News

Social workers at Brighton and Hove council’s children services are threatening strike action over the suspension of two social workers after the death of four-year-old John Smith at the hands of his adoptive parents, writes Clare Jerrom.

Around 100 social workers demonstrated outside the council offices before moving into the director’s office and demanding the social workers were reinstated.

The protests were finally defused when social services director Allan Bowman agreed to meet social workers the following day with council leader Ken Bodfish. Bowman promised there would be an investigation into the social worker’s actions before any disciplinary action was taken.

Dave Pameley, who was in charge of John Smith’s case, and adoption worker John Barrow were suspended following John’s death, pending a court case. Simon and Michelle McWilliam were last week convicted of cruelty to their adopted son.

Kevin Byrne, co-convenor of Unison at Brighton council, said Pameley and Barrow were being scapegoated when the lack of resources, and a catalogue of mishandling of services were to blame.

"All front line child protection social workers have no confidence in the senior management of the social services department to run the service properly," he said.

Bowman insisted the investigation was essential due to the severity of the case, as the part 8 review into John’s care and protection says social workers were to blame for the mistakes they made.

In her part 8 report, author Alyson Leslie says: "In my view, while a major reduction in fieldwork posts and weaknesses in first-line management systems in Brighton and Hove social services contributed, to differing degrees, to the pressures under which social worker one and three were working, the critical failures in this case were not in resourcing systems, but in the performance of basic social work tasks."

It also makes a series of recommendations, which the council have taken on board. It stresses more documentation and corroboration is needed in the assessment of prospective adopters.

"Currently in the UK, more documentary evidence is required when an individual is seeking a mortgage than when they are adopting a child," Leslie wrote.

The review finds that a more thorough, objective and evidenced assessment of the McWilliams would have stopped the couple getting into the system. Investigations into McWilliam’s past experience as a parent, would have resulted in the process being immediately terminated.

Leslie insists that the implementation of the recommendations made in the review are well underway. More basic information is now required from prospective adopters including birth certificate, employment status, driving licence, next of kin and addresses for the prior 10 years.

Bowman concludes: "All the agencies involved have learned lessons, and are implementing major improvements in the way we look after children in our care."

* Click here to read a news report on the conviction of Simon and Michelle McWilliam.