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Children’s services reformed following ‘damning’ reports (20 December 2013)

Date: 20/12/2013
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Children’s services reformed following ‘damning’ reports

Birmingham City Council, the largest of the UK’s local authorities, has announced radical reforms to its children’s services in the wake of severe criticism. The council has pledged an extra £9 million for new systems to help keep children safe, following a number of reviews into tragedies involving vulnerable children.

The funds will hep the council to ensure that there is effective co-operation between all those involved in the care of children, including nursery workers, health visitors and teachers, in close liaison with police and social workers.

Children’s services will receive the extra money in the next financial year, and a further £6 million every year after that. Ofsted chief inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, branded the city council a “national disgrace” after a review of the case that led to the murder of two-year old Keanu Williams in 2011 concluded that opportunities to intervene were missed by a number of professionals. Family solicitors have also been involved in dealing with other high-profile cases of child deaths in Birmingham in recent years, such as that of Khyra Ishaq in 2008. These have added to pressure on the council to make urgent reforms.

Poor reputation

The council’s new strategy admits that it has struggled to attract staff to its services for children’s social care because of its poor reputation – there are currently 80 vacancies for children’s social workers. Five options for managing the services have been considered in order to make them more effective. These included outsourcing, setting up a trust (which would be accountable to the Department for Education) and breaking up the city’s local authority area into more manageable chunks.

The preferred option, however, is to find mechanisms so that all organisations and agencies involved in childcare in any way can communicate and co-operate seamlessly. The council calls this “integrated transformation.”

Birmingham has ten districts and each may be home to a hub comprising all professionals involved in the care of children, working side by side. Including all the agencies in the public, private and voluntary sectors in a new commissioning board to order shared services, could cut out waste and overlap. With the right support, councillors believe they can draw a line under previous problems in Birmingham children’s care and present a clear blueprint for an integrated system that will involve joint commissioning and delivery.

In January a team of government inspectors will visit to carry out another assessment.

Vulnerable children

The NSPCC cites physical abuse as the third most common reason that children call the national helpline ChildLine, however identifying at risk children can be difficult, particularly when there are on-going family disputes and children are involved.

Professional help to resolve family conflicts can make a great deal of difference and at Duncan Lewis there is an expert team of specialists in Family and Child Care Law who have an impressive track record of tackling a range of family and childcare related matters.

Many aspects of family and child related work are eligible for legal aid and, where this is not available, high quality advice and representation is provided on a privately funded basis at competitive rates.

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