Bradford Council whistleblower: I fear another Star Hobson

• Video report by Michael Billington - the interviewee's words are spoken by an actor

A former Bradford Council social worker has told ITV News how Star Hobson's murder exposed a "culture of incompetence" that could be leaving other children at risk.

Star was 16 months-old when she was killed by her mother's partner in Keighley, despite safeguarding concerns being referred to social workers on at least five occasions.

The council has since been stripped of responsibility for running children's social care services.

Now the whistleblower has given an insight into the alleged conditions within the children's services department.

Ali, whose name we have changed to protect his identity, had no knowledge of Star's case at the time, but says it is symptomatic of the culture he experienced within the department.

He said: "A number of members of staff from children's services have raised complaints and issues around their working conditions, and these have been - over time - completely ignored.

"It's almost a culture of, well, it's not denial because they know that there are issues... but it's a culture of perhaps being incompetent, perhaps not knowing or perhaps not wanting to make that change because it's maybe going to reflect negatively on the person above."

'Other children are potentially being harmed'

He added: "We don't want to wait for another star Hobson. There are no words to describe it, how sad the situation is.

"But as sad as it might be, we know that there are other children who are potentially being harmed at this point in time because of the failings that are continuing here at Bradford Council."

Ali joined the city's children's services after an Ofsted report in 2018 rated it as "inadequate".

He recollects a stretched workforce whose concerns were routinely dismissed by management.

"If you imagine that a social worker might have 20 cases in their workload," he said.

"Twenty cases to look at. Sometimes there were social workers with almost double that, so that's that's not a manageable caseload."

"When you've got too many cases to look at, the amount of time that you spend in each case isn't enough. And then that increases the risk of you making mistakes and overlooking things.

"And how do you make decisions when you're under so much pressure? You don't make good decisions.

"Sometimes you miss out things and and that's the kind of workload and that's the kind of working conditions that many of these social workers are working under.

"There was a feeling that things were not structurally, organisationally good enough to protect all the children."

The council says it has had a staff-led reference group for a number of years and its new leadership has made it a priority to engage with staff to listen and lean where it can make improvements.

But after a critical report by a government-appointed commissioner its children's services will now be operated by a new trust, run independently of the council.

A separate report into the Star Hobson case has been delayed and Ali says there are still many questions about the department's failure to protect her.

He said: "We go back to that point that there were five opportunities to do something to save this child. Why wasn't anything done is the key question.

"You can blame the person who's murdered the child. And of course that's what needs to happen as well. But what about the people who could have done something to stop that?"

Bradford council says it has cut caseloads for the majority of staff and says is working to reduce pressure on colleagues even further still.

• Duncan Wood interviews Bradford Council leader Susan Hinchcliffe after the council was stripped of responsibility for children's services

A spokesperson said: "We have always been open about the challenges faced by Children’s Social Care. Our social workers work hard every day to improve children’s services and Government Commissioner Steve Walker has recognised this.

"We know our staff are key to delivering improvement and we are committed to supporting them. The announcement of a new children’s company will give us fresh impetus and additional resource.

"It will give our valued staff certainty over the future direction of the service and will bring greater investment so that children in the district feel the impact of this work sooner.”