Children’s specialist to be appointed

A senior social worker — who could handle cases as potentially serious as Baby P and Victoria Climbie — is being appointed in Oldham.

The peripatetic senior social worker will give the council capacity to respond to complex cases and in a crisis.

He or she will manage five front-line teams doing long-term field work; support any gaps in management; work with newly- qualified staff; and keep a day-to-day focus on complex case work.

The appointment is in line with the report this year by Lord Laming, following the Baby P scandal, who reviewed the Government’s child protection reforms.

He said the law should be changed so senior managers could be taken before the General Social Care Council, or even struck off, if they failed to protect children.

The Oldham post will be paid for by deleting two jobs which have been vacant for some time.

The field work teams are responsible for complex children in need work, and children who are on care or court orders.

But they have little capacity when anyone is sick or for other absences.

The new post has been approved by Veronica Jackson, executive director for people, communities and society, after the council agreed to invest £800,000 to make sure only the most vulnerable children remain in council care.

Fifteen care orders have been discharged, 13 are under review and savings have made on fostering payments.

Mrs Jackson’s report says the new senior worker will also have to work on court cases: “This demands someone who is astute, able to think on their feet and can readily, both verbally and written, communicate to the court a comprehensive, logical and tangible argument.

“Although this happens only occasionally, when it does, to lose the argument is very costly - court costs can be anything from £5,000 for a relatively straightforward matter to £10,000 plus for a more complex case.”