‘Gross Failure’ Of Social Workers Left Children In Danger

Social workers allowed a sex offender to live with his alleged victim’s family while on bail, according to a secret report produced months after the same department failed to act on warnings that could have prevented the murder of a young woman.

An audit of cases handled by Fife Council has accused social workers and others involved in child protection of placing children in potential danger by failing to pass on information and seek expertise for cases.

But local councillors were not told in detail of the problems highlighted by the audit, instead being informed that there was a “need for improvements” in handling cases.

Fife has said that its procedures have been tightened up since the report was written.

The authority’s social work department has been heavily criticised for its handling of young sex offender Colyn Evans.

Evans is serving life for murdering Karen Dewar, 16, a college student, in January 2005, six months after he was left alone in a flat just yards from his victim’s family home in the quiet coastal town of Tayport, Fife. The killer had been placed there despite having been accused of a string of sexual offences.

A series of damning reports has revealed how Fife’s social work department failed to pass on information to police or act on warnings which might have led to him being more closely supervised.

But a hitherto secret report obtained by Scotland on Sunday has revealed concerns about how other cases were handled by Fife in the aftermath of the Dewar killing in 2005.

The August 2005 report, which was written by Sandra Thain – who at that time was the Fife child protection co-ordinator – audited the operation of the Fife Child Protection Register, which is administered by the Social Work Department. The investigation selected five random cases to see whether they had been properly handled.

Problems included:

• Failing to pass on vital information to police about the whereabouts of sex offenders.

• A failure to examine whether parents should have been allowed to look after a child.

• Case conferences going ahead without input from police or GPs.

• Overloading social workers with too much work.

• Allowing at-risk children to return home without sufficient proof that they would no longer be in danger.

The most serious example saw a known child sex offender being allowed to move in with his alleged victim’s family – a different address from the one the police had for him – and to have access to the child and others, despite not being allowed to approach victims as part of his conditions of bail.

Social workers failed to tell the police the offender had moved address, meaning that officers were not involved in the case conferences where the children’s welfare was discussed. Thain wrote of the incident: “This can only be described as a gross failure to share information in the context of child protection.”

Another case saw a young child “who had suffered a serious head injury as a result of being shaken” returned home without an assessment of how safe it would be.

The report concluded: “The baby involved could have been significantly impaired or endured serious long-term effects as a result of being badly injured. The assessment, in this case, was considered to be weak and seriously flawed.”

But a rewritten version of the audit report, which went to Fife’s Children’s Services Committee, did not cite the problems or include the hard-hitting language.

Councillors accused officials of a “cover-up”, and relatives of Dewar renewed their calls for officials to be held accountable.

Allison Dewar, her mother, said: “It shows there does need to be a public inquiry. It’s not going to bring Karen back, I know, but we need answers as to what happened and why. The only person who has been punished is him [Colyn Evans]. Somebody should have their fingers rapped.”

Willie Clarke, a member of the Fife Children’s Services Committee, said: “Councillors should have been given this report in full.

“Whether it is good, bad or indifferent, open government means not just that elected politicians are open with the people, but that officials are fully open with councillors.”

Ted Brocklebank, the Tory Holyrood candidate, said: “There seems to be some form of a cover-up. This report should be brought out in the open, and councillors and MSPs should know what has been going on. They should not have to rely on the sanitised versions.”

Stephen Moore, the head of Fife’s social work department, said: “This report was submitted for internal use in the department, and all the issues Sandra Thain highlighted were fully addressed. The report prepared for councillors summarised what steps were being taken to improve our procedures.

“The issue of agencies passing information to each other has been highlighted in many child welfare cases, and we are doing everything we can to make it better.”