Politicians need to show better leadership and complaints procedures need to be improved.

Those recommendations are among a raft of measures suggested in a report following complaints about the island’s services aimed at safeguarding children.

Not enough consideration is always given to the position of the parents, the report also finds.

The investigation into the way the Department of Health and Social Care’s children and family services division managed case files and relationships was prompted by a Tynwald motion in April last year, tabled by Onchan MHK Peter Karran.

The investigation took place between November 2016 and April this year. It was based on analysis of 10 cases that were identified by Mr Karran. The allegations related to the management of case files and dealings with service users.

They included the claim files had been retrospectively falsified but the review team found no evidence of this.

The government has put together an action plan in response to the report’s recommendations.

’These are serious issues and we are not complacent about them,’ said Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas, who is also chairman of the Council of Ministers’ social policy and children’s committee. ’We have put together an action plan.’

He said of the inquiry: ’It is an entirely independent report.’

Next week, Tynwald will be asked to receive the independent report and approve the government action plan in response.

The report notes: ’This investigation has found that, whilst there was a lot of good work with children to elicit their voices and gain their perspectives, there were times when this seemed to be at the expense of hearing the voices of parents.

’The staff that were part of this investigation were consistently clear: their role is to focus on the child and this commitment is commendable. However, children cannot be seen outside the context of their whole family and the emotions generated within families when the state intervenes in family life cannot be underestimated.’

However, the report also refers to comments from some young people, including a 13-year-old, who felt they were not being listened to. ’I was treated as too young to be given information or for my voice to be heard.’

The inquiry, led by Paul Burnett, independent chairman of the Safeguarding Children Board, and social worker Bridget Griffin, also concludes: ’The findings in our investigation resonate with those of the Scottish Care Inspectorate in the review inspection of 2016.’

It recommends: ’Politicians and chief officers of key departments need to show visible leadership and ownership of the safeguarding system, be ambitious and aspirational in setting out targets for improvement, support services to be successful and build public confidence in their services â?¦’

The report also comments on a ’process-driven nature’ of responses to complaints, demonstrating a lack of empathy for what families might be experiencing.

Reacting to the call for better leadership, the government says legislation securing statutory status for the Safeguarding Children Board will be brought forward in the current parliamentary session.

Complaints procedures are also due to be reviewed and updated.