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Crazy targets and robotic tick-boxing, but key defects in Plymouth social care go untreated

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NBY’s fears confirmed as snap Ofsted report rocks Plymouth City Council

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Some three years after government officials slated the standards of social care in Plymouth, Ofsted last month conducted a surprise inspection of the City Council’s care services.

Just four days ago, the inspectors wrote to the city’s children's services chief Bronwen Lacey, and listed damning inadequacies that remain unaddressed. Most importantly:

• The Council has not ensured criminal record bureau checks are in place for staff in the field or for those processing case histories. Professionals in the field expressed dismay that in the age of near-universal ‘vetting and barring’, this Page One issue hadn’t been nailed.

• Protection process and procedures are too variable, leading to ‘insufficient identification of risk’, and thus leaving children open to (in the Report’s own words) ‘significant harm’

• Risks to children are not recorded or investigated ‘in a timely manner’, again leading to potentially serious child safety issues. In the aftermath of the Baby P case, this beggars belief.

Within the last month, nby has raised serious doubts about the chaotic and inconsistent nature of EPOs (Emergency Protection Orders) being applied in Devon as a whole. But it’s too easy to lump all the blame onto social workers. While nby has shown some of them to be controlling and secretive in Councils all over the UK, once again this particular case smacks of over-government by a legion of organisations working against each other – and against the real needs of vulnerable kids. More likely villains than the groundstaff in many cases include:

• A central Government that talks tough on child abuse but does nothing, and leaves budgets frozen and secrecy unchecked.
• Ofsted itself, which climbs all over practitioners, sets ideal-world targets, and identifies problems - but has no ideas at all about solutions
• Senior care management, who jump at the sight and sound of inspection, dump further work on staff, and actively encourage targets ‘being seen to be met’. A direct result of this, without doubt, is over-zealous removal of children from family environments where there is little or no danger.
• Council leaders and senior Council management adept at blamestorming and avoiding responsibility, whose acceptance of this crazy system does nothing to stop existing penetration of the care system by those with abusive tendencies…and leads to appalling cases like the Rocking Horse Nursery.

The vicious circle of more government alongside less detection is completed by the widely reported low morale of social workers throughout Britain, and subsequent difficulty of replacing those deciding to turn their backs on the profession.

Plymouth City Council CEO Barry Keel (salary £168,216) has had nearly four years to sort the care problems out, and achieved very little of consequence. Tory Council Leader Vivienne Pengelly seems adept at referring enquiries to others.

Head of children’s services Bronwyn Lacey (salary £126,597) has been given a blunt warning to shape up or else.

Perhaps – instead of hiding behind the idiotic Vetting & Barring system – Plymouth City Council should make a start by rigorously checking the histories (criminal or otherwise) of its staff.

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