Haringey council leader: 'Report helps us to improve' (From Haringey Independent)

Haringey council leader: 'Report helps us to improve'

3:22pm Friday 3rd July 2009 in

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CHILD protection services are moving the 'right way forward, Haringey Council Claire Kober said following the publication of a new Oftsed report.

Ms Kober said the council was working "very hard" to address the concerns raised by inspectors but maintained that positive progress was being made.

The leader replaced former leader George Meehan who resigned in the wave of criticism that followed the Baby P case.

One of the concerns identified in the Ofsted report, published today, was that only "limited progress" was being made in child protection despite improvement in other areas such as clearing a backlog of cases.

Inspectors attributed the failing to inadequate staff numbers and shortcomings in staff capabilities.

Ms Kober said: "Ofsted has confirmed that we have made progress in some areas in the months since our joint plan was approved, but we know that much more needs to be done and more time is needed.

"As everyone knows, there were fundamental problems with our safeguarding service and other issues – such as a backlog of cases – have come to light and decisive action has been taken in recent months.

"We have a major staff recruitment drive underway and we remain committed to doing all we can to keep children in Haringey safe."

She added that regular monitoring of the service was an opportunity to identify where more changes needed to be made.

The council is currently recruiting more social workers and have hired 10 additional social workers since the inspection with 15 more expecting to join the team shortly.

Experienced social workers have been brought into the referral and assessment team to help deal with caseloads in the short term.

A children’s trust has been set up to help protect children.

It will meet six times a year and is made up the chair of the local safeguarding children’s board, councillors, council directors, health professionals and teachers.