KCC leader hits back over child care claims
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by political editor Paul Francis
Kent County Council's leader has described as "astonishing"
a claim by his former chief executive that warnings over the state
of child protection services went unheeded.
Cllr Paul Carter was responding to comments made by Peter
Gilroy, in an interview in which suggested he had raised concerns
about child protection in a report two years ago which were not
addressed.
But the comments have angered Cllr Carter, who retorted that Mr
Gilroy himself shouldered some of the responsibility.
The row follows our revelation that some 2,700 potentially
vulnerable children had not been assigned a case worker at the
height of the crisis in children’s services.
The revelation follows a damning Ofsted report which criticised
virtually every area of the department and ordered improvements
within a year.
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Although some have since been assessed and dealt with, about
1,000 remain without a social worker.
Cllr Carter said: "How Peter can say ‘Not me Gov’ I find quite
astonishing.
"I think that he’s been very economical with the facts. Peter
and I had some concerns at the end of 2008-09 and asked for an
independent report to be carried out.
"The Safeguarding Children’s Board, with all its professionals
on it but no elected members said that fundamentally, children’s
services were alright."
Although the reports had flagged up that things were not as good
as they could be, they had not indicated exactly how bad they had
become, he added.
"I think we put too much trust in our professionals and did not
have enough scepticism," said Cllr Carter.
At a full
council meeting last week he said there had been a professional
cover up over the state of child protection.
In a BBC interview, Mr Gilroy said: "When I raised my concerns,
that was in 2009 when we did a report and even then I was starting
to worry about a whole range of things that were happening.
"If you look at my report, I was concerned about the competence
of senior management; I was concerned about training; I was
concerned about the performance data."
Asked who had failed to listen, Mr Gilroy said: "All I can tell
you is that the county council, the politicians, supported my
concerns and did have 18 months to try to sort some of these things
out."
Monday, April 11 2011
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