Social workers in charge of vulnerable children are leaving council care departments at a steeper rate than previously thought, a survey has revealed.

The boss of a Cumbrian charity for abused children has issued a personal plea to children’s minister Ed Balls over plans to close an NSPCC centre in Whitehaven.

Ofsted, the childcare watchdog, has been forced to issue a humiliating High Court apology for its handling of a legal challenge by Sharon Shoesmith, the social services chief sacked over the Baby P scandal.

SOCIAL services workers in Liverpool took a total of 78 years off work sick in just the first nine months of 2009. Staff sickness totalled 28,727 days off between January and September, according to a Freedom of Information request submitted to Liverpool council.

A £1.1 million boost will fund new social workers and improve vital systems needed to protect the borough’s most vulnerable children. Wokingham Borough Council’s children’s services department is to receive a one-off £1.1 million investment.