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ONE SOCIAL WORKER FOR EACH SCHOOL
Report recommends dedicated staff to tackle abuse and neglect
SOCIAL workers should be posted to every school in Westminster to spot early signs of abuse and neglect, a council report has suggested.
If approved, it would be an unprecedented step in a borough that has one of the highest rates of children in need in the country.
It is part of a package of tough measures to support pupils and protect the council against the sort of blunders made by Haringey Council in the Baby Peter affair.
Other recommendations include more information sharing between GPs and the council, with doctors being encouraged to report suspected cases of abuse to social services and education authorities.
It is hoped the move, which would see one social worker attached to the borough’s 43 primary schools and 10 secondary schools as full-time staff, would help break down long-standing professional rivalries between education and social services.
Currently the council’s children’s services department employs 72 social workers, and with salaries starting at £30,000, the recruitment drive would cost City Hall millions. A council spokeswoman said that because they were only at the recommendation stage, a “budgeting exercise” has not been completed, meaning it could all be academic.
The recommendations are outlined in a major report by the council’s children and young people policy and scrutiny committee titled Safeguarding Children in Westminster.
Within the borough, 226 children are in care and an additional 153 are deemed in need of child protection. Most of these feature home lives riven by domestic violence, alcoholism, drugs misuse and mental illness.
The recommendations are:
• Give full consideration to extending as far as possible the integration of social workers into schools
• Consider how early intervention to safeguard children can be supported in Early Years settings including children’s centres
• Promote stonger connections between social workers and adult services, including the Drug and Alchohol Action Team, on child safeguarding issues, and provide training for relevant adult services staff on safeguarding processes.
Since local authorities came under scrutiny in the wake of Baby Peter, Westminster has established a special health clinic for children with a child protection plan under two years of age and has conducted an independent audit of its services and procedures.
Councillor Ian Adams, chairman of the committee said: “We believe that this review has highlighted some areas where additional work would provide further reassurance for Westminster residents that all possible steps are being taken to ensure the safety of our children.” |
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