News round up: Get tough with social workers, police told

Get tough with social workers, police told

Police have ordered officers working with child abuse cases to take a much tougher line with social workers after the death of Baby P.

As relations between police and social services continued to deteriorate, ministers indicated yesterday that they were preparing to send a task force to take over Haringey social services because of the “systemic” failures that led to the death of Baby P.

Read more on this story in The Times

Family of social worker talk of blame and hatred

The daughter of the senior social worker at the centre of the Baby P scandal has defended her mother, saying that her family were shocked by the “hatred” that she has experienced.

Sharon Shoesmith, the head of children’s services at Haringey, has refused to resign over the death, despite repeated calls for her to leave her job. However, one of her daughters spoke for her mother on the BBC Radio 4 programme Any Answers. She said: “It has really shocked me how much of the media has missed the point that this is a horrendous tragedy and everybody obviously is horribly shocked by it, but there is so much blame, there is so much anger and hatred out there. Perhaps this is part of how our tabloid media works.”

Read more on this story in The Times

Overloaded social workers will lead to warnings being missed

When a tragedy occurs such as in the case of Baby P it is essential that we ask ourselves: what could we have done differently to change these terrible events?
Perhaps those writing so vociferously against social workers need to stop and ask themselves whether in some cases, social workers are given enough support to do their job.

Read more on this story in The Daily Telegraph

Baby P: The official files

Detailed documents chronicling every tragic moment in the short and horrific life of Baby P can be revealed for the first time today.

Read more on this story in The Independent

Crisis fails to put off bids for contracts

The number of bidders for contracts to get the long-term unemployed off benefits and into work has held up well despite the credit crunch, rising unemployment and the prospect of recession.

Just seven of the 31 organisations that had been shortlisted for 14 “flexible new deal” contracts have dropped out of the bidding process, figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions on Monday show.

Read more on this story in The Financial Times

The mother and five daughters who have been on the run from social services

Concern is growing over the safety of a mother who fled with her five daughters after learning they may be taken into care.
Natalie Bracht, 35, vanished from her home in Sunderland along with her children aged between five and 13.
Miss Bracht, who suffers from a personality disorder, was told she would almost certainly lose them after medical experts expressed concern for their welfare while in her care.
Read more on this story in The Daily Mail

Woolas: Asylum-seeker charities play the system

Immigration minister Phil Woolas has attacked lawyers and charities working on behalf of asylum seekers, accusing them of undermining the law and “playing the system”. In an interview with the Guardian, Woolas described the legal professionals and NGO workers as “an industry”, and said most asylum seekers were not fleeing persecution but were economic migrants.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

Making progress on children’s mental health

This country is becoming a better place for children to live, but more needs to be done to help those with mental health problems. A new review shows how, writes Roger Catchpole.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

Haringey social services could face takeover

The government said last night it may send a new management team into Haringey council, to take over the running of social services in the borough where Baby P died at the hands of his mother and two men.

Sources close to Ed Balls said the step would be considered when an independent report into the state of social services in the borough reaches ministers on December 1.