Birmingham social services inquiry to expose failures
An inquiry into the poor performance of Birmingham children’s social services will expose systemic failure in a department unfit to cope with the growing pressures of looking after vulnerable young people in the 21st century.
Officials are expecting the worst when a city council scrutiny investigation headed by veteran Tory councillor Len Clark publishes its report.
The Clark inquiry is expected to say several things:
Children are being routinely placed in care and kept there, sometimes for years, rather than being offered for adoption or returned to their families.
Absenteeism among social work staff is out of control, with almost 20 per cent of employees off sick at any given time.
There is significant under-performance among some staff that do turn up for work.
Transfer of responsibility for children’s care from one council department to another was mishandled.
And social workers cannot cope with growing number of referrals of children at risk following the Baby P case in London.
The all-party investigation was ordered by city council leader Mike Whitby after Ofsted inspectors said care for children in Birmingham at risk of serious physical or sexual abuse was “inadequate”.
