Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Haringey council explains how it is improving children's services
When I arrived in mid-January last year as interim deputy director of children and families services at Haringey council, I found staff and managers alike who felt beleaguered and battered. The preceding two months had been inconceivable for those of us who had not been part of it. Taunted by members of the public and the press, social workers and their managers continued to try to provide a service to the most vulnerable children in the north London borough..................
Read the full article at The Guardian............
Read the full article at The Guardian............
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Thanks for posting this Hugh. It's difficult to know how much to believe of what is written. At the end of the Guardian article is offered what seems to be a kind of disclaimer:
Eleanor Brazil is interim deputy director, children and families services, at the London borough of Haringey. This article is an edited extract from a document written by her as part of the process to recruit her permanent successor.
We know already that it has been difficult for Haringey to recruit staff in this area. One hopes that all the positive news reported is true, but equally one has to remember that it is written by a departing manager for what may have been a PR persuasion exercise for the benefit of applicants for a permanent successor.
It is no accident that this has found its way into a national newspaper, which is probably why the Guardian felt it had to add the rider. An assessment of public relations impact is at the heart of any Haringey communiqué and nowhere more so than the area of child protection, where we learn the staff were "taunted" by the press and public. The average staff member is forbidden to talk directly to the media.
Ms Brazil quoted three examples of key lessons for staff:
Hopefully, all our staff will now remember key lessons, such as "A seen child is not a safe child", "If you see it, hear it or believe it, act on it", and "Assessment is not a one-off event, but an ongoing process."
I thought it was telling that none of these examples related to placing the child at the heart of the process or saying that the interests of the child were paramount.
Was not one of the lessons of the torture and death of Baby Peter Connelly, that Haringey Child Protection Services went too far in keeping a child in an absusive situation? Conditions have to be bad and extraordinary in the first place, for any child to be placed on Haringey's Child Protection Register.
Nobody should have unreasonable expectations of perfection and excellence in what is intrinsically a difficult area. On the whole, organisations would be dramatically better simply by meeting the job description and avoiding gross incompetence and gross negligence or even deliberate deceit.
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