Social Services handling of baby case ‘fundamentally flawed’

Local authority social services bosses have come under fire from a family court judge over the way they dealt with the parents of a 10-month-old boy.

Judge Mary Lazarus has criticised Medway Council, which is based in Chatham, Kent, in a ruling following a family court hearing.

The judge described the handling of the case as “fundamentally flawed”, following the hearing in Chatham, and said there had been “little if any” awareness of good practice guidance.

She complained of “no adequate record keeping” of the couple’s complaints, “wholesale dismissal” of their version of events and a “slapdash” approach by a social worker.

Judge Lazarus said the baby’s parents were Muslim and in their 20s, and she said the woman had a learning disability.

Social services staff had initially cited a “wide range” of concerns – about the woman’s “capabilities”, about the man’s attitude to his wife, about his “controlling” behaviour towards his wife and about the “state” of the couple’s home.

But the couple said the council had not “considered them fairly”.

And bosses had changed their minds, decided not to ask for the little boy to be placed for adoption and agreed that the couple should be “properly” assessed.

“I have been obliged to consider and make very serious criticisms of the social work, the social worker, the record keeping, the supervision and management of the social worker and the attitude towards working with the family,” said the judge.

“There appears to have been little if any awareness of the Department of Health’s Good Practice Guidance’s recommendations shown by Medway’s practice in this case.”

The judge did not identify the family involved in her written ruling.

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