VULNERABLE CHILDREN “EXPOSED TO RISK OF ABUSE AND NEGLECT” IN MIDLOTHIAN, HMIE REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

“This had left vulnerable children exposed to risk of abuse, harm or neglect.” HMIE report, Feb 1st 2007
A report into the running of children’s services at Midlothian council has been described as “dire” by members of the team responsible for ensuring child protection in the region. The inspection report by HMIE (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education) highlights numerous failures across the service which has “left vulnerable children exposed to risk of abuse, harm or neglect”.

SNP MSP Christine Grahame, whose constituency encompasses the Midlothian town of Penicuik, was contacted by children services staff complaining that their efforts to highlight failings in the service to social work management had been dismissed out of hand. Ms Grahame understands some middle management were moved out of the service and other members of the team made scapegoats as the Council considered the initial draft versions of the HMIE report. Ms Grahame, the SNP’s Social Justice spokeswoman, said:

“This report is a damning one and demonstrates that we have a fundamental breakdown in the management of children services at Midlothian Council which has left vulnerable children at risk. I do not recall seeing a more critical report since we had the Miss X case in the Scottish Borders which highlighted horrendous failings in the social work department at that council. In some respects the failings highlighted in this report are even worse than those in the Borders.

“It appears the professionals involved failed to communicate properly with each other and families they were dealing with. They failed to record accurately what was happening in individual cases, with some records and files destroyed before they were entered onto the system. There has also been a systematic failure to uniformly assess the level of risk to individual children, all of which has been made worse by apparent management attempts, highlighted by staff, to mitigate and divert blame away from what is a catastrophic failure of management of the service.

The report also singles out the senior elected members of Midlothian Council which the report says ‘did not have a clear vision for keeping children safe and were unaware of the impact of social work staff shortages’. In comparison the relevant officials at NHS Lothian and Lothian and Borders Police had a strong focus on protection of vulnerable children. Ms Grahame added:

“There is no question in my mind that those senior elected members of the Council should resign, along with the senior management of Midlothian’s social work department who have been, in effect, negligent in their management of this critical service.

“The public can have no confidence in the Council’s ability to safely protect vulnerable children until those responsible for this complete breakdown have been removed and replaced by professionals and Councillors who know what they are doing.”

SNP It’s time.....