Following on from Birmingham:
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/carespace/forums/birmingham-and-allocated-cases-8348.aspx
'Community Care' noiw reveals the situation in Suffolk with Child Protection cases being held by a Team manager but worked by unqualified staff:
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2010/09/03/115237/unqualified-staff-handling-child-protection-cases-in-suffolk.htm
I remember some years ago now a similar situation when the Team Manager (a chap surnamed Ruddock, I believe) was sacked when something went wrong despite him beimng unable to allocate.
This Team Manager is foolish to accept Case responsibility with all the career risks involved and ought to have flatly refused - you can not both work them (and as the allocated qualified worker that is where Case responsibility must rest) and manage them.
Oh dear, what a parlous state the profession is in - but how many other such revelations are waiting to appear? Why is this not being picked up my the national media as the scandal that it is?
Name and be shamed is what I say
This is a huge problem with ICS-the team manager is allocated the case by default when it comes to the team. They have no-one to allocate to in the current culture of children's services, so are immediately responsible for caseload management themselves. However, gone are the days when the case files can be put in a drawer and forgotten (this did happen-I have seen it) as the cases exist electronically. Therefore, it shows the true reality of the mess it's all in. No one really cares until something bad happens-then the media love it.
To my knowledge there is no reason why any ICS system cannot have a worker called " Unallocated " - cases can then be allocated to "unallocated " - this removes the Team Manager to an extent - the unallocated worker list should then be forwarded to Head of Service/Director at regular intervals - responsibility must be shared if the issue is a lack of resources/staff. Team Managers have a difficult enough job already without owning something which they are unable to solve on their own. At these times of job cuts and reducing resources Team Managers must ensure they land responsibility at the right level for inadequate resourcing. If the team is already full - and we should be applying Nationally recognised case load levels as per Laming - then let the politicians share the responsibility for giving skilled dedicated staff an impossible task .