News In The Hebden Bridge List

Answers Needed On Child Protection In Calderdale

Calder Valley’s Labour Parliamentary Candidate, Steph Booth, has demanded immediate answers into how a horrific catalogue of abuse left a two-year-old child severely disabled and unable to sit up or walk properly.

Responding to last week’s sentencing of the parents of the baby known as Child H, Mrs Booth was adamant that the terrible injuries inflicted on the child could have been avoided.

“All the historical information on this couple suggests this child should not have been allowed to stay with its abusers,” she said. “We know that one was a crack cocaine user and we know that two children previously in the mother’s care were taken away by social services – one of which was found wandering the streets covered in excrement after being left in a burning drugs den. Why wasn’t this child taken into care for her own safety? I cannot understand how any social worker would leave this child in such obvious danger. The question needs to be asked, are children being put at risk for financial reasons?”

Referring to comments made by the portfolio holder for children and young people, Councillor Craig Whittaker, who stated that the department had been overspending by up to £2million and that he was ‘determined to do things differently’, she called for urgent clarification on whether the placements for children in care budget was able to protect children from harm.

“Councillor Whittaker’s remarks about overspending suggest that children might have been put at risk for financial reasons,” she explained. “We need to know if they have a sufficient budget to protect at risk children. If children are not being removed from the threat of extreme danger because of a council directive to save money then we are putting a price on children’s safety and this is not acceptable.”

She added that she was dissatisfied at the response to the case from Calderdale’s group director for children and young people’s services, Paul Brennan. “For him to say he cannot guarantee this will not happen again sends out completely the wrong message,” she said. “It suggests they’re not taking this seriously enough.”

Mrs Booth, who has previously worked with young children at risk of exclusion from schools, said the fact that Calderdale Council’s child protection services had already been identified as suffering from a “systemic failure” by serious case reviews into the death of two children meant the public deserved firm assurances that things were getting better.

“Last December a Serious Case Review made a series of recommendations to be implemented immediately,” she explained. “For the public to have confidence in these services it is vital that Councillor Craig Whittaker tells the public how the Council’s policy has changed six months later as a result of these recommendations. I accept that both Paul Brennan and Councillor Whittaker were not in post when this terrible abuse was uncovered but they need to show the public what they’re doing to restore trust in children’s services. I also think it would be helpful if they explained whether the officer who had responsibility for children at risk at the time is still employed by the Council. If she has left we should be told the reasons for her departure.”

One of the key recommendations ‘considered to be an urgent matter for implementation’ by the Calderdale Safeguarding Children Board was that the Initial Response Team had to see improvements in the way they operate to protect children.

“We need to see measurable evidence of how the Initial Response Team is working in terms of their first contact and timescales for turnaround,” she said. “We also need to know what preventative services Calderdale Council have in place to help children at risk of abuse. Are they buying in adequate levels of agency support where drugs and alcohol, domestic abuse, debt counselling, Sure start and Home-start services are concerned? And we need to have an idea of how effectively they’re managing multi-agency partnership working. At the moment all we have is vague words about front line delivery problems and claims that improvements have been made. Given the scale of child abuse that Calderdale has seen in recent years I really think the public deserve better than this. We need evidence, not warm words, to show that these services are getting better.”