Little sign of improvement in Birmingham children's services

Mar 30 2009 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Post

It is becoming clear now why the political leadership of Birmingham City Council went to such lengths earlier in the year to pretend that the government’s decision to issue an improvement notice in respect of services for children at risk of abuse was really nothing out of the ordinary.

Even though Children’s Minister Beverly Hughes described the measure as direct “intervention” by her department, the council said it was nothing more than a little helpful guidance from experts who would work with Birmingham to make great services even better.

Sadly, that particular spin was blown out of the water when the Audit Commission described care for children at risk of sexual and physical abuse as “inadequate”.

The council’s desperation to suggest that nothing untoward is happening is understandable.

One of the trump cards possessed by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has been the marked improvement in Birmingham’s social services following years of decline under Labour.

And while that can still be said to be the case as far as care for older persons is concerned, the performance of children’s services is slipping back toward the dangerous territory where government hit-squads are waiting in the shadows for the signal to take direct responsibility for running social care in Birmingham.

A scrutiny committee heard a familiar story: the council is failing to hit modest targets and does not possess accurate data to meaningfully assess the performance of social work teams. It is the sort of thing for which the coalition would, rightly, have lambasted Labour.