The Baby P tragedy continues to cast a long shadow over the field of children’s social care, which has yet to recover from events in Haringey three years ago.
The removal of Sharon Shoesmith, and the vilification of social workers by the tabloids, was traumatic for many in the profession. Damned for taking children into care and damned when – as in the case of Peter Connelly – they didn’t, the events of November and December 2008 triggered a huge crisis of confidence in children’s social work.
The number of children referred to child protection has soared since that time, as has the number of those made subject to a child protection plan. The number of children in care – steady for the best part of a decade in 2008 at around 60,000 a year – is now 64,400, with little sign that this is decreasing.
No council, it seemed, wanted to run the political risk of a Baby Peter on their hands, and they were happy to take a “no risk” approach to child protection.
Caught in the sheer intensity of the media glare – and the message that failing to prevent the death of a child, however complex the situation, was career-destroying – many professionals quit. Attracting new entrants became harder and harder, with recruitment crises solved only by importing safeguarders wholesale from the US and Australia. The result for many councils has been catastrophic at a time when budgets are shrinking dramatically and the number of children at risk is reportedly increasing, partly as a result of the recession.
Earlier this month, a review of social work by Professor Eileen Munro offered the profession a fresh approach, calling for a return to hands-on social work and a casting off of unnecessary paperwork. Her report was widely welcomed. But with budgets getting tighter, the prospects for the profession remain gloomy.
MY THOUGHTS
I suppose the low recruitment of Social Workers post baby Peter. is the fear that if they fail in anyway, they will be faced with the fear of being named and shamed, due to incompetence.
If they followed the guidelines,learning lessons from past mistakes, the results and recommendations based on serious case reviews, the prospect of retaining Social Workers would be better.
Due to the financial restraints put onto Local Authorities by the Government, there will be a lower priority in the recruitment of Social Workers anyway.
With the proposed disbanding of the GSCC, which has now been put back by more than six months, Social Workers will be very confused about the renewing of their registration, and that cannot be very good for their ego.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/27/child-protection-recr...
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