Praise for improved protection agencies

CHILD protection agencies in Dundee have been praised for their speedy response following the death of toddler Brandon Muir.

Last June, HM Inspectorate of Education (HMiE) listed a litany of failures by the city council and other agencies to protect vulnerable children from "significant harm" in the homes of drug addicts and alcoholics.

The publication of the damning report was accelerated following the death of 23-month-old Brandon who was killed by his mother's heroin-addict boyfriend, Robert Cunningham.

Investigators called for a reform of services to safeguard children at risk and said they had no confidence that young people in Dundee were being fully protected by front-line services.

Yesterday, however, in a follow-up report, the investigators from the national watchdog commended the city's Children and Young Persons Protection Committee for implementing a detailed action plan aimed at transforming child protection services in Dundee.

HMiE Inspector Jacquie Pepper said the chief officers had established a "positive change" in culture across the services to ensure a stronger focus on continuous improvement.

And she continued: "Chief officers had prioritised significant resources to ensuring that the improvement plans for services to protect children were realised."

Changes already implemented include a new purpose-built child protection unit, a new electronic information system to support immediate access to health information about children who may be at risk, and additional council funding to support social work child protection services.