Hull slammed for child protection failures

A damning report by the Local Government Ombudsman has slammed Hull City Council for failing to protect two children from their mother’s violent partner.

Social workers at the council repeatedly failed to respond to reports that a boy aged 14 and a girl of 11 were at risk. Both the children’s aunt and social workers from a neighbouring local authority raised fears over their safety.

But their concerns were not acted on and the boy was subsequently threatened with a knife by his mother’s partner, six months after his case was initially referred to child protection workers.

The aunt eventually resorted to taking the children in, despite receiving no support from Hull Council social workers, financial or otherwise.
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The ombudsman accused Hull City Council of “maladministration” on the grounds that social workers did not adequately assess the children after they were first referred.

Although Hull social workers did visit the children at home to do an assessment, the check did not include any information from the mental health worker of the mother’s partner – who was known to suffer from mental health problems.

The assessment concluded that the children should remain at their mother’s home with support, but the council never provided that support.

A separate referral resulted in a visit from a trainee social worker who started but never completed another assessment. The same trainee social worker later denied that she met with the aunt and a social worker from the neighbouring authority, despite the fact the neighbouring council’s worker had documented the meeting in her files.

Local Government Ombudsman Anne Seex said the child protection failings at Hull could have had “very serious consequences”.

She ordered Hull council to pay the children’s aunt £7,665 – which is a quarter of what she would have received as a kinship carer allowance for the time the children lived with her. The authority has also been told to instigate a review to establish whether the failures identified could still occur today.

Jon Plant, Hull City Council’s head of localities and safeguarding, said the council will work to ensure learning from the ombudsman’s report informs future practice.

He added: “Financial support from the local authority in all such cases will continue to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Since the original involvement in this case in 2007 there is clearer guidance around the process for placement of children within extended family, particularly where families cross-boundaries with more than one local authority.

“In addition, systems for record-keeping and complaints procedures have already been updated, and we will continue to review them regularly.”