County put children at risk

9.11.10am GMT Tue 3rd Feb 2009

Tory-run Hertfordshire County Council have systematically underfunded children's social services by not employing social workers and as a consequence put children at risk. In a document sent to councillors this week they admit that they will be reorganising the department and losing 9 social care assistants who will be replaced by 12 qualified social workers.

The document is a review of all services in light of the Baby P case in Haringey. The Council goes on to admit that the social work teams need to be increased from 4 social workers per team to 5 and that Hertfordshire's Safeguarding Children's Board needs to be strengthened in its role of auditing the work carried out to ensure young children at risk are kept safe. The Chair of this board has recently resigned due to pressure of work.

Liberal Democrat County Councillor Allan Witherick said: 'I find it astonishing that despite being challenged time and time again by the Liberal Democrats the County Council are only now putting into action staffing plans to try to redress these unforgivable failings to our most vulnerable children. Not only are they failing these children by employing unqualified staff to deal with their complex cases but also the staff count is too low. The worrying thing is that there is a national shortage in qualified social workers, so regardless of the headline budget statement this situation is far from over.'