New jobs created as Lincolnshire social services learns from scandals

EXTRA frontline posts have been created to help protect vulnerable children in Lincolnshire. In the wake of the serious case review into the death of Baby P, authorities across the country have had to look at how they can better safeguard children.

Lincolnshire County Council will appoint 11 new social workers in response to this, along with directions from Ofsted.

The last Ofsted inspection rated children’s services as good but highlighted that more frontline staff was an area for improvement because of an increase nationally in referrals.

To this end, the council has taken action with the 11 new posts and a further eight positions in its Family Support Team.

A Social Work Forum, the first in the country, has also been set up to allow social workers to discuss issues with each other and their managers across the county.

The forum has come from recommendations made by Lord Laming’s action plan developed last year. The aim of his report was to increase the confidence of social workers.

Lincolnshire County Council’s children’s services department directly felt the effects of a serious case review with Family Q in March this year.

Departments in both Lincolnshire and Sheffield apologised to a family who had undergone horrific sexual and physical abuse at the hands of their father over 35 years.

The review found that social workers on the front line with the family waited for the women to give full disclosure as to what was going on.

It was also found that frontline staff suspected the man was fathering his daughters’ children but were unsure of how to proceed without full disclosure.

It lead to a culture of having a ‘quiet word’, according to the review.

And while children’s services no longer has these issues, the forum will act as a safety net for workers who feel unsure of how to act at any point, along with tackling any questions or fears social workers may have.