‘Race’ and the Laming Report on Victoria Climbie: Lessons for Inter‐Professional Policy and Practice

Abstract

This article is based on a contribution to a national conference held in April 2003 entitled ‘After Victoria: Learning from Experience and Research’. It aims to look beyond the focus of child protection in the Laming Report (2003), and suggests that the goal of inter‐professional care in ethnically diverse communities may encounter some particular barriers because of race. The article's purpose is to evaluate critically, against established research evidence, what impact ethnicity had on the way Victoria was perceived and assessed by the different professionals and organisations involved in her short life in England, before she died. The themes include the problems of working with individuals and families who are not habitually resident in the UK, the complexities of challenging people from minority ethnic backgrounds, the difficulties of using interpreters, the challenges in assessing minority ethnic families, and intra‐ and inter‐agency tensions in work with such families. All these themes are contextualised within the evidence available in the Laming Report. The article is intended to help organisations and staff understand some of the complexities concerning ethnicity and collaborative working, with the hope of an improvement in practice and policy.

Citation

Chand, A. (2003), "‘Race’ and the Laming Report on Victoria Climbie: Lessons for Inter‐Professional Policy and Practice", Journal of Integrated Care, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 28-37. https://doi.org/10.1108/14769018200300040