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The children and families team in Haringey is now unrecognisable from the one in post at the time of the catalogue of errors that led up to Victoria Climbié’s death, writes Janet Snell.
Some like social worker Lisa Arthurworrey and her manager Carole Baptiste have been sacked. Others saw the writing on the wall and left of their own accord.
Since then extra resources have been pumped in to attract new recruits, who have benefited from an improved package that appears to have successfully addressed the council’s chronic staffing problem. The new people are free from the baggage of the Victoria Climbié case and although there was anxiety in Haringey in the run up to the publication of the Victoria Climbié report, there was no sense of the issue overshadowing staff in the way there was two years or even 12 months ago.

Marion Wheeler, service manager for the children’s care management and assessment team, believes the lessons from the Victoria Climbié report apply to children’s services across the country not just Haringey.
“I have friends and colleagues working for other London local authorities that have had similar cases to Victoria’s either happen or nearly happen. There’s nothing unique about Haringey.”
She adds that it is natural that staff feel some unease over how the report’s findings will be reported because it will affect how the people of Haringey respond. “At the time of the trial some staff were subject to verbal assault, others had their cars scratched and there was some fairly nasty stuff. But overall I think there is a feeling that we have put the bad times behind us and the building blocks are in place for delivering a high quality service.”
She feels that the special measures are having a positive effect in that they are focusing everyone’s minds and encouraging councillors and management to work together to tackle problems. “The councillors understand that with more resources we can be excellent, but if we’re under-resourced we are going to be mediocre.”
Haringey social services used to be something of an inward-looking department, but there has been a major push to develop stronger partnership arrangements with other agencies. For Wheeler, though, the most important change has been focusing on recruiting the right people. “Unless we have managers and staff in place who are child-focused and are committed to the idea that getting things right matters, then it’s difficult to achieve anything.
“Before there was always the excuse of ‘we have no staff’ or ‘I’ve only just arrived’ or ‘I’m only temporary’. But now those in post all want to be here. And we have been able to attract really high calibre people - it’s not just a case of having a name at a desk.”
Among the new intake are social worker Jennifer Wilson and her colleague Helen Patterson, a social work assistant. The latter post is a new departure for Haringey, which is trying to develop its own social workers by training unqualified staff. When the authority advertised 12 such posts there were 400 applicants.
Patterson has been in the job since last February. “At the start I was supervised weekly. It’s reassuring getting that extra backing so you know you’re on the right track. And you really are encouraged to extend your skills. It’s not just left up to you to ask. We are also a very tight team and we give each other a lot of support.”
Jennifer Wilson says that after completing her social work degree, far from being put off by Haringey’s reputation, she was attracted to the borough because she felt it would be an excellent training ground. “When I applied the publicity about the Victoria Climbié case was at its height. But I thought if they’re on special measures everything will be under the microscope so at least they’ll be doing things properly.”
Wilson believes Haringey now has a “nurturing environment” for staff thanks to its induction and supervision programmes. “Roles are clear and you feel you can ask for support if you need it. At the start they said to me ‘you’re very confident - you’re doing fine.’ But I said that I thought I needed more supervision and I got it.”
For Helen Patterson another break with the past is improved joint working with other agencies. “We have joint meetings and we invite everybody. The police always come. With health visitors and midwives we keep in close touch mainly by phone. Teachers are not afraid to get on the phone to us. GPs are sometimes hard to pin down, but they always make their information freely available. Joint working is happening. There’s no tension between us any more.”

For Wilson one of the values that staff across all agencies share is the belief that the child must be listened to. “It’s about taking notice of what the child says and not hearing what you want to hear.
“What I like is the feeling of making a fresh start. We all know about the Victoria Climbié case and it was appalling and we won’t forget it. Perhaps things weren’t as good as they should have been. But the mood is ‘how can we learn from it.’ You can’t work in a climate of scaremongering and fear for ever. You have to move on.”
Haringey social services director Anne Bristow believes her children and families team has turned a corner, and although it may not have reached its destination, it is getting there.
“Although most of our staff arrived after the Victoria Climbié case, clearly as an organisation there is a real sense of responsibility and a feeling that we owe an apology to Victoria’s parents for the shortcomings of the authority at the time of their daughter’s death.
“But the legacy of the case also amounts to a determination to ensure that nothing like it ever happens again. All you can do is put all possible safeguards in place and never be complacent.”
In the aftermath of the murder trial and the criticisms of her department levelled during the Victoria Climbié Inquiry, Bristow rebuilt her children and families team virtually from scratch.
“We started by taking a hard look at what we were doing and what we were spending. The elected members found an extra £5 million for children’s services compared to 1999-2000 - and that has enabled us to give social workers the tools to do their job.
“We now believe we are offering the best terms and conditions in London and one of the best packages in the country. And it’s not a question of luring people from elsewhere, we’re attracting people away from agencies onto permanent contracts.
“We have spent a lot of time ensuring our staff supervision arrangements work properly. We are very hot on training and our staff are now entitled to one day a month study leave. This has all fed through into recruitment and retention and the response rate to our job advertisements has tripled. Because we have addressed the recruitment crisis, caseloads are more manageable and Haringey is simply a better place to work.
“Now we are hoping that our achievements will be recognised externally. When the star ratings were refreshed last November, our children’s services moved from having ‘poor’ prospects up to ‘uncertain’ prospects. That may not sound much, but the fact that things had improved was a real boost for staff. Perhaps next time we can hope for a star - or who knows, maybe even two!”

Haringey improvements
That was then:
Spending on children’s services 1999-2000: £18.5 million
Social worker salary: up to £25,000
Vacancy rates: between 30-40 per cent
Lisa Arthurworrey had a caseload of 19

This is now:
Spending on children’s services 2002-3: £23.5 million
Social worker salary: up to £33,505
Vacancy rate: 5 per cent
Average caseload: 14 cases