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Thu 13 Nov 2003
Social work or secret service?
Iain Whyte
MOST people would think that the tragic death of baby Caleb Ness just over two
years ago would have been a turning point for child protection in Edinburgh.
The expectation would be that the council’s social work department, the lead
partner in protecting children, would quickly learn lessons and ensure that as
much as possible was done to prevent any future "avoidable" deaths of children
in our city.
The trouble is that it is only now that recriminations are coming to a head and
changes are being made through the work of the council chief executive. That
management action is ruffling feathers amongst social work staff as a major
cultural change will be needed to restore public confidence in the service and
its partnerships with other agencies.
But the saddest aspect of this whole scenario is the unwillingness of the
Labour administration in the council, and certain key individuals within it, to
accept any responsibility for failing to see that a culture change was
required.
When baby Caleb died, there was an implicit acceptance by those responsible at
both political and senior management level that this was a tragic case that
could not have been foreseen. It was only when conflicting details emerged
during the trial of Alexander Ness, the baby’s father, that it began to
become clear that there had been failings in the way the child protection case
conference had dealt with the case.
Rather than hearing alarm bells, Labour politicians were happy to suggest
pushing things off to an internalised inquiry by the Lothians Child Protection
Committee and to have it review the work the social work department itself had
done. The obvious suggestion was that no wider lessons needed to be learnt.
There were certainly no major recommendations for change coming from the
department or the Labour administration at that stage.
At that point, former councillor Daphne Sleigh and I insisted that an
independent inquiry be set up, chaired by a prominent legal person. This
resulted in the damning report by Susan O’Brien QC following the inquiry she
led. If we had accepted the Labour party’s assurances at that time, we may
not have learnt what we have now.
We had to threaten to shame the Labour administration in public over its lack
of openness to ensure an independent viewpoint was brought into the
investigation.
PERHAPS the greatest example of the culture of secrecy that has persisted in
social work was the fact that one of the junior witnesses to the independent
inquiry was allegedly "coached" by a senior member of staff prior to going
along to give evidence. This matter has now rightly been put aside by
councillors as it is being investigated as a disciplinary issue.
We have many dedicated individuals working within our social work department
here in Edinburgh. They often work in very difficult circumstances, sometimes
with limited resources and without the managerial or political back-up that
they require.
If we are to resolve the current crisis of confidence and change the culture in
the department, it needs new political leadership that accepts that change is
required. As an opposition councillor, I have long found social work issues the
hardest to investigate. Finances are obscured and policy is often written in
meaningless jargon with no concept of how it can be implemented on the ground.
The result is the ridiculous claims and counter claims in recent days over
whether or not extra clerical support has been made available in the social
work department as a result of the 1999 Edinburgh Inquiry into historic abuse
in our children’s homes. Now we also find that the "acting" director of
social work is asking for more than £200,000 to put more clerical support in
place for child protection case conferences, despite the Labour council
leader’s assurances that resources were not an issue in the Caleb Ness case.
As opposition councillors, we rely on our ability to question council officials
and Labour administration members at the council’s scrutiny panels to fulfil
our duty to the public by ensuring that important services like social work do
what they should.
At a recent panel meeting, the Labour social work executive member, Councillor
Kingsley Thomas, did not challenge a report agreed unanimously by members from
all parties that the council had failed to meet a recommendation from the
Edinburgh Inquiry to provide more clerical support in social work.
A few days later he chose to write to this newspaper and all councillors to
claim that money had been spent on this issue. The sad part is that in the rest
of his letter he chose to criticise opposition members for what he said was
"political posturing" but failed to apologise for not raising this at the
panel. The administration cannot have it both ways. They claim they want
opposition members to get on board with them in solving the problems in social
work but they won’t be open with us over important information within the
normal democratic process.
Since the furore that broke following the publication of the report into the
death of baby Caleb, the Labour administration’s dual strategy has been to
cloud the facts and attack its political opponents in attempts to divert
attention away from its own failings. What they have failed to do is to take
any political responsibility for the evident shortcomings or take any steps to
reassure the public that there is the political will in the administration to
get things right.
IWOULD be far less critical of the Labour administration had there been more
openness in the democratic process in the past and had they ever been willing
to discuss social work on the basis of making improvements rather than
protecting their own political backs. The trouble is that their strategy of
obscuring the truth and diverting attention has long been their favoured means
of hiding social work failings.
All of this leads me to believe that a political, as well as a managerial,
culture change is long overdue. I have no confidence that the current executive
member for social work, Councillor Kingsley Thomas, can bring about that
culture change. After all, he is the man who has presided over, has been part
of and has accepted the current culture and its lack of democratic
accountability for the past four years.
Things must change in Edinburgh if social work is to get back to its first duty
of protecting vulnerable people. The public demands no less. It is no longer
acceptable for the Labour administration to hide social work under the stone
which must not be turned.
• Iain Whyte is Tory group leader at Edinburgh City Council
This article:
http://www.news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1253142003
alt support child protective services.
print close
Thu 13 Nov 2003
Social work or secret service?
Iain Whyte
MOST people would think that the tragic death of baby Caleb Ness just over two
years ago would have been a turning point for child protection in Edinburgh.
The expectation would be that the council’s social work department, the lead
partner in protecting children, would quickly learn lessons and ensure that as
much as possible was done to prevent any future "avoidable" deaths of children
in our city.
The trouble is that it is only now that recriminations are coming to a head and
changes are being made through the work of the council chief executive. That
management action is ruffling feathers amongst social work staff as a major
cultural change will be needed to restore public confidence in the service and
its partnerships with other agencies.
But the saddest aspect of this whole scenario is the unwillingness of the
Labour administration in the council, and certain key individuals within it, to
accept any responsibility for failing to see that a culture change was
required.
When baby Caleb died, there was an implicit acceptance by those responsible at
both political and senior management level that this was a tragic case that
could not have been foreseen. It was only when conflicting details emerged
during the trial of Alexander Ness, the baby’s father, that it began to
become clear that there had been failings in the way the child protection case
conference had dealt with the case.
Rather than hearing alarm bells, Labour politicians were happy to suggest
pushing things off to an internalised inquiry by the Lothians Child Protection
Committee and to have it review the work the social work department itself had
done. The obvious suggestion was that no wider lessons needed to be learnt.
There were certainly no major recommendations for change coming from the
department or the Labour administration at that stage.
At that point, former councillor Daphne Sleigh and I insisted that an
independent inquiry be set up, chaired by a prominent legal person. This
resulted in the damning report by Susan O’Brien QC following the inquiry she
led. If we had accepted the Labour party’s assurances at that time, we may
not have learnt what we have now.
We had to threaten to shame the Labour administration in public over its lack
of openness to ensure an independent viewpoint was brought into the
investigation.
PERHAPS the greatest example of the culture of secrecy that has persisted in
social work was the fact that one of the junior witnesses to the independent
inquiry was allegedly "coached" by a senior member of staff prior to going
along to give evidence. This matter has now rightly been put aside by
councillors as it is being investigated as a disciplinary issue.
We have many dedicated individuals working within our social work department
here in Edinburgh. They often work in very difficult circumstances, sometimes
with limited resources and without the managerial or political back-up that
they require.
If we are to resolve the current crisis of confidence and change the culture in
the department, it needs new political leadership that accepts that change is
required. As an opposition councillor, I have long found social work issues the
hardest to investigate. Finances are obscured and policy is often written in
meaningless jargon with no concept of how it can be implemented on the ground.
The result is the ridiculous claims and counter claims in recent days over
whether or not extra clerical support has been made available in the social
work department as a result of the 1999 Edinburgh Inquiry into historic abuse
in our children’s homes. Now we also find that the "acting" director of
social work is asking for more than £200,000 to put more clerical support in
place for child protection case conferences, despite the Labour council
leader’s assurances that resources were not an issue in the Caleb Ness case.
As opposition councillors, we rely on our ability to question council officials
and Labour administration members at the council’s scrutiny panels to fulfil
our duty to the public by ensuring that important services like social work do
what they should.
At a recent panel meeting, the Labour social work executive member, Councillor
Kingsley Thomas, did not challenge a report agreed unanimously by members from
all parties that the council had failed to meet a recommendation from the
Edinburgh Inquiry to provide more clerical support in social work.
A few days later he chose to write to this newspaper and all councillors to
claim that money had been spent on this issue. The sad part is that in the rest
of his letter he chose to criticise opposition members for what he said was
"political posturing" but failed to apologise for not raising this at the
panel. The administration cannot have it both ways. They claim they want
opposition members to get on board with them in solving the problems in social
work but they won’t be open with us over important information within the
normal democratic process.
Since the furore that broke following the publication of the report into the
death of baby Caleb, the Labour administration’s dual strategy has been to
cloud the facts and attack its political opponents in attempts to divert
attention away from its own failings. What they have failed to do is to take
any political responsibility for the evident shortcomings or take any steps to
reassure the public that there is the political will in the administration to
get things right.
IWOULD be far less critical of the Labour administration had there been more
openness in the democratic process in the past and had they ever been willing
to discuss social work on the basis of making improvements rather than
protecting their own political backs. The trouble is that their strategy of
obscuring the truth and diverting attention has long been their favoured means
of hiding social work failings.
All of this leads me to believe that a political, as well as a managerial,
culture change is long overdue. I have no confidence that the current executive
member for social work, Councillor Kingsley Thomas, can bring about that
culture change. After all, he is the man who has presided over, has been part
of and has accepted the current culture and its lack of democratic
accountability for the past four years.
Things must change in Edinburgh if social work is to get back to its first duty
of protecting vulnerable people. The public demands no less. It is no longer
acceptable for the Labour administration to hide social work under the stone
which must not be turned.
• Iain Whyte is Tory group leader at Edinburgh City Council
This article:
http://www.news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1253142003