Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Haringey Council Slammed over Disabled Boy Child Protection Case
This is so sad and concerning.
www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/haringey-slammed-disabled-boy-protection
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by JJ B on
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Socal care should be taken out of local borough jurisdiction and given to a London-wide service with local arms. That way the resources can be equally shared across rich and poor areas. There will be no let up to the number of problems if something isn't done to improve the way these services are resourced.
Over the last decade funding to provide OUR essential has been cut, cut, cut. Especially in more deprived areas where the need is higher. That is not going to improve despsite what the blustering PM and his pickupside of a govrnment tell us. The man is untrustworthy anyway and puts self before general wellbeing. So I am afraid. We are in a bind.
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Permalink Reply by Emma S on
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I totally agree re the cuts but it’s not just that, the level of incompetence in that department in my experience is worrying and that pre-dates the impact of austerity - although obviously that has put pressure on staff and caused low morale. It’s the lack of empathy from some of the staff that is hard to take, especially as families with disabled children are the ones really facing the brunt of the cuts in terms of services.
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Permalink Reply by Neil on
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For a High Court judge to condemn the actions of social workers in Haringey is shocking but for the council to dispute the case was as bad as the judge stated, is not acceptable.
I'm appalled that social workers turned the boy's father away when he raised the alarm over the child's welfare.
They did not want to talk to him!
Labour councillors preach that they take care of the weakest in society and charge us extra for the service but in reality their social workers neglect the most needy. I think this is the tip of the iceberg as most cases do not get to the High Court. Remember Baby P and Victoria Climbie who died under the care of Haringey Social Services?
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You can read here what we as parents think of the shameless behaviour of Haringey trying to claim that it didn't need publicising as we already knew things were bad.
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Thanks Brian, I read the blog, saw it posted on FB as I have a child with special needs myself. Thank you!
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Haringey are in a position where improvement seems incredibly difficult. Imagine you are a social work manager and were considering stepping up to the next level in your career. With Haringey’s history around children looked after it would be a brave step to come here. If you can’t attract the people who could make a difference, your service doesn’t get any better meaning you can’t attract the people who could make a difference - and round and round it goes.
I agree that the massive reductions in government funding have decimated some areas of social care, but that applies to all local authorities, not just Haringey. What is it they are doing right that we are not?
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Good point re attracting the right kind of people Michael. Very difficult. And yes, cuts affecting all LAs. In my opinion, Haringey’s issues pre-date austerity.
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Improvement in Haringey is incredibly easy. It is easy for an ambitious social worker to take over the social services department because the standard is so low in the borough.
The case concerned a 14-year-old boy with cerebral palsy and his brother, 12, whose parents separated in 2018 after a legal battle with the council over adaptions to the family home to enable the elder son to live there.
Their mother subsequently began a relationship with a man who had been released on licence from prison, where he was serving a sentence for sexually abusing his ten-year-old daughter.
Social workers refused to listen to the father of the two boys when he protested about the paedophile living with his two sons.
What do you think of the above? Could you, or a non social worker, have thought of a quick solution to the problem?
Part of the problem is that unions and Labour councillors refuse to sack poor social workers and are determined to give them a job for life so long as they fit in and don't rock the boat (and keep their Labour membership going). The social workers condemned by the High Court judge recently have not been disciplined or sacked.
The judge said of the social workers: "Social workers knew of this relationship but gave “mixed messages” to the mother about potential risks to her two boys. They failed to assess and even “colluded” with the mother by taking the opportunity to improve their rapport with her."
Zena Brabazon, who was cabinet member for children, hid the judges ruling from council leader Joseph Ejiofor and the press for weeks, and she was correctly sacked by him. She never thought of resigning when the verdict came out and she believes she was unfairly sacked.
She does however think Dominic Cummings should have been sacked for travelling to look after his disabled son in the family home! This thought of sacking Cummings was also backed by most of the Labour members in Haringey.... and by most Labour MP's who have kept quiet about the above. Has anyone heard from local MP David Lammy about the familiar scandal above?
Children's Lives Matter.
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I have written to Catherine West re my concerns on this issue. I’m not sure about David Lammy. I also think Dominic Cummings should have been sacked but I am absolutely disappointed not to have heard more from Haringey on this awful case.
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Dear Emma
Parents of children with disabilities have written to all councillors. Pls contact us through the website DifficultParent.com if you would like help to do this. We need support to get a taskforce to come in and take over.
I will post my families letter below.
Brian
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In light of the recent judgement of Haringey's Disabled Children's Team by Mister Justice Hayden, and the efforts of the local authority to keep this judgement out of the public domain, because as parents of disabled children in Haringey we have "already been told of the failings of [Haringey] in this area of children's services", could I ask for the immediate disbandment of this team and that a taskforce be sent in to take over the running of this department.
As a parent of a disabled child it is apparent to me that there has been no improvement in this area of children's services in the last two years, or at any point before that. We have very much been the 'poor relation' in children's services in Haringey, with all improvements being focused elsewhere within the service. This has given the strong impression that the lives of disabled children do not matter in the London Borough of Haringey.
All press statements and official communications have left out any reference whatsoever to the Disabled Children's Team. It is an issue that Haringey are continuing to try to hide and keep out of the public domain.
We fail to see the veracity of Cllr Brabazon's statement that "Governors, headteachers, school staff and parents are working together to meet the challenges of the pandemic.". As evidence by the cancellation of coproduction meetings; the lack of feedback regarding the SEN Travel event; the three letters regarding the SEN Travel annual application form; the lack of communication regarding the use of Direct Payments for Short Breaks. This can be evidenced by the results of the SENDIASS survey of SEND parents conducted by Markfield.
We have seen no discernible improvement in services; no indication that lessons will be learnt; no clear communications.
We have seen a continuation of behaviours identified in the judgement of Mister Justice Hayden: not putting the needs of disabled children first and co-designing services in lockdown to meet the needs of children; being discriminatory when dealing with parents and only telling some parents about greater flexibility of direct payments; sending mixed messages about SEN Travel and the annual application telling us in the second letter that "we will be resending the letter but there will be extended deadlines"; this demonstrates a continued lack of rigor and mismanagement, when we were told that the first SEN travel letter was an "admin error". The local authority have been slow to communicated with all of us in lockdown - with NONE of the respondents to the Markfield survey saying that the local authority have given sufficient support during the lockdown.
With two years of no improvement in services, and a leadership that made strenuous efforts to keep an important judgement out of the public domain - and away from us SEND parents - we have no confidence that the local authority have the capability to honestly self reflect and improve their performance; with continuous statements about the improvements in areas of service NOT related to disabled children the local authority are reinforcing that they do not value the lives of disabled children equally.To that end, we would like to see the immediate disbandment of the DCT and a taskforce for who disabled children's live do matter brought in to manage the service.
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