THE chief executive of Haringey Council who was in charge during the Baby P scandal has announced she is stepping down. Dr Ita O’Donovan will retire from the top post in Haringey in February next year, a job she has held since March 2006.

A council boss has denied children are at risk because social workers are struggling to keep up with demand. Matt Dunkley spoke out after Ofsted inspectors urged for more social workers to be employed by East Sussex County Council to tackle the huge rise in child protection referrals following the tragic case of Baby P.

Many more children need to be taken into care at birth to stop them being damaged beyond repair by inadequate parents, the chief executive of the children’s charity Barnardo’s has told the Observer.

The mother of a nine-year-old boy tortured by two brothers aged 10 and 11 plans to sue Social Services over the attack. She is furious authorities failed to monitor the “little savages” who subjected her son and his 11-year-old uncle to a horrific ordeal – and wants to work with James Bulger’s mum for tougher laws on child yobs.

The two brothers involved in the Edlington torture case were well known to social services, the police and the education service, raising questions over whether the tragedy could have been prevented.
 

A care home manager who stole nearly £4,000 from an elderly dementia patient was spared jail because she has a seven-month-old baby to look after.

The social services department at Bath and North East Somerset Council has been forced to apologise for a series of blunders which left a number of vulnerable people open to being targeted by thieves and conmen.

A SERIOUS case review into a severely disabled Redditch man’s care prior to his death has revealed a catalogue of errors made by social workers.

The Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) has commended the Audit Commission and Ofsted but said the Care Quality Commission (CQC) “has significant ground to cover” in its role in creating a sustainable future.

SOCIAL workers in Surrey have again threatened to walk out in a row over their workloads and what they see as a lack of support from the county council.