Haringey Council statement on Lord Laming report and Government announcements
Thursday 12 March 2009
New Haringey Council leader Cllr Clare Kober said:
"The council will implement all the changes required by the Secretary of State and Lord Laming.
"We accept that things went badly wrong with child protection in Haringey. We are committed to putting things right.
"We have started that process, and we are determined to make the changes needed."
An action plan was submitted to the Secretary of State last month, following criticisms in the joint area review of Haringey children's services carried out at the end of last year.
The plan is led by a new director of children's services, appointed by the Secretary of State at the beginning of this year. The former director was dismissed by the council in December.
A full audit of compliance with the Laming recommendations is already being carried out by the independent chair of the Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board, who was appointed in December by the Secretary of State. This will be completed this month, and there will then be regular compliance checks.
The plan also includes full and urgent implementation of all the recommendations of the new Laming report.
Other key changes in the action plan include:
- Closer working between social workers, police officers and health staff;
- Recruiting and developing top quality staff;
- Putting more resources into safeguarding;
- Improving systems and procedures;
- Strengthening the managerial and political supervision of the system, including setting up a Children's Trust and random independent checks on case files;
- A stronger, more robust Local Safeguarding Children Board with independent chairperson.
Haringey has also announced a new Quality Outcomes Board, with outside experts in local government, which will work over the coming 12 months to help improve services across the council.
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