By Clare Jerrom and Reg McKay.
Badly managed social services departments mean one in three fail to provide adequate care, a report warns today.
An annual review of local authorities shows 31 per cent need a radical overhaul to provide adequate frontline services to children, older people and vulnerable adults.
According to the joint report from the Audit Commission and Social Services Inspectorate, the London boroughs of Lambeth and Newham are among those which are “not serving people well”.
Kensington and Chelsea is held as a model of how councils should overcome staff shortages and budget pressures to provide good services, and Kent is commended for providing good frontline services while dealing with an influx of asylum seekers and more than 1,200 unaccompanied minors.
The report, ‘Delivering Results’, says there are some “inspiring examples of good practice where social services departments have been brave in modernising”.
Councils rated poorly include Bracknell Forest, Bromley, Havering, Southend, Merthyr Tydfil, Ceredigion and Torbay.
Source:- The Independent Wednesday 17 October page 9
A senior social worker involved in the care of Victoria Climbie was barred from working with children six years previously, according to the public inquiry yesterday.
Edward Armstrong, manager of the children’s social work team at Brent in north London, had been disciplined in 1993 for the way he handled the case of an unnamed family. He had come to a written agreement with his employers that he would not work with children again, according to Neil Garnham QC counsel for the inquiry.
Armstrong, who was suspended from his post earlier this year, gave evidence at the inquiry last week. He said pages from his case files had been “deliberately” removed by an insider at Brent or Ealing social services. Garnham told Lord Laming that there was no record of Armstrong’s agreement not to work with children in his personnel file, and added he may be recalled to give further evidence.
Victoria died last year from neglect and abuse. Her great aunt Marie Therese Kouao and her boyfriend Carl Manning were jailed for murder earlier this year.
The hearing continues.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 17 October page 11
A series of killings could be legalised if the farmer who shot dead a burglar wins his appeal against his conviction for murder, the Lord Chief Justice said yesterday.
Lord Woolfe issued the warning as Tony Martin’s lawyers argued his mental condition caused him to be more fearful of break-ins and over-react, such as when he shot the burglar.
Michael Wolkind QC said that child sex abuse had left Martin with a lifelong fear of being raped, and he was petrified of being “violated” when his home was broken into.
The farmer killed Fred Barras with a pump action shotgun and wounded his accomplice Brendan Fearon. He was convicted of murder and wounding with intent, although Martin insists he acted in self-defence.
Lord Woolf said that Martin’s justification for shooting the burglar could leave the law powerless against killers who claim to be mentally impaired.
Quashing the conviction would “mean such people could go round committing crime after crime and nobody could stop them”, he said.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 17 October page 13
Blair hints at tax rises to improve public services
Taxes could rise to pay for the improvements of hospitals, schools and transport according to Tony Blair yesterday.
The prime minister insisted he was ready to raise taxes in order to maintain higher levels of spending.
“I do believe that people can be persuaded to pay for good public services,” he told public service workers in London. “I don’t believe that the public is any longer fooled by the notion of short term tax cuts at the expense of long-term investment.”
Source:- Daily Telegraph Wednesday 17 October page 12
Guardian Society
Screen fright
Mental illness themes scare off many film makers
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 17 October page 4
Crisis in the recruitment and retention of care workers
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 17 October page 4
How a theatre that originated in Jamaica is helping alienated young black men and women on a London estate.
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 17 October page 5
Who would want to become a social worker when they are held in such low esteem? Raekha Prasad on a £2 million campaign to alter public perceptions
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 17 October page 10
Disabled children’s evidence of abuse is ‘insufficient’ to bring charges. John Pring reports on their right to justice
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 17 October page 112-111
Survey shows growing user satisfaction with social services
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 17 October page 111
Appeal court rejects bid for freedom
Three patients at the State Hospital Carstairs have failed in a bid to overthrow the first piece of legislation passed by the Scottish executive. The legislation had been rushed through to fill loopholes on public safety after patient Noel Ruddle succeeded in winning his freedom from the high security hospital.
Five judges at the privy council
in London rejected the latest applications on behalf of Karl Anderson,
Alexander Reid and Brian Doherty. Their
solicitor, Yvonne McKenna, who had acted for Ruddle, intimated that they would
take their case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 17 October page 6
