Surrey County Council closes one in 10 social services cases to protect most vulnerable

Surrey County Council’s (SCC) under-fire children’s services has closed as many as 500 cases so it can focus on its most vulnerable children.

The council received a one star rating from the Audit Commission last year – placing it alongside some of the worst performing local authorities in the country – largely due to a damning Ofsted report which said SCC’s children’s services were “inadequate” at keeping the most vulnerable youngsters safe.

SCC has now admitted that, following an increase in cases referred to its social services team after the Baby Peter case in Haringey, it has closed about one in 10 of them to concentrate on only the most serious.

In February this year, social workers in Surrey threatened to strike, saying they were being overworked and forced to meet targets.

The complaint, lodged by the south east branch of Unison, which represents the social workers, also claimed some were being bullied by the management at SCC.

At the time, Andy Roberts, head of children’s services, dismissed the accusations, saying some social workers had not reacted well to the new procedure put in place at the department to improve the department’s record. He claimed his team was meeting with complainants to make their jobs easier.

The Guardian has been told by a source within SCC that although the “most vulnerable” cases were now being prioritised, other vulnerable children in need of help would no longer be eligible for attention from social services.

Mr Roberts said closing one in 10 cases would ensure the department would deliver a high standard of services to the children most at risk.

He said: “Our number one priority is the protection of the most vulnerable children in Surrey.

“Over the past year, because of the national interest following the Baby Peter case in Haringey, there has understandably been a large growth in the number of cases referred to our social services teams.

“However, some of the cases did not require social workers’ time and skills and could have been dealt with by other agencies without being referred to us.

“To ensure our social workers can continue to focus on Surrey’s most vulnerable children, cases that fall into this category, where the safety of the children has been confirmed, are now being closed.

“This represents about one in 10 of the total number of cases social services are dealing with and lets us carry on ensuring the highest quality service is provided to those who really need it.”