5 October 2009
Children’s social care report -
This morning the City Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee published a report into children’s social care in Birmingham: Who Cares? Protecting Children and Improving Children's Social Care. As you may have seen in the media, the report raises some very serious concerns about children’s social care services in Birmingham.
Today's report from Birmingham's Overview and Scrutiny Committee rightly underlines both the need for urgent action on Children’s Services in Birmingham, and the importance of ensuring that improvements are maintained over the long term.
Birmingham MPs met OFSTED in response to their concerns about services in the City and we have been receiving reports from the Council on the action they have been taking since then to address the improvement notice served on Birmingham by the government. When we meet City Council leaders next week, I am sure we will also want to know how the Council intends to take forward some of the important recommendations made by its own Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
In all of this it is so important that polices are consistent and that they are carried through in practice as well as in theory. For example, I very much welcome the emphasis in today’s report on the importance of lower level preventative family support to pick up problems before they reach crisis proportions. However, in my own area the organisational changes to family support services in Kings Norton suggest to me that City Council commissioning policy may be heading in the opposite direction. Along with Selly Oak MP Lynne Jones, I’ve already raised this matter on several occasions with the City Council and I will be doing so again in light of the recommendations of today’s report.
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