‘Baby P effect’: More children now being removed from families by social workers
Social workers are being “bullied” by managers into taking more children from their families because of the Baby P scandal, it was claimed last night.
Ian Johnston, chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers, said there were worrying examples of “macho management” in social services departments which could lead to children being put into care unnecessarily.
It came as new figures revealed that impact that the “Baby P effect” is having in family courts. The number of children granted a care order in London last month was up by 70 per cent on the total for November last year. Baby P’s mother and two men were convicted on November 11 of allowing the death of the 17-month-old toddler.
Courts in the capital granted 104 care orders - excluding emergency protection orders - last month, compared with just 61 in the same period last year
Mr Johnston said: “We are picking up pretty worrying comments from our members that there is macho management going on, and something that smacks a bit of bullying.
“In some local authorities the impact of Baby P seems to have been translated into more pressure on social workers to cover their backs.
“Now that we have seen a director of children’s services suspended over Baby P, other directors will be looking very carefully at whether they could face the same scenario.
“We are worried that workers are spending three-quarters of their time not on face-to-face contact with families but on writing up cases to account for themselves to their superiors. And there is also more of a blame culture.”
He added: “We would be worried if social workers are put in the position of removing parental rights from more families as a result of this situation.”
Harry Fletcher, the assistant general secretary of probation union Napo, said: “There has been a huge increase in care applications because staff are having to cover their backs because of criticism and suspensions of workers in Haringey.
“This will put enormous strain on foster carers and lead to delays in cases because of a shortage of legal guardians.”
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On 31st Dec 2008 at 12:50 PM not a MP said...
It is beyond me why the money being spent on court costs and socialworker/fostercarers could not be better spent on 'real' child protection measures.Too many children in care and in the court arena do not need to be there.Relatives who are more than willing to care for them are being prevented by the local authorities who will do anything to win their case in court.It does not seem to matter that mandatory referral for a family group conference does not happen either because the SW can not be bothered or lack of staff/money.All excuses.They are backed up by cafcass who are also ex-social workers who previously worked for the same local authority,many who do not even have children but presume they know better.Clearly nothing but cheer leaders for the SS.