Birmingham Social Services 'not fit for purpose'

[SomeGuy]

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6861732.ece

"Birmingham children's services have been described as "not fit for purpose" in an official report written by its own councillors following a spate of child deaths.

The report found the young had been left victims of a ?decade of underperformance,? with dozens of initiatives and projects being launched and then shelved with little improvement made.

A lack of strong leadership and weak senior management was a ?major risk? and the service would not improve with the current shortage of experienced staff, the study found. Absences from sickness were running at 20 per cent, it discovered.

The report committee were ?shocked and dismayed? by the standard of accommodation at some of the council?s residential homes for children. "

www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2009/10/05/birmingham-social-services-report-15-deaths-in-fi ve-years-97319-24856383/

"FIFTEEN children are believed to have died of abuse or neglect in the city in the past five years, with at least eight known to social workers.

Among them is Khyra Ishaq, who was allegedly starved to death.

The seven-year old was known to social services, and her mother and stepfather, Angela Gordon, 34, and Junaid Abuhamza, 30, are awaiting trial for her murder.

Other notable cases include the death of two-year-old Brandon Davies who died after drinking his parents? methadone at his family?s home in Kings Norton.

Benjamin Davies and Mary Norman failed to call an ambulance until the next day. They were jailed in May for two years and 15 months respectively after admitting causing or allowing the death of the toddler who had previously been taken into care.

Another case is that of 18-month-old Jordan McGann, who died after being violently shaken by his mum?s boyfriend.

Darren Bennett had been previously jailed for attacking a former girlfriend?s three-year-old daughter. The cases come after the social services department faced major criticism and promised changes following the death of Toni-Ann Byfield in 2003. She died when social services allowed her to visit the man she thought was her father.

He was a convicted drug dealer and both were shot and killed at his bedsit in an ex-offenders? hostel in London."

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/8289954.stm

"Concern was raised that child referrals were screened by "inexperienced staff" with insufficient management oversight.

The report uncovered "systematic and deeply ingrained" problems which needed urgent action as well as long-term solutions to fix.

In particular, the scrutiny committee said the time social workers spent with the children and families who needed them was severely limited.

The report blamed this on time spent writing records, a high number of case loads, a high number of vacancies and sickness absences. "

I guess social services is a difficult business, and there must be a lot of tough cases in big cities like Birmingham.

Is it really possible to fix them? Or will we hear of cases like this indefinitely.

I think a major problem with sw retention and recruitment was when cafcass was born, how many sw's migrated to cafcass for an easier life?

Cafcass are primarily supposed to be the voice of the child in court and in my view this is a job that can be done by none social workers with training, as in the USA and other countries and that would leave millions of cafcass sw's looking for reemployment with LA's.

The big problem for councils in employing agency staff is that cases that are followed through consistantly by staff who know the case leads to mistakes being made and problems overlooked. Agency staff should not be employed for long term case work.

Birmingham isn't alone in being unfir for purpose, northampton was also flagged up not so long ago as was others.

As for Lamming, that man has done more harm to CP in the years since Climbie than any other and should never have been allowed to conduct another 'review'.

Yes, I have no idea why the govt. seems to think Laming has all the answers, despite clear evidence to the contrary - was staggered when they brought him in after Baby Peter's case.

Imagine there aren't too many SWs who are fond of him, either...

He is a friendly man who used to be a social workers and is a peer. Hence a "safe pair of hands".

Leonie, that sounds shocking. Of course SWs should consider any allegations very carefully, not ring random pharmacists and completely misunderstand what they say!

Oh dear here we go again - insulting posts and using bad language to boot from Leonie. I can understand someone being upset about such a personal experience but does that give them the right to condemn the whole organisation. A GP misdiagnosed my sister's cancer and said the lump was begnign which turned out not to be the case and she died earlier this year. Yes I was upset and felt angry with the GP for a time but then I had to be rational and think this was a mistake an that everyone makes mistakes. I would not however condemnt the entire NHS system because of this one mistake, even though the mistake almost certainly cost my sister her life.

I just don't think it is possible to have a rational debate about social work on here, as like on another thread on the issue, it just means that angry people come on and condemn and criticise.

I don't think many social workers would agree that being part of CAFCASS makes for an easier life as is suggested here.

And on the subject of Laming - oh he's a "friendly man" is he JH - that's all right then, all else can be forgiven!

I don't think JH approves of Laming, he was trying to suggest what on earth the govt. might be thinking bringing him in again.

And it's hardly surprising that someone who has had a terrible experience with SS is angry.

edam - no it's not at all surprising that someone who has had a bad experience is angry, it is in fact perfectly understandable.

i have worked with parents who have inflicted horrific abuse on their children, and there is absolutely no doubt as to how and by whom the abuse was perpetrated. however i still believe that MOST parents do not abuse their children.

that is what i object to - individuals having a bad experience and assumptions then being made that the entire profession is bad. what would happen if there were no social workers/social services?

i would love there not to be a need for social workers. but the reality is that there is a need.

i believe that there is a lot of room for improvement in social work, i don't believe that condemnimg a whole profession is going to bring about positive change. yes lets be honest and open about failings and areas which need improvement - but surely we can also balance this with recognition of good practice and acknowledgement that social workers are not all useless/evil.

I don't think people are tarring the whole profession nina, they are talking about systemic problems, which are relevant. I'm sure it's not nice to be part of the profession that clearly needs reform, but it's just the way it is.

I said at the time that bringing in Laming to review his own proposals was ludicrous.

He is, however, quite a nice man.

leonie posts wasnt insulting it is her experience of SW and if you dont like dont post. SW will get bashed as they are getting a lot of bad press the now wonder why?

the system needs to be overhauled and now not later now.

Laming mmm havent a clue on him other that WTF and I take you have met JH so you can comment if he is a nice man.

Could I ask what an independent SW is please, and what is it that they do? How do they fit into the system? independent from local authorities?

PLEASE can we have just one thread where I can post from the perspective of a Social Worker without having shit flung at all us Social Workers? As NanaNina says, her experience of a GP doesn't make her condemn all GPs and Cere's experience of abusive parents doesn't make her condemn all parents. Balance in everything, please.

All the Social Workers left the last thread because it was so horrible and persecutory (although some of the questions raised were really interesting and I would have liked to stay to debate them, but bile was too much). Can we actually get to contribute something over here? After all, we do have a little bit of knowledge and experience to throw in the pot.

I believe social work education requires modernisation. I have posted this endless times. Some practice is rooted in 1970s rhetoric. There needs to be current thinking absorbed into modern risk assessment and management techniques.

The probation service has modernised, moved on from 'befriending' offenders so why not social work. Have child advocates in every cp case, separate from the sw who is working with the whole family. More resources of course would help.

Could write more but no time. I trained as a sw and was a practice teacher for a while until I went into criminal justice system instead.

Message withdrawn

As long as those child advocates are not cafcass as said before, they have been rated not fit for purpose on every inspection and do not listen or help the children in any way shape or form just nudging the targets the government wants to uphold.

The american system would work better where volunteers are paid expenses only to be the voice of the child in court, that way the child's wishes and feelings are heard and the volunteer does not conform to herd thinking and can put a balanced and child centred view.

if social workers get to spend littel time with the child therfore it would sense for a SWA or an advocate who could spend quality time with a child on a weekly more if needed basis feeding into teh social work role it would help to improve the outcomes for some children. There is a difficult balance to be got right and it is interesting that teh majority of enquries into social work failings since the 1940's highlighthe same issues and problems

I don't know anything about the American system, although it sounds interesting. I thought they used Guardians too.

I think it's quite unfair to talk about 'herd mentality'. My experience has been very different.

The psychiatrists and researchers cal it herd mentality ofcom called it reading the sw notes and agreeing sections (xeroxing basically) even though the cafcass worker had not interviewed the child and parent about it.

Each state is different on how it applies itself but this organisation is the biggest;

www.casaspeaks4kids.com/frequently-asked-questions.html

Atlantis, the idea of a child advocate in proceedings is interesting, but I think the main question here is about Children's Social Care Departments and what would make the difference to allow them to be effective services.

I'll throw in the idea that CSC are overwhelmed with trying to respond to children who are not in need of protection (it's OK, John agrees with this!) and actually if targetted services worked more effectively and openly around the common assessment framework then we could focus on the more concerning referrals.

I'll also throw in that if families, friends, relatives and communities gave more of a toss for children and really tried to help each other, then again, we could focus on the apparently more concerning issues.