Recently in safeguarding Category

Gloucestershire Council has announced plans to recruit 30 extra children's social workers after an unannounced Ofsted inspection found caseloads were too high.

Ofsted's report, published today, said social work capacity varied across the teams, and that in some circumstances high caseloads had resulted in delays to initial assessments.

Gordon Brown is not the only person accused of bullying this week. Isle of Wight Council has refused to confirm or deny rumours that its former interim deputy director of children's services, Deborah Cameron, subjected staff to shouting and threats during the six months she worked there.

According to Private Eye magazine, six formal and an unknown quantity of informal complaints have been made about Cameron's behaviour towards her colleagues.

Tim Yeo, Conservative MP for South Suffolk, has accused Suffolk Council of "kidnapping" newly born babies in cases where the birth parents do not wish to give them up for adoption.

Writing ahead of last night's adjournment debate on the adoption and custody of children in Suffolk, Yeo expressed "deep concerns" about the council's adoption practices.

Read the full article on ePolitix.com

Review: Panorama goes on the frontline with Coventry's child protection team looking at the challenges social workers face

BBC, Monday 2 November

*****

Yesterday I went to a screening of Hell's Pavement, Andy Kemp's impressive directorial debut about a young girl growing up in foster care.

Authentic, provocative and based entirely on true events this docu-drama style film stays with you, as uncomfortably as it is intended to. The team behind Hell's Pavement - many of whom have personal and/or professional experience of foster care - want to ignite national debate about the UK care system.

Amid the shock and outrage surrounding the recent sexual abuse case in Plymouth - where nursery worker Vanessa George was found to have abused children in her care - it's inevitable that questions will be asked about how we safeguard children from such abusers. If indeed we can. After all, George had passed all security checks, had no criminal record and was well-liked and trusted by parents and staff.

It's day one of the judicial review of Sharon Shoesmith's sacking from Haringey Council over the Baby Peter scandal.