New check on social workers

Social workers will have to prove to their professional watchdog that they can keep whereabouts of at-risk children a secret from offenders.

Official inspectors will demand proof from council departments that procedures are in place to stop information about protected youngsters leaking to those who neglected or abused them.

The move comes after the number of breaches of non-disclosure orders in the children’s hearing system doubled in 2009 to 54, with 19 recorded already this year, as revealed by our sister paper The Herald yesterday.

A Social Work Inspection Agency spokeswoman said compliance with such orders would now be built in to all routine checks, starting this year.

Social workers are thought to have accounted for around half of all the order breaches last year.