Dundee child protection services praised 4 years after Brandon Muir case

SIGNIFICANT improvements in child protection services in Dundee have been praised by the Care Inspectorate – only three years after a damning report listed a litany of failures by agencies in protecting vulnerable children from “significant harm.”

The agencies in the city were condemned in a report published following the death of 23-month-old Brandon Muir who was killed by his mother’s heroin-addict boyfriend, Robert Cunningham in 2008

But a new report by the care watchdog has now assessed five key areas in the protection of vulnerable children as “good” and ranked improvements in performance as “very good.”.

Karen Anderson, the director of operations at the Care Inspectorate, said: “Managers and staff across Dundee’s services are to be congratulated on the improvements that they have made to the protection of vulnerable children. We were particularly pleased to note the significant improvement to their immediate response to children at risk of significant harm.

“It is clear that they have worked extremely hard to achieve this in a relatively short space of time and I know from conversations with chief officers and senior managers that they are committed to building on this and deliver even greater improvements in future.”

The report was welcomed by the city’s Child Care and Protection Committee. Alan Baird, Dundee City Council’s director of social work, said: “ We are pleased that the Care Inspectorate has recognised that there has been significant improvements in child protection in the city and have scored our improvements in performance as very good.

“Staff from all child protection agencies are now working much better together across services and in teams, reflecting the move to a new purpose built, integrated facility at Seymour House.”