Dispute over size of inquiry’s budget

A spokesperson for the Victoria Climbie
Inquiry has denied claims that it is costing taxpayers
£7m.

Speaking at the Association of Directors of
Social Work annual conference in Dunblane earlier this month,
Stella Perrott, team leader of child protection review at
Scotland’s Social Work Services Inspectorate, told delegates the
inquiry had a budget of £7m.

But the inquiry spokesperson denied that any
budget had been set, while health secretary Alan Milburn told the
House of Commons at the end of last month that the final costs of
the inquiry would not be known until the end of the year.

Secretary to the inquiry Mandy Jacklin has
also denied allegations that the inquiry is elitist and that it has
already decided the future direction of child protection social
work (Letters, page 22, 9 May).

In a letter to Community Care this week,
Jacklin said: “During its investigation into the circumstances
surrounding Victoria’s death, the inquiry called people from the
bottom to the top of various organisations to explain their role in
the tragic episode. Then, when the inquiry held seminars to examine
ways to prevent such an event happening again, it invited numerous
front-line staff to give their views.

“Lord Laming has only now – after the phase
one hearings and the phase two seminars – begun to write his final
report.”