Birmingham social services still struggling to help at-risk children

Mar 30 2009 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Post

Birmingham’s “inadequate” social services dealing with children at risk of abuse show little sign of improving, the city council has admitted.

The council is failing to hit 10 out of 13 Government targets for the standard of care that local authorities are supposed to provide for vulnerable youngsters.

Earlier this year Children’s Minister Beverley Hughes ordered an intervention team led by financial consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers to help run social care in Birmingham and issued a formal improvement notice requiring the council to raise its game.

Failure to comply with the improvement notice could see Whitehall intervening directly by taking responsibility for running children’s social services.

A study by the Audit Commission had described the help given to children at risk as inadequate.

Statistics tabled at a scrutiny committee showed that Birmingham is some distance from hitting targets for assessing children thought to be at risk of harm. Fewer than three-quarters of assessments are completed within seven weeks.

Tory councillor Len Clark, who is chairing an inquiry into the standard of services for vulnerable children, said a lack of reliable data made it almost impossible to judge how well the department was doing.

Coun Clark (Con Quinton) said the council could only provide city-wide statistics and had no idea about the performance of social worker teams in different parts of the city.

He added: “This must be rectified. If we haven’t got accurate data on performance, then we are in no position to manage services at all.

“Some of our teams are performing at close to target or above it. Others are significantly below, and I mean significantly. They are dragging down the overall performance of the city and that under-performance maligns the reputation of the whole department.”

Coun Graham Green (Con Oscott) said that even if the council hit the targets it would not be performing adequately.

Many of the targets had been set too low and it was unacceptable to take seven weeks to complete a child assessment, he added.

Andy Sedgwick, one of two new assistant directors of social services, appointed at the insistence of the Government, described the failure to complete assessments of children at risk in a timely fashion as “depressing”.

Mr Sedgwick admitted the council was “an organisation under pressure” and was struggling to lift standards.

Difficulties in recruiting social workers and a year-on-year increase in the number of children being referred to the council made the challenges even greater, he said.

Mr Sedgwick added: “There is not a shred of complacency anywhere in this service. It is accepted that performance needs to be improved.

“We need to raise our game within 12 months because that is what the improvement notice requires of us.”