by Cary Gee
UNISON, which represents 300,000 social workers in Britain, has presented a 10-point plan to the Laming Inquiry into child protection which was established after the death of Baby P.
At the heart of the evidence presented to the inquiry by the union was the recognition that many social workers feel unable to perform as well as they would like due to unacceptably high levels of bureaucracy.
Helga Pile, Unison’s national officer for social workers, says too many front-line social workers find themselves bogged down by red tape and unable to visit children at risk.
She said: “They want to be able to ‘just do it’, that’s why they went into social work, to protect children at risk. But they are spending too much time at their desks.
“If we want social workers to do our work for us we must support them all the way down the line.”
The problem is compounded, she says, by unmanageable case loads, high vacancy rates and a “truly unworkable” IT system.
In its evidence to the inquiry Unison also recommends a complete overhaul of children’s services and national case load management standards.
In his report, former social worker Lord Laming acknowledged that progress has been made since the publication of his report into the death of Victoria Climbie who, like Baby P, died while under the care of Haringey council, but echoed Unison’s call for greater co-operation between agencies.
Lord Laming concurred with the union’s demands for increased resources and support for overstretched front line staff, saying: “Safeguarding must be achieved through strong and effective leadership, early intervention, adequate resources, and quality performance management, inspection and support.”
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I wondered why Lamming sounded like a social worker – I thought he had just slipped into the jargon. It turns out he was one. So the chances of Unison not agreeing with the views he expresses ? er nil.
I have to say I’m still struggling to understand why ‘ redtape ‘ prevented Haringey’s finest from removing Baby P from harm given that a) they WERE able to visit this particular child on numerous occasions and b) so we are told , all the box ticking exercises were, in fact , completed to a very high standard.