Government proposes shake up in child protection services

The government has announced details of a proposed shake up in children's services in an attempt to avert another case of avoidable child death such as that of Victoria Climbié, the child who was murdered by her great aunt in February 2000.

In its consultation paper, Every Child Matters, the government proposes much closer working between primary healthcare services and local authority children's services, which are to be radically overhauled.

By 2006, the government wants to see all children's services, including children's health services, integrated into children's trusts, to be run by local authorities. The trusts would include community and acute health services, such as …