Six social workers sacked after child care cases error

Six Peterborough City Council workers had their contracts terminated after a blunder which potentially put the safety of hundreds of children at risk.

The Council took action against three interim managers and three agency social workers who were involved in introducing a new electronic system, which failed and meant the cases of 230 children who had been referred to children’s services went unprocessed.

The backlog, which built up between December 9, 2009 and January 6 this year, meant some children who may have been at risk in their homes had to wait months before having their cases assessed.

The problem led to watchdog Ofsted giving the lowest mark possible – inadequate – to the council’s children’s services department, for effectiveness of safeguarding services and ensuring young people are safe. The report was published today, after an inspection in March.

The backlog of cases was cleared by March 17 and none of the children came to harm or needed to be taken into care.

But, with children’s social care under scrutiny following the Baby Peter scandal, city council director of children’s services John Richards said immediate action was needed against those responsible and he apologised for the problem.

He said: “I am sorry for the shortcomings in the service during this four-week period in December and January that led to the backlog of cases being allocated. However as soon as I discovered it I took robust action and the individuals responsible are no longer working for us.”

He added: “My core value is that children are at the centre of everything we do, but those staff demonstrated that children were not the centre of everything they did.

“As a result, referrals could not be allocated, social workers could not do assessments and we could not take action with these families, if action was needed. The workers were subsequently asked to leave.

“Although it turns out none of the children were at risk, every one of those children was potentially vulnerable, so their actions were not good enough for me and not good enough for Peterborough’s families.”

The council receives 200 referrals of children to social services per week and around half would usually be referred for an initial assessment (IA) to determine whether further social worker visits were needed.

But, in January, Mr Richards noticed the number of requests for IAs was only 10 per cent of the usual number. This was due to failings in the new electronic system interim managers had tried to implement.

After immediately asking the six staff – who had been provided by an employment agency – to leave, Mr Richards brought in three new managers to rectify the damage.

Mr Richards notified Ofsted, who carried out an unannounced 10-day inspection, which started on March 8. Although the backlog was still being cleared at that time, inspectors praised Mr Richards for his “robust action” in replacing the workers with new management. Cllr Sheila Scott, council cabinet member for children’s services, said it was a “great relief” that no child was harmed and supported Mr Richards’ actions.

She said: “Children’s social care is the most challenging work there is, it’s just shocking reading about what can happen to vulnerable children.

“So it was a huge relief to me that, although children had been left exposed, no harm had been done. I absolutely support what was done to rectify the problem.”

Mr Richards has since taken on five extra social workers. He said the backlog ruined what could have been a positive report for children’s services – with inspectors giving the council its first ever ‘good’ grade for its performance with children in care.

It said there was a “strong commitment to a child centred approach to service delivery and a clear focus on improving outcomes for looked after children”.

Mr Richards added: “We have been praised for the care we provide to the most vulnerable children in our city and we should be proud. But the backlog does tend to overshadow that and, as a result, we are reducing our reliance on interim and agency staff.”