24 November 2022
Responding to the Child Practice Review published on 24 November by Cwm Taf Safeguarding Board following the death of Logan Mwangi, Rocio Cifuentes MBE said:
“This report makes for harrowing reading. We cannot allow the death of a child pass without us asking some fundamental questions of the system that’s there to protect children in Wales, especially when a review raises recommendations we’ve seen before in previous reports.
“I welcome all of the national recommendations in this report, including the critical recommendation of a full review of how information is shared between agencies to keep children safe. Ineffective information sharing has been a key factor in other child practice reviews; it is a systemic issue that needs strong and urgent national leadership from the Welsh Government.
“I’m also asking for us to go further. We also need a stronger focus on governance and accountability within our child protection system. It’s not clear how regional safeguarding boards are held to account on implementing recommendations in child practice reviews, and it’s not clear how the learning from each child practice review is used nationally to make children safer. Repeated reviews highlighting information sharing as a failure is testament to this. I’m calling on the Welsh Government to review how Wales’ existing child protection governance and accountability systems could be strengthened to make sure that the learning from each child practice review is implemented effectively, both locally and nationally.
“Nothing is more important than keeping children safe. Nothing is more important than making sure children are heard. As such, there needs to be an urgent national response to this.”