1 August 2024
Commenting on the Child Practice Review examining the case of Lola James, Children’s Commissioner for Wales Rocio Cifuentes said:
“We’ve heard that Lola James had a passion for the outdoors, and a laugh that filled the room with joy. But amongst the failures documented in today’s report is a lack of focus on her experiences and needs, and a failure to take a child-centred-approach, at a time when she desperately needed the professionals around her to act quickly and decisively to keep her safe.
“Whilst the review’s recommendations centre around improvements required at a local level, for us, the review’s reach stretches far wider- it’s clear to us that there are national learning points from this report. Some, like inadequate information-sharing, are consistent themes in child practice reviews that point to a weakness in how the learning from individual cases effectively improves national practice. We continue to be deeply concerned about this element of our child protection system – despite us requesting time and again for clarity, the fact remains: we do not know who has responsibility for driving systemic improvements on the back of these reviews, and who is responsible for holding agencies to account for improving practice.
“I’m also worried about the pace of change. These investigations cover the most heinous actions against children, and yet we know from work we’ve done that there are actions from previous Child Practice Reviews that haven’t been fully implemented years after they were published. We need a much stronger system of clear ownership, clear direction, and clear accountability. Quite simply, there are serious questions for the Welsh Government, questions that I’ve asked consistently over the past two years, that remain unanswered.”