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Date: Thur 19 August 2004 Audit confirms resources are the key to child protectionCouncil can no longer deny the obvious, says UNISON UNISON's long campaign to expose the lack of resources affecting child protection and child care work has been confirmed by an expert external audit of child protection in Edinburgh, the trade union representing 3,000 Edinburgh social workers staff will tell councillors on Thursday 19 August. "We took a grievance to councillors as long ago as 2001 about this, we argued that the O'Brien report into the death of Caleb Ness was flawed and had missed this point and now at last a report by three independent experts has found that resources are the key issue thwarting social workers' child protection work", said John Stevenson, Edinburgh UNISON branch secretary. The council meeting on Thursday 19 August will receive an audit commissioned by the council in the wake of the O'Brien Inquiry. Professor Stewart Forsyth, ex senior police officer Douglas Kerr and widely respected social work consultant Anne Black examined closely 41 cases of children on the child protection register and looked at the social work, health and police involvement. "Their detailed 187 page report is the most extensive ever provided for a local authority in my experience", said Mr Stevenson. "As well as the resources issue, another of their key findings was that information is still not being shared and that often social workers are powerless to get other agencies to pass on information or attend case conferences. Even the audit had difficulty getting access to health files", added Mr Stevenson. UNISON has is calling on the council to address resources urgently and not to wait for the new merger with the Education Department in April 2005. "This report shows the council must act now and it must make sure specialist resources, management and support are carried into the new Children & Families Department. It also has to address pay urgently to retain its skilled staff. The council can act now but in the medium terms the Scottish Executive must act to make the funds available", added Mr Stevenson. The report itself says:- "Our audit has identified many very hard working, skilled and dedicated professionals in the key agencies working together to try to protect children and make their care safer. We remain concerned that in the absence of adequate resources and without the resolution of the remaining problems in sharing sensitive information across agencies there remain some children whose safety cannot be assured" The audit found that there were social work staff shortages, inadequate admin support, poor IT resources, a lack of placements for children and poor buildings and working conditions. It did address some areas of practice but put this firmly in a resources context and praised staff for the quality of work and reports, noting that the social work report was often the only report available to case conferences. UNISON has issued its own response to the audit covering the 49 recommendations. See it at www.unison-edinburgh.org.uk/socialwork/cpauditresponse.html ENDS Further Information. John Stevenson: 07876 795 018 or 0131 220 5655 Lyn Williams - 0131 220 5655 |
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