VULNERABLE KIDS – BRUM FAILING TO LEARN LESSONS

02-12-2008

Vulnerable children are being put at risk in Birmingham according to an Ofsted review which says the City Council is one of the worst in the country for failing to learn from its mistakes in cases of serious abuse.

The inquiry, published today and covering the period April 1 2007 to 31 August 2008, says three “serious case reviews” (or SCR’s) carried out by the local authority were “inadequate” (ofsted.gov.uk).

SCR’s are initiated when abuse or neglect is suspected of having led to a child losing its life or suffering major injuries.

The point of the exercise is to establish where mistakes have been made with a view to improving practice in future.

Unless the reviews are carried out to a sufficient standard, problems are likely to recur.

Cornwall, Northamptonshire and Surrey also have three “inadequate” scores – but no Council has more than Birmingham.

The revelations come hard on the heels of the independent enquiry into the death of Baby P in Haringey, which details systemic failures in the London borough’s supposedly three star Children’s Services.

Birmingham generated its own “Baby P”-style headlines in May, when 7 year old Kyra Ishaq starved to death in Handsworth, amid allegations that Social Services failed to show sufficient curiosity about her long term absence from school.

That tragic incident is now the subject an internal enquiry and an ongoing court case.

Sandwell Council has had one SCR branded "inadequate" by Ofsted.

Yardley MP and former Birmingham city councillor John Hemming recently claimed his attempt to find out how many children had died following the initiation of SCR’s nationally was being covered-up by the government (see link here).

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