West Sussex County Council's child-protection service condemned (From The Argus)

West Sussex County Council's child-protection service condemned

7:00am Wednesday 4th March 2009 in

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A child-protection service has been condemned after a 12-year-old was left with no schooling for two years.

The Local Government Ombudsman concluded that West Sussex County Council was guilty of “maladministration with injustice” - the first such finding against the council in more than seven years.

It is the strongest reprimand available to the ombudsman, and the case has been deemed so sensitive that, exceptionally, the report will not be made public.

The complaint centred on a 12-year-old child who was temporarily excluded from school in 2004.

Apart from a short period in a pupil referral unit, the child did not attend school again until September 2006.

The investigation uncovered that: * crucial reports were not being written or followed up, * staff were not listening to children * social workers had threatened care proceedings instead of trying to gain the trust of the child.

This criticism follows a report by Ofsted, the education and care watchdog, in December 2008 which said protection for children at risk was inadequate.

West Sussex was named and shamed as one of eight local authorities, including Haringey council in London, which dealt with the fatal case of Baby P, to be criticised for the way it worked to keep children safe.

The Ombudsman concluded the council had failed to provide adequate education while the child was out of school and made an inadequate initial social service assessment.

An education fund for the child has now been set up, following the investigation, and a “small payment” has been made to the complainant.

A review has also been ordered to ensure social care casework is written up promptly, staff shortages are addressed and to ensure staff “adopt a culture of listening to and engaging in dialogue with children”.

The report to the council’s children and young people’s services select committee reveals: “This individual case is sadly an example of the difficulties that the social care service has experienced, resulting in an Ofsted annual performance assessment judgment of “inadequate” for its 2007/8 performance.

“Since April 2008, the county council has worked hard to support children’s services in responding to this area of difficulty.

“This has focussed on improvements in undertaking initial and core assessments.

“This has resulted in increased capacity and renewed focus on producing timely assessments.

"The council has already implemented the ombudsman's recommendations to put things right for the complainant.

“The Ombudsman has also recommended reviews of procedures in order to learn from what happened.”

The committee will scrutinise the council’s response to the Ombudsman’s recommendations at a meeting on Wednesday, March 11.