Audit of children’s services ordered by inspectorate

Social services departments are to begin work on an audit of
their children’s services following the publication of the Laming
inquiry report into the death of Victoria Climbie,
writes Sally Gillen.

David Behan, president of the Association of Directors of Social
Services, said the Social Services Inspectorate had written to him
saying all councils would be expected to do a self-audit, which
would involve comparing their services against the recommendations
for best practice in the report.

The information should be submitted to the SSI by April and then
passed to the department of health for scrutiny.

Behan said that the ADSS welcomed the Laming report, but added
the children at risk green paper, due to be published in the
spring, would have to include information on how councils could
implement the proposed management board for children and
families.

“We will be looking for the team working on the green paper to
acknowledge that there are new political making structures, and it
will have to look at how the recommendations fit into that,” said
Behan.