Child protection reforms in wake of Baby P could run up huge bill

The cost of implementing child protection reforms recommended in the wake of the Baby Peter case will run into tens of millions of pounds and new rules and targets have left social workers so overloaded that vulnerable children’s safety could be put at greater risk, council leaders warn today.

The first independent costing of the action ordered a year ago by Lord Laming, which children’s secretary Ed Balls backed and agreed to fund, put the price of hiring thousands of extra social workers to meet just one aspect of the requirements at £116m.

Children’s services leaders backed the report and warned that councils were already having to cope with additional costs relating to an unexpected post-Baby Peter surge in referrals, child protection plans and court applications to take children into care.

The study, by researchers at Loughborough University and commissioned by the Local Government Association, found that nearly two-thirds of social workers had reported an increase in their workloads in the past six months, with child protection workers now dealing with an average of 14 cases at a time. Social workers said they were spending up to three-quarters of their time filling in paperwork rather than seeing families.

The study looked in particular at one of the 58 recommendations Laming made in his report – that every child protection referral to councils from police and health workers should lead to an initial assessment of the risk to the child. Social workers said it would lead to unnecessary assessments, which could compromise the quality of safeguarding work. On average, only 13% of the time taken to complete one was spent with the child or family, and the rest on form-filling.

The LGA called for the recommendation to be scrapped, allowing social workers to use their own discretion about when an initial assessment is needed, and for interim government funding to plug the gap if the proposal was left in place.

Shireen Ritchie, chair of the association’s children and young people board, said: “Every right-minded person wants to know everything possible is being done to keep children safe from harm. Money is an ugly topic to raise when the issue is the safety and wellbeing of children, but it would be irresponsible to pretend social work teams can make major changes to how they operate without there being implications for their workload and resources.

“There has to be recognition of what dedicated social workers all over the country are dealing with every day, the pressures placed on them and the valuable expertise they can share. Children who are at risk, and families that are struggling, will benefit more from additional time with experienced social workers than they will from an increase in the number of forms filled in about them. Some paperwork is essential to doing the best possible job, but it is right to try to reduce bureaucracy where it can ease the pressure on social workers and increase the quality of care offered to children.”

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services backed the findings. Its president, Kim Bromley-Derry, said: “Prescribing that every referral has an initial assessment will … divert resources from the most vulnerable children to others whose needs can be assessed and met in other ways.”

Some authorities were already predicting deficits for next year due to rising numbers of children needing services, he said.

The government said spending on children’s social care increased by more than £3.5bn between 1997/98 and 2008/09 – a rise of more than 90% in real terms.

Children’s minister Delyth Morgan said: “Ultimately, it is up to local authorities to decide when it is appropriate to carry out an initial assessment – over the last year the number of initial assessments they have carried out has increased. It is crucial that local authorities and their partners treat any concerns for children’s safety seriously and on its merits, wherever and whoever it comes from.”

Tim Loughton, the shadow children’s minister, said: “This is yet further proof that the government is strangling social work with red tape. Lord Laming’s proposals were supposed to improve child protection, instead they have made things worse. We need to prune back this bureaucracy so that social workers can spend time with children.”