Reports into Edlington child abuse scandal

This report shows quite clearly that Whitehall intervention isn’t working and as a sector we stand ready to support those councils who need it to ensure they are doing the very best for our children and providing the kind of good quality services they rightly deserve. We are keen to have conversations with the Department for Education about how the sector can help in those councils where direct government intervention has not brought about much needed improvement, but we can’t let the debate around who provides services overshadow the most import issue – the safety of our children.

Councils up and down the country are committed to doing all they can to protect vulnerable children and ensure they remain safe from harm. While it’s encouraging that on the whole we know child protection services are getting better, we can’t escape the reality that in some areas services need to significantly improve. Councils are baring the brunt of reductions to children’s services, but we are concerned that with further deep cuts to come it’s going to be difficult for even the very best performing local authorities to provide the same level of assurance in future years.

No assessment of the standards of social work practice in Doncaster is complete without an understanding that social workers in the local authority have been working under draconian conditions and within a bullying culture. Staff there were recently issued with a 'signed or be sacked' ultimatum to accept cuts to their pay and conditions, so it is no surprise that Doncaster has problems recruiting and retaining staff, and has subsequently been downgraded by Ofsted.

These unacceptable issues in Doncaster are exacerbated, there and elsewhere, by the single biggest issue currently facing the majority of child protection professionals in England – that social workers are simply not getting time to see children. GPs are not expected to cure people by filling in forms instead of seeing patients, yet social workers remain chained to their desks unable to spend time with vulnerable children who need their support.

Excessive bureaucracy, deep cuts to support staff and rising caseloads mean that few local authorities in England can say their social workers operate in a suitably safe and acceptable environment. Social workers are already at the front line, they know the problems, and they know the solutions, but their voice is still being overlooked by ministers in favour of advice from highly paid consultants, who often lack both

It is simply shocking to reflect that, over 100 events after the first, the two boys were out on the streets uncontrolled to the extent that they very nearly ended the life of a boy of their own age. With those events in mind, including their sheer volume, it hardly requires a report like this to note with regret that the Doncaster social and other relevant services failed to co-ordinate any realistic attempt to address the problems caused by, and of course faced by (the brothers).

I recommend that we need to take a radical look at the way interventions are assessed and dealt with. Some old assumptions may not be as sound as has been suggested. There has been a degree of disquiet suggested to me at the length to which the system sometimes acts to uphold a key principle in the Children Act 1989 that a child's best place is with the natural parents wherever possible.

I found that Doncaster today is not faced with the shambolic situation of early 2009. However, there remain weaknesses, which have been highlighted by the consequences of a severely critical report following an Ofsted inspection in October 2012 of the arrangements in Doncaster for the protection of children."