Child protection in Lothian is 'as stretched as in Haringey'

Published on Saturday 28 March 2009 10:26

CHILD protection workers in Midlothian are as overworked as those responsible for monitoring Baby P and Victoria Climbie, according to the council's most senior social worker.

The proportion of Midlothian children on the child protection register climbed to the highest in Scotland at the beginning of this year, prompting calls for more funding from the Scottish Government.

Colin Anderson, council director of social work, warned that present workloads are "broadly similar" to Haringey, where failings in the North London borough's social work department were judged to have contributed to the death of Baby P in 2007.

Mr Anderson said: "Child protection currently has a high profile nationally following the court case concerning the death of Baby P.

"A topic in that publicity has been the size of the workload carried by the worker in the case – similar to that of the worker carrying the case of Victoria Climbie whose death (in February 2000] prompted a public inquiry and criticism in the report by Lord Laming.

"The workloads carried by social workers in Midlothian are broadly similar to those carried in Haringey, and which have attracted criticism, both in the Climbie Report and in recent publicity."

Councillors requested an urgent meeting with Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon to appeal for additional funding.

Last week, they received a letter from Finance Secretary John Swinney rejecting their request.

Mr Swinney said: "We no longer allocate or identify sums of money for individual services or policies. It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities."

Midlothian MSP Rhona Brankin, shadow secretary for education and lifelong learning, has now requested her own meeting with ministers to discuss the workload.

She said: "It is simply unacceptable that ministers are refusing to meet with members of the council to discuss these problems. The safety of children should always be paramount."

Councillor Jack Aitchison, Midlothian Council cabinet member for social work, said that despite the number of Midlothian children on the register dropping by over a quarter, from 116 to 84, since their funding bid was made in January, the council's child protection service remains one of the most overworked in Scotland.

He said: "With regard to national under-funding in excess of 200 million of social work services, as identified by Professor Arthur Midwinter in his report to the Association of Directors of Social Work, the sum of 3m would be due to Midlothian Council if this was funded by the Government."

Moira Luccock, operations director for Action for Children Scotland, said the parallels with Haringey were "a concern".

Midlothian's warning was revealed in the same week that the city council announced that the number of babies being referred for temporary foster care because of parental substance misuse has doubled in the last year.