Doncaster social workers shake up service after criticism over child deaths

Failings within Doncaster Council’s children’s services department resulted in scathing report by Government watchdogs who found that staff were working in a “dysfunctional and chaotic” environment.

Inspectors delivered a damning verdict after it emerged that the seven children who had died had all been known to social services but were not properly protected by council or other public workers.

The criticism was compounded by the fact that the department was also taken to task after the shocking Edlington attacks, in which two young brothers carried out a sadistic attack on two other young boys.

Since then Doncaster Council has been placed in Government intervention over the failings and separate concerns over the way the council was run and relationships between officers and elected members.

Today, newly-appointed officers and senior councillors will attempt to put the problems behind them with the launch of what they are calling a children’s multi-agency referral and assessment service.

The service will involve child protection staff from what the council called “key Doncaster agencies”, including the NHS and police who will all work from an office in the town’s council headquarters.

Tracey Newcomb, the authority’s head of children’s assessment, said: “We are at the beginning of a major and unique process focused on developing and refining a new and exciting safeguarding service.”

She added: “There is a lot of work to be done to ensure this service is the best it can be and we are taking a stepped approach with regard to its development.

“The first phase has seen staff from the South Yorkshire Police Public Protection Unit moving in with us, and we have already begun to see the real benefit of this.”

Liberal Democrat councillor Eric Tatton Kelly, who was recently appointed by the council’s elected mayor Peter Davies as children’s services spokesman, said the town’s problems were “well documented”.

But he added: “Many other authorities have a desire to create this type of service, however it’s a powerful message that we are one of only a handful of other councils to take this development forward.

“We have to move on. What is happening now is an exciting time and we must view the development of this service as an opportunity to make real change.”

South Yorkshire Police, NHS Doncaster and Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust, which provides mental health services have all agreed to second staff to the service.

DCI Natalie Shaw, from Doncaster’s public protection unit, said: “By setting up the children’s multi-agency referral and assessment service in Doncaster, we will be able to provide a much stronger and more unified approach to protecting children and young people in the borough from any harm or abuse.

“The co-location of agencies signifies a step forward for Doncaster and safeguarding children, which is the main priority and concern for all the organisations involved.

“This is the first stage of the process and South Yorkshire Police are fully dedicated and committed to making this service work to protect our young people.”

Mary Shepherd, NHS Doncaster’s safeguarding spokesman, said: “The Doncaster health community is committed to developing the service to provide protection to local children and young people. We are all now keen to move this from idea to reality.”