Social Services: Inspection of Haringey's Children's Services 12 th -16 th June 2000.

Social Services: Inspection of Haringey's Children's Services 12th -16th June 2000

Quotes:

Mentioning 'asylum seeker' 'unaccompanied minors', Regulation 11, Translation and Interpretation, 'unaccompanied asylum seekers' and 'refugee'

"Overall Conclusion

1.2 We found that the Children’s and Families Services was poorly resourced in comparison to equivalent services in its comparator group of councils. The Joint Review had also recognised this as an issue. We concluded that the service was underfunded. It had suffered severely under the 1999-2000 settlement when its SSA dropped nearly 24%. We were told that its current budget was over £5 million below its SSA.

1.3 There were high levels of vacancies in the service particularly in the two district teams where morale was low. We also had concerns about the quality of some of the practice that we observed. There was a particular concern about the functioning of the Hornsey investigation and assessment team. We also found some of the work with unaccompanied minors to be below acceptable levels including the management of Regulation 11 placements.

Practice

1.16 Some aspects of the work with unaccompanied minors caused us concern. The sudden and substantial increase in these children had put a service that was already over stretched under considerable pressure. To a large extent the service had had to play catch up with a rapidly developing situation. Nevertheless, it did appear as if looked after unaccompanied minors were receiving a lower level of service than other children in the looked after system. A substantial number of these children were without an allocated social worker and we were unclear about the level of checks on some of their carers.

1.17 We were concerned about the way Regulation 11 placements were managed. Although these placements were brought to the Family Placements Panel, we found evidence that indicated proper checks were not always carried out.

Recommendations (15 in total)

2.7 Unaccompanied minors who are looked after should receive the same quality of service as other children looked after by the borough.(Chapter 5)

2.8 Consideration should be given as to how the children’s service can be made more responsive to the needs of its users. (Chapter 6)

2.9 Urgent steps should be taken to improve the range and number of family placements available. (Chapter 6)

2.10 The management of Regulation 11 placements should be reviewed and brought into line with statutory requirements. (Chapter 6)

2.13 All foster carers must receive regular vetting checks which should be recorded. (Chapter 8)

2.17 The translation and interpretation service should be reviewed and strengthened. (Chapter 7)

Placements

6.22 Inspectors found a number of cases where they were concerned about the way placements under Regulation 11 were managed. These were cases where children, mainly unaccompanied asylum seekers, were placed with relatives or friends. The district social workers that made these placements should have initiated the normal safeguard checks that all foster carers underwent. We were told that all Regulation 11 placements were expected to go through the placement panel for approval but it was acknowledged that ideally these cases should be managed by the family placement service.

Leaving Care

6.30 The team was currently responsible for approximately 100 young people who had mainly come from residential care backgrounds. They did not take cases from the Unaccompanied Minors team.

Asylum Seekers

6.36 Haringey had an exceptionally large refugee and asylum seeker population from a diverse number of countries. A specialist asylum service was managed from within the Children’s Services Division and within that there was a dedicated team for unaccompanied minors. These children and young people accounted for almost 25 per cent of the 421 children looked after by Haringey on 28/4/2000. This had put an enormous strain on resources and the service had to a large extent had to play catch up with a rapidly developing and largely unpredictable situation. Managers had responded quickly and at times imaginatively in finding solutions to a rapidly changing situation within a service that was already suffering from serious resource constraints. Nevertheless we were concerned that this had lead these children receiving a somewhat lower level of service than other children in the looked after system."

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