Andrew Dismore

Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden Andrew Dismore has blasted Barnet Council after the Children’s Services Department were rated “inadequate” by OFSTED. The report inspected services for children in need of help and protection, looked after children and care leavers, as well as the effectiveness of the Safeguarding Children Board.

 

The executive summary of the report, said:

 

“There are widespread and serious failures in the services provided to children and their families in Barnet. Inspectors identified a legacy of widespread poor practice and ongoing systemic failures and services that neither adequately ensure the safety, nor promote the welfare of children and young people.

 

Threshold decisions are inconsistently made and misunderstood at all levels of intervention. Partners in the multi-agency safeguarding hub do not effectively share

information or ensure timely decision making. This causes delay for too many children, some of whom remain at risk of significant harm. Strategy discussions and

child protection investigations are of poor quality, with insufficient information sharing between partner agencies to ensure rigorous risk analysis. This results in the risks to children not being fully understood or evaluated.

 

Large numbers of poor quality assessments result in inappropriate planning, and many children subsequently need a reassessment before they can receive more specialised help and support. Ineffective analysis of risk and assessment of children’s needs, including for children looked after, result in poor care planning that is not focused on outcomes and is unresponsive when children’s circumstances change or deteriorate. Poor-quality case recording and oversight of casework by managers, child protection chairs and independent reviewing officers lead to ineffective case work direction. This contributes to drift and delay in the provision of appropriate services for children and their families. There is some effective early help to families. However, early help services are not sufficiently well coordinated or focused.

 

Oversight of practice by heads of service and team managers is weak. The evaluation of practice is often too positive and minimises the risk to children. Managers do not provide sufficient guidance or direction to improve practice for children or keep children’s progress at the centre of their practice. Heads of service and operational directors rarely record their involvement in decision making.”

 

Mr Dismore said:

 

‘Every word of the report catalogues a series of disastrous failures, all of which point to the Council not being fit for purpose. I am appalled and sickened that services supporting the most vulnerable in our society have been allowed to degenerate to this state. Nothing screams “Barnet Council” and the utterly uncompassionate way they serve those who really need help than their total failure to manage children’s services. This is not something you can afford to get wrong, the impact is felt by children for life.

 

‘Barnet Council has become a by-word for the toxic combination of incompetence and heartlessness. We see it in their housing and planning policies, we see it in the way the fail to look after the environment. But totally failing vulnerable children is a new low, even for them.

 

‘Barnet needs a real clean out of the Augean stables. There needs to be proper accountability from the top for once, not just a passing on of the buck. If the Leader of the Council and the Chair of the Children, Education, Libraries and Safeguarding Committee had any decency now is the time for them to go. I think it’s time the Department for Communities and Local Government sent inspectors in as well. This cannot be allowed to continue.’