Capital 'falls short on child protection'

Internal audit highlights failings

Unions ‘dismayed but not surprised’

30 per cent of posts still vacant

KEY QUOTE

"The child protection findings should not be a surprise. You cannot give the service you need to provide with 30 per cent less staff than the previous year."

STORY IN FULL SOCIAL work chiefs in the Capital have failed to meet three-quarters of their own child protection targets, according to a new report.

The internal audit revealed that crucial objectives, including ensuring vulnerable children have an allocated social worker, are not being met.

The report highlights a shocking rise in the number of unallocated cases by as much as 373 per cent.

Edinburgh City Council also failed to meet targets relating to the number of children remaining on the child protection register for more than two years.

Opposition politicians and union leaders today expressed dismay, but admitted they were not surprised by the results.

The report confirms that the council has failed to meet six out of nine social work targets overall - including three out of four relating to child protection.

The admission follows the damning findings of an inquiry into the death of baby Caleb Ness that identified fault at "almost every level" of the Capital’s child protection system.

The council’s decision to restructure such services by dismantling the social work department prompted an exodus of staff, exacerbating a national shortage of qualified social workers.

About 30 per cent of posts dealing with children and families in Edinburgh are vacant.

Lib Dem social work spokesman Tom Ponton, who also serves as chairman of the city’s children and young person’s scrutiny panel, said today: "If this Labour administration is serious about child protection, they need to put more resources into it . . . moving people who do that service within the social work department . . . into the department of children and families to do exactly the same job is not going to solve any problems."

John Stevenson, Unison’s Edinburgh branch secretary, added: "The child protection findings should not be a surprise. You cannot give the service you need to provide with 30 per cent less staff than the previous year.

"Although staff numbers are creeping up, the Caleb Ness inquiry and the ill-judged political comments after that and the fact the council has been very slow to catch up on salaries elsewhere in Scotland left us with serious recruitment problems."

The findings are part of the council’s management information report for October to March.

One worrying statistic is that the number of children on the child protection register who do not have an allocated social worker has almost doubled in the past year - from 22 to 42.

The report also shows that 112 "looked-after children" were without a dedicated worker - a rise of 373 per cent on the previous year.

The council’s target is for no children to be left without an allocated social worker. The report also found that of the 328 children on the child protection register during that period, 14 per cent had been on it for more than two years. The target is 10.5 per cent.

Overall, the department failed to meet six out of nine indicators - including those relating to the delayed discharge of patients from hospital, social work reports submitted to court by their due date and the proportion of prisoners on probation seen within one week of being released.

A local authority spokeswoman said: "Performance in children’s services indicators continues to be adversely affected by problems in staff recruitment and retention."

She added the council was boosting pay and conditions for social work staff "to stabilise current numbers".