LADO role should be removed from local government, says Children's Commissioner

The local authority designated officer (LADO) role should be made independent of councils as part of measures to improve the safeguarding of children in institutional settings, the Children's Commissioner for England has said.

Rachel de Souza said she had become "increasingly aware of troubling cases" involving the alleged abuse, or misuse of restraint or seclusion, but warned that challenges involving the operation of the LADO role were undermining the safeguarding response to these situations.

These included inconsistencies between areas in systems for referring staff to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and information being lost because of a lack of co-ordination between councils, the DBS, Ofsted and other agencies.

In a blog post published last week, de Souza called for action to improve information sharing and strengthen the LADO role, including by making it independent of councils and producing statutory guidance on its operation.

LADO failings identified in review into abuse case

Her intervention comes almost three years after the previous Conservative government announced a review of the LADO role in response to significant failings identified by an inquiry into the abuse of disabled children from 2018-21 in three residential special schools in Doncaster, which were run by the Hesley Group.

The review, by the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, found that the LADO function in Doncaster did not effectively collate information from different sources to analyse patterns of concerns about staff at the settings, meaning children were not adequately safeguarded.

It said there was a lack of communication about staff conduct between the Doncaster LADO function and those of the placing authorities for the children in the schools. Doncaster Council said that it had made improvements to the LADO role in response to an internal review it commissioned.

The then government said, in November 2022, that it would consult on producing a LADO handbook, designed to improve the handling of whistleblowing concerns and complaints in cases such as this.

Delayed government action on bolstering LADO role

However, in issuing its formal response to the panel's review in December 2023, following its final report, the then government indicated little progress had been made on the LADO work. It merely said it would work with councils and Ofsted to review what changes needed to be made to the LADO role, with any resulting changes consulted on in 2024.

Then, following the July 2024 general election, the incoming Labour government reported that guidance on the LADO role would be issued for consultation in 2025, in an update on progress in implementing the recommendations of the national panel's review.

In a letter to the panel, education secretary Bridget Phillipson said ministers wanted to "improve both understanding of the LADO role and consistency of their role across different local authorities through the creation of a LADO handbook". She indicated the handbook had been drafted already, with the help of the National LADO Network, which represents officers, Ofsted, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) and the police.

However, 10 months on, there has been no update on this work, and the Department for Education (DfE) did not respond to a Community Care request for a comment on it.

Commissioner's concerns about response to institutional abuse

In her blog post, de Souza said she had held a roundtable discussion with experts, focusing on the LADO role, in response to the concerns she had received about institutional abuse.

It said this had identified inconsistencies in practice between areas in relation to the links between LADOs and the DBS, which holds lists of people barred from working with children or vulnerable adults, respectively.

Employers have a legal duty to refer a person to the DBS if they have been found to have engaged in action resulting in harm to a child and have been sacked, or otherwise removed, from their role, with LADOs advising employers on this process, said de Souza.

"However, with no national standard for how referrals to the DBS are handled in practice, the process can vary depending on local authority procedures and policies, leaving safeguarding responses open to confusion, employers unaware of crucial information and children exposed to risk," she added.

Information 'lost in silos'

The roundtable also identified that information was often being "lost in silos", due to the "limited co-ordination" between agencies that held safeguarding data, including councils, the DBS, Ofsted and the police, according to de Souza.

"There is also confusion about who is responsible for making referrals and when," she said. Some professionals refer to the DBS but not to Ofsted, or vice versa, which can result in incomplete safeguarding records.

"Without better information sharing and a more joined-up approach, children remain at risk of falling through the gaps," she said.

Make LADOs independent of councils

On the future of the LADO role, she said that it "must be truly independent from the local authority, ensuring there is strong accountability for children".

The Children's Commissioner's Office said that it was not being prescriptive about where the role should move to - other than it transferring to a separate, independent body - and would welcome further consultation with government on this point.

De Souza also called for a national approach to recording and sharing safeguarding information between the DBS, Ofsted, LADOs and the police, and "clear, consistent thresholds" for referrals, set out in statutory guidance for the LADO role.

Disabled children 'going unheard'

The roundtable also highlighted that disabled children who had experienced abuse in institutional settings were "often unheard", including because of a reliance on children to speak out about their experiences. This was a significant issue in relation to the children in the three Hesley Group homes in Doncaster, many of whom had significant communication difficulties.

One of the national panel's recommendations was for disabled children to have access to independently commissioned, non-instructed advocacy from advocates with specialist training in safeguarding and responding to their communication needs.

The Conservative government accepted this and said this would be implemented through revisions to national standards and statutory guidance on advocacy for looked-after children, children in need and care leavers.

These plans were initially shelved when the Labour government came to power on cost grounds.

New advocacy standards planned

However, the panel subsequently reported that the DfE was planning to introduce new national advocacy standards for children and young people, including standards on the provision of specialist non-instructed advocacy for children with complex needs and learning disabilities, later this year.

On this point, de Souza said she had seen "little progress on the implementation of this reform" since it was proposed by the national panel in 2023, adding: "I am calling for the updated advocacy standards to be published, and funding for these specialist advocacy roles."