Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Haringey Council Children's Services
I NOTE that Old-Age Emporium(OAE)'s posting about Haringey Council Children's Services appears to have been removed. OAE quoted from the report of Lord Laming and went into aspects of responsibilites for institutional failure over the murder of infant Victoria Climbié, while on Haringey Council's Child Protection Register.
It was a timely reminder. But it dealt with responsibility and accountability – always a sensitive topic for this Council – was this the reason for the apparent censorship? Was the post removed after pressure from the Council? The problem in this council department is far from solved and the ducking of this issue increases the chances of a Baby P happening again.
I understand Haringey spent approximately £3,000,000 on lawyers at the Lord Laming Enquiry (2001) in order to avoid responsibility. The public enquiry was met with extraordinary obstruction of evidence by our Council.
Without wishing to make any excuse for the Councillor (who blamed officers for not passing on information) named in OAE's post, I do question the quality of staff chosen to be employed at Haringey Council's Children's Services.
The fearless Haringey Independent newspaper currently carries the story, Haringey Council social worker struck off for serious misconduct which does cause me to wonder.
What on earth are the hiring criteria used? If political correctness and little else is all that Child Protection staff are required to demonstrate, then this kind of case is not the last we shall see. It is misleading to suggest that all social workers are equally diligent, competent and professional. They are not, but Haringey seems to be particularly unlucky in this regard.
At least there is no suggestion that the former Child Protection worker has been awarded a multi-hundred thousand pound settlement. At least not yet.
Tags for Forum Posts: Climbie, Register, Victoria, child, council, misconduct, protection, social, worker
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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No Clive the posting hasn't been removed, it's been temporarily withdrawn by me for fact checking. Given the nature of this case, I feel we need to be absolutely sure that anything published here is as accurate as possible.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Understandably, we all get very upset and angry about the death of children; and especially when Child Protection agencies fail to prevent their murder. But one of the strengths of Lord Laming's Inquiry was its thorough, measured, detailed, objective and factual approach.
Can I please suggest that approach is still the best way.
People can read Lord Laming's Report online here.
If anyone wants to read details of the recent case Clive mentions – which was not about child protection – the full report is here on the website of the General Social Care Council.
Labour councillor & candidate Tottenham Hale ward.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Hugh, I hope that with any necessary minor amendment, OAE's post can be restored. I do appreciate that you've got a hard task sometimes. I also think that on the whole, most people are good judges of what is fair and what is not.
Alan, the case I drew attention to does, I believe, reflect on the quality of staff LBH chooses to employ and in an area, I think we might all agree, is highly sensitive, i.e. the protection of the Borough's most vulnerable citizens. I don't really expect you to comment, but I think you will recognise the background that affected my thoughts on the matter.
As a small aside, Lord Laming has not gone without criticism – from quarters unconnected with LBH – which goes to show what a fraught area this is.
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Permalink Reply by perdeep on
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I appreciate that the original posting has been temporarily withdrawn for fact checking but do wonder how long this will take and which facts are being checked and how...
As for Alan Stantons comment “ we all get very upset and angry about the death of children; and especially when Child Protection agencies fail to prevent their murder”, well, we also get upset and enraged with those elected (whichever political party) when they fail to take responsibility for or change the culture of organisational incompetency. If the Council had learnt lessons from the Laming Inquiry how was it that the Council so appalling failed to protect baby Peter?
I echo Clive’s concerns about the dual concerns relating to the quality of staff and accountability. Hearing of one social worker’s misconduct being dealt with is not enough to build trust in the system- we need to know that the organisational incompetencies have been faced up to and dealt with. This includes ultimately holding our politicians to account and them taking responsibility without being forced to so by the media.
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OAE decided that it wasn't best placed on this site and would be better suited to another type of site. You'll find something remarkably similar at a borough political blog that's just been set up. I couldn't say who's behind it.
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