children at risk, the duty to take account of people with disabilities in the provision of services and duties to assist the homeless.

The duty in the Children Act was established with cross party consensus over two decades ago under a Conservative government appalled by the fact that child abuse and neglect was going untackled.

Since then there have been some cases of child abuse that tragically resulted in child deaths, notably Victoria Climbie and Baby Peter that have strengthened the resolve of children safety experts and politicians to ensure clear, enforceable arrangements are in place to keep children safe.

With each child death over the last two decades the concluding reviews have stated that legislation that sets out clearly who is responsible is absolutely vital and must be built on rather than repealed.

The fact that the government even thinks it is appropriate to discuss the abolition of such a vital piece of legislation is breathtaking. What is more worrying is where this originated.

This ‘discussion’ was initiated by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government who is concerned about cutting back bureaucracy. If keeping children safe is a top priority, discussion of child safeguarding responsibilities should originate in the Department for Education, not be dismissed as red-tape by another department.

I have tabled questions in the House of Commons to understand what the Department for Education’s involvement has been. If they have not yet been consulted they have just 40 days to make their views known. Pickles is rushing this through in six weeks rather than the usual twelve.

It took 100 years from the first Act of Parliament to tackle child abuse for the Children Act 1989 to be passed, establishing for the first time that the state has a duty to keep children safe from harm. Pickles apparently only needs 40 days to unravel it. If such a short timescale signals he has already decided to abolish such a key piece of legislation, it is undoubtedly something he, and we, will come to regret.