Children’s services in Enfield are “significantly stretched” says independent report

SOCIAL workers dealing with at-risk children in Enfield are generally satisfactory but are “significantly stretched”, an unplanned inspection has found.

An inspection by Ofsted into children’s services in August found that while the service was generally performing well, staff were under increasing pressure from a rising rate of referrals and a resulting increase in demand for social work services.

Council leader Michael Rye has said that since the case of Baby Peter, the 17 month old from Haringey who died after suffering months of torture, became a topic of public debate, referrals about potential cases of neglect and abuse have increased by 60 per cent.

Tony Theodoulou, acting assistant director, children and families at Enfield Council, said that while all London boroughs have reported an increase in referrals of between 30 and 40 per cent since November 2008, the caseload for Enfield social workers has risen sharper than this.

The service reported an increase of 1145 referrals between July 2008 and June 2009 to 3362 referrals up from 2217 between July 2007 and June 2008.

Mr Theodoulou suggests an increased public awareness following the Baby Peter case, and Enfield’s close proximity to Haringey are possible causes.

The number of children on child protection plans, which are drawn up by health workers and the police when a child is deemed to be at risk from harm, has also risen above 200 from historic levels of between 130 and 170.

Mr Theodoulou said: “The comments made by the Ofsted Inspectors were within the context of these increases in workload. The Inspectors provided a very positive report, but were understandably raising questions about our ability to continue to respond appropriately without additional staffing.

The inspection found that the contact, referral and assessment arrangements were delivered “satisfactorily.”