| UNISON City of Edinburgh Branch |
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Date: 27 January 2005 Edinburgh's new Children & Families Department must tackle resource crisis and learn from others' mistakes, says UNISONEdinburgh's new Children and Families Department must avoid making the same mistakes that have led to poorer outcomes for children in other areas, UNISON will tell the City of Edinburgh Council meeting on Thursday 27 January 2005. "While we welcome the changes made after staff consultation and the commitment to continuing involvement, we know that outcomes for children are not good in other councils where mergers have happened. One of the lessons of the Victoria Climbie Inquiry was that Haringey 'took its eye off the ball' in child protection when a merger took place", explained Lyn Williams, UNISON Edinburgh Social Work Convenor. "Edinburgh must learn from this and from the recommendations of the audit of child protection the council itself commissioned. The message from both is clear. Safe child care and protection and good outcomes for children depend on clear lines of professional support and accountability for social workers and on radical measures to address the resource crisis", added Ms Williams. "The council has tried to get the professional support right but resources remain a problem with a report last week showing councils face a £135 million shortfall in social work funding. It shows Edinburgh was £23m over what the Executive thinks is enough. The council cannot address this problem alone, it must get proper resources from the Scottish Executive. "Unless that is tackled, no amount of reorganisation will help. We are still 30% down in social workers in some areas. We still have children on the child protection register without an allocated social worker. We still have no real ability to do preventative work. These issues must be addressed", said Ms Williams. "We accept the reorganisation will go through, despite our opposition last year. We have had constructive talks with the council, we believe they intend services to be child-centred and we are optimistic that lines of decision-making will be in the new structure. There are opportunities but there is still much work to be done on this", added Ms Williams. The union is also concerned about how adult focussed services in Community Education fit into a Children & Families Department. "This valuable work must continue", said Ms Williams. "Community education, work with adults and other initiatives have a direct benefit to communities and therefore to the children and families who live in them. The views of these staff must be taken into account and the value of their services recognised". The new department will start off by merging services at central and local level with a plan to move to further integration of education and social work staff by 2007. "At this stage we are worried that the 2007 will not deliver for the most vulnerable children. It is a plan which at this stage would seem to miss the point of inquiries, the council's own audit and the experience of other councils. We will be making those points to the council over the next two years", said Lyn Williams. ENDS Further Information Lyn Williams: 0131 220 5655 (o), or 07854 336 464 (m) John Mulgrew, Service Conditions Co-ordinator 0131 220 5655 |
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