How we're ensuring no repeat of Baby P tragedy in Essex (From Echo)

How we're ensuring no repeat of Baby P tragedy in Essex

11:00am Thursday 8th January 2009 in

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IT didn’t look good. Even in the rather sanitised language of Ofsted, it was clear those taking care of Essex’s children were not doing all they should.

In fact, they were poor. In a recent report, Ofsted gave Essex County Council the same rating as Haringey, the authority criticised following the death of Baby P.

In 2000, the same council, was criticised for not doing enough to prevent the death of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie.

It meant out of 147 councils across the country, Essex appeared in the bottom seven.

Ofsted, the official body for inspecting schools and all children’s services, was seriously displeased. But so too was the county council.

And not because it thought Ofsted had got it wrong.

“We realised early last year there were problems,” admitted Peter Martin, the county councillor in charge of families. “So in June, we began to make changes.”

First came changes at the top.

The county council’s department for children, schools and families is now headed by Graham Tombs, while Nicky Pace is the new director for vulnerable children.

The next time Ofsted comes calling, the new people in charge insist the grades will be better, “because we had already started making a big improvement,” insis-ted Mr Martin.

“This annual performance assessment from Ofsted is for April, 2007 to March, 2008.

“It does not take into account the changes we had made, particularly in communication.”

Mr Martin, though, realises there is a long way to go.

Ofsted calls the county council’s overall effectiveness of children’s services only “adequate”, mainly because it is not happy with Essex’s mental health services for children and young people.

Neither is it happy with below-target GCSE results, the attendance levels in secondary schools, the rise in young reoffenders and the below-average number of teenage parents in education.

Ofsted also wonders whether the county council will be able to bring its workforce up to strength – there is currently a shortfall of social workers – and come up with the sort of “quality” services which are needed.

In fact, the report highlights many weaknesses and begs many questions.

One encompasses them all. Are our children safe? Are there systems in place which will prevent the horrors that were Victoria Climbie and Baby P happening in Essex? “The death of Victoria Climbie in 2000 led to the Children Act 2004, which reduced the likelihood of agencies, such as police, social services, health trusts, county councils, courts, schools, voluntary and private sectors, not talking to each other,” declared Mr Tombs.

“That was the big problem regarding Victoria Climbie, and one of the criticisms which Ofsted had of the county council in the ‘staying safe’ section. The report said those involved in children’s services did not understand when a child should be referred. In other words, we were not talking to each other.

“Now we have far better communication, something which we were undertaking before the rep-ort came out.

“No, it had not been universally understood all agenci-es had to work to the same criteria.

“Now, when it comes to child protection, each agency knows at which level they have to come in.”

He explained children’s services work to four levels of vulnerability.

“Level one is children with ordinary needs, level two is vulnerable, level three complex and level four acute,” he said.

“The idea is we ensure as many children as possible are in level one.”

l Children’s services in Southend, which are independent of the county council, were rated as “good” in the latest Ofsted report.

Divisional manager Juliet Winstanley said Southend Council consistently delivered above the minimum requirements for children and young people and had a good capacity to improve.

The report also praised the development of the children’s centres programme and opportunities being given to vulnerable young people to get a job and realise their potential.