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Haringey emails reveal staff crisis after Baby P scandal
26 Jan 2009Haringey council has appealed to all London boroughs to lend their social workers to ease its staffing crisis in the wake of the Baby P scandal.
Leaked emails show the authority's director of children's services has asked his peers to provide a “good quality person” for a month to help them deal with staff shortages and an increased caseload.
Peter Lewis, the new department head, appointed after Sharon Shoesmith was sacked for her handling of the 18-month-old's death, has written to all of the 30 London councils to come to Haringey's aid during a “real pinch point”.
However, email responses show the appeal has largely been rejected with local authorities complaining they have experienced a 30 per cent increase in reported child abuse cases themselves since Baby P because officials and the public are on high alert.
Paul Robinson, Wandsworth director of children's services, told Haringey, the proposed loan scheme was “unlikely to be very efficient”.
He pointed out that any new person coming in would be unfamiliar with their operating procedures or cases, before asking Mr Lewis “Are you sure this is what you really want?” Ann Marie Carrie, of Kensington and Chelsea council, suggests that other London authorities can hold back on cases they would normally have referred to Haringey, as an interim measure, to lighten their caseload.
Mr Lewis made the appeal two weeks ago in a group email but responses show that, at best, Haringey can only hope for a freeze on referrals and not an influx of temporary staff.
The north London council has struggled to recruit its own staff with its children's services department's reputation severely damaged by the Baby P case. The toddler, who was on the child protection register, died in August 2007 after a sustained period of abuse. His mother and her boyfriend admitted causing or allowing the boy's death and were convicted in November.
Steve Johnson, director of Capital Ambition, a policy group and part of London Councils, said: “In any instances when an organisation has had that media attention, sickness absences increase, people are harder to recruit... there is a need to provide them (Haringey) with support.”
Haringey council said: “We are in contact with a number of organisations, including councils and charities, to take forward our improvement work and have already received support from other local authorities.”
A Unison poll of 300 social workers has revealed that six out of 10 work in teams where more than 20 per cent of posts are vacant.
