Reform Essex County Council's child protection to make children safer

10.32.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 22nd Sep 2009

Stephen Robinson discusses child care and protection with Annette Brooke MP

Chelmsford Liberal Democrat Stephen Robinson backed a series of proposals at Lib Dem conference on Tuesday, to make children safer and ease the burden on social workers across the UK. The conference heard that the proposals would help failing authorities like Essex County Council improve their services for the most vulnerable in society.

Commented Stephen Robinson, "Essex under the Conservatives keeps coming up with 'bright ideas' such as a cash loans scheme (actually run by the Spanish bank Santander) but cannot get its basic services right. Essex was rated one of the eight worst authorities in the country for child protection, the same as Haringey where Baby Peter died."

The Lib Dem conference motion made a number of proposals, including:

• Scrapping the children's database (ContactPoint) and investing the savings into more administrative and technical support for social workers so they can spend more time on the front line

• Allowing social workers to complete secondments in other agencies and encouraging other child protection professionals to gain experience working with social workers

• Enforcing the publication of an anonymised version of Serious Case Reviews

Liberal Democrat Children and Families Spokesperson, Annette Brooke MP said:

"Despite numerous reviews, reports and reforms it is clear that the child protection system is not working properly. Some of our most vulnerable children are still being let down.

"Co-operation between different professionals involved in protecting children can often be poor and many social workers are lacking the support they need.

"Social workers should have the opportunity to complete secondments with other people working in child protection, such as the Police and schools. This would ensure better communication and understanding between all child protection professionals.

"The Government is pinning a lot of hope on its massive children's database, but this huge, intrusive project will not encourage professionals to talk to one another. It should be scrapped, with the money saved used to give social workers extra support, allowing them to spend more time with families and less time completing paperwork."

Related Link:

Read more about Essex County Council's child protection failings.