EXCLUSIVE

by political editor Paul Francis

Nearly 2,700 cases involving potentially vulnerable children had not been assigned to case workers at the height of the crisis in the county council’s social services, the KM can reveal.

Social services chiefs brought in after a damning Ofsted report into Kent County Council’s services for vulnerable children unearthed the backlog after sifting through papers documenting how cases and referrals involving young children had been dealt with.

The shocking scale of the shortcomings were not uncovered by Ofsted, which in its report last year criticised virtually every area of the council’s support for children at risk and ordered improvements within a year.

They came to light only recently following a comprehensive review initiated by Malcolm Newsam, the troubleshooter brought in by KCC to head efforts to sort out the problems.

The backlog has now been cut to about 1,000 and KCC is recruiting a team of experienced social workers to review the outstanding cases, some of which are understood to date back several years.

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A 30-strong team working in three separate parts of the county will be sent in to review the files although that team has yet to be recruited.

While the 2,700 cases had been referred to social work team leaders, they had not been passed on to individual social workers to handle and assess, as would normally be the case.

The backlog is thought to have grown as KCC struggled with the twin problems of an acute shortage of frontline staff and a spike in referrals triggered by the publicity surrounding the Baby P case.

The problems were compounded by difficulties with the computer system used by KCC to record information.

The news comes as KCC finally approved a formal Improvement Plan setting out exactly how it intends to turn the department around.

Cllr Jenny Whittle (Con), KCC’s cabinet member for specialist children’s services, said she was alarmed at the discovery but insisted that the council was now tackling head-on the issues raised by Ofsted.

She said KCC had been able to eliminate about 700 of the cases as not ones that would have prompted a move to provide children with a protection plan.

"We now have a core of about 1,000 cases that need further work. We have gone out to tender to recruit a peripatetic team of social workers for up to six months to clear the backlog.

"We have to get the figures down to 200 by August. As the cabinet member responsible, it is alarming but I am confident that we can get through this in the next few months.

"There may be some that need intervention and that is the top priority."

The issue of how KCC has responded to the Ofsted report has drawn some criticism from backbench county councillors, with several complaining they have been kept in the dark over progress and action plans.

But KCC leader Cllr Paul Carter told a full council meeting this week that the authority was on track to tackle the problems and move from being one of the poorest authorities to one of the best.

There had been "substantive improvements" across many parts of the service and an additional £2m was being allocated to recruit staff to deal with the backlog, he said.

He said: "This is going to take us 18 months to two years to get where we want to be.

"That is our aim and that is what we will deliver. We are making huge progress and that is the reality."