News

Child protection social workers will need to begin offering a 24-hour service because police powers to remove children from carers suspected of abuse will be significantly reduced later this year, a senior police officer has warned, writes Sally Gillen.

John Fox, a Detective Superintendent at Hampshire constabulary, one of a panel of experts who sat alongside Lord Laming during the inquiry into Victoria Climbie’s death, said that the Home Office would be issuing new guidance to the police, reducing their powers.

Speaking at the first multi-agency conference since Laming’s report was published in January, Fox said it would be necessary for social workers to introduce new working patterns.

He told an audience of 1,000 social work, police and health professionals that children were often at most risk from abuse after 5pm - the time that social workers finished work.

"It will be an upheaval but social workers will need to provide a service 24 hours, which will require working shifts for which there should be proper remuneration."

He added that at the moment social workers, unlike police, were not entitled to extra pay if they worked longer than their contracted hours. This should change, he said.

Referrals that arrived late in the day were likely to be passed to the police, who were either able to remove children or make them a subject of a police protection order, said Fox.

Victoria had been placed under a police protection order as a "holding measure" by Brent social services because they received a referral about her admittance to Central Middlesex Hospital with suspected non-accidental injuries just after 5pm.

The social worker responsible for the decision, Michelle Hines - who did not speak to Victoria -told the Laming inquiry that the case would have been handled differently if the referral had been received earlier on in the day.

In his report, Laming criticised this action and recommended that children who are the subject of allegations of deliberate harm should be spoken to within 24 hours.

 He also recommended that local authorities must ensure that legal advice is available round the clock. This would mean that social workers seeking advice on the use of an emergency protection order would be able to do so, rather than relying on the police.