Birmingham Social Services

Fact File
  • Birmingham has 2,142 children in care, one of the highest proportions in England.
  • Some 40,000 live in households where violence is commonplace.
  • Absenteeism among children’s social care staff is out of control at an average 25 days a year per person.
  • Tony Howell, Strategic Director for Children Young People and Families, is at the helm of the shamed child protection service and earns an estimated £155,000 a year.
  • Budgets are continually overspent with the council paying up to £6,000 a week to keep children in residential homes.
  • Social worker job campaigns haven’t cut vacancy rates of almost 20 per cent.
  • Much money is wasted by placing children not at risk on the child protection register, to bolster or fake numbers of 'success rates'

Friday 5 February 2010

Doncaster child abuse mum jailed

Not just Harringey and Birmingham Social Services are renowned for poor service. Doncaster too has been lambasted by the courts.

Doncaster social services have again been blasted after a judge was told of four years of hell suffered by two girls.

The sisters, now eight and 10, were repeatedly beaten.

Their mother cannot be named and neither can her partner who called the girls "tarts, scruffy idiots" and "little b*****ds". The oldest girl told police he hit her 50 times with his belt buckle.

Social services took the girls off the child protection register six months after they had been deemed at risk.

Judge Jacqueline Davies spoke of a "horrid process of intimidation" on "defenseless little girls". She said: "It is concerning social services placed them on the register in April 2005 and removed them six months later."

The mother, 31, was jailed for 21 months. Her partner, 26, was jailed for three years and three months.

Doncaster social services apologised last month after two boys were tortured last year by brothers, now 11 and 12, who the department knew had violent pasts.

Thursday 28 January 2010

Was it my multi-blogged moan?

Was it my multi-blogged moan that un-locked my new blog http://sequels-and-trilogies.blogspot.com/ ?
I know that blogger took the full 20 days to un-lock a blog of a friend of mine. Now his block WAS highly political but there should be no difference.
Perhaps it was my genuine threat to move to wordpress?

Who knows?

Thank You blogger for acting quickly

Bob de Bilde

in reference to: Prequels, Sequels & Trilogies (view on Google Sidewiki)

Tuesday 26 January 2010

Bob de Bilde gets his 15 minutes of fame...

on IS A C*NT...

http://isacunt.blogspot.com/2010/01/bob-de-bilde.html

Thanks to GOT & the crew

in reference to: Bob De Bilde (view on Google Sidewiki)

My Disgust at Blogger

Blogger has marked one of my blogs (Prequels, Sequels & Trilogies) as spam...

It will be deleted within 20 days if I do not lodge a review

WTF Blogger... I am seriously considering moving all my blogs to the more versatile Wordpress !

I am reposting this on ALL my other open blogs using the sidewikibar thingy!!!

in reference to: My Sony Ericsson Sucks: My Disgust at Blogger (view on Google Sidewiki)

Birmingham social services children's director told to 'stop making excuses'

The man brought in to fix Birmingham Council's troubled children's services has been told to "stop making excuses" after blaming stress levels for high absence rates among social workers.
Absenteeism has been an ongoing issue in Birmingham social services, with staff signed off ill an average of 24.9 days a year - a significantly higher amount than the national figure.

In an article in TheGuardian last week, the council's director of children's services Colin Tucker (pictured below) attributed this rate to the stress and pressure social workers face, particularly since the number of increased referrals after the Baby P case.
But councillor Len Clark, head of the scrutiny committee that in October deemed Birmingham's child protection "not fit for purpose", disagreed, saying Tucker was failing to address the issue properly.

"Despite Colin's assertions, the scrutiny committee's findings were to the contrary," he said. "Absenteeism has been a persistent problem since before the increase in referrals. We didn't employ Colin to make excuses for this problem, we hired him to fix it."

Report slams Birmingham Social Services

A recent published report (has heavily criticised Birmingham City Council's Social Services department. Video Editor Phil Vinter highlights the report's major conclusions. There are interviews with the report's author and an irate Khalid Mahmood MP for Perry Barr, who was previously a local councillor.


Monday 25 January 2010

Baby P and the Death Toll Keeps Rising. 52 + Named Children Now Dead from Social Services Failures

I wanted to do an update as the shocking numbers grow on children dying from Social Services failures. With the numbers rising let us not forget that doesn’t include the children that are dying IN social services care and the DCSF report shows that Children placed in care are three time more likely to die than others and a DCSF report showed that 800 children have died in care in the last ten years which is on average 2 a week so where does this leave children in need of protection who are then placed in care and should be safe from harm and neglect?.

PLEASE NOTE, THESE FIGURES WILL BE UPDATED EVERYTIME WE RECIEVE OR FIND INFORMATION ON A CHILD MURDERED. ALL INVOLVE SOCIAL SERVICES FAILURES AND ALMOST EVERYONE INCLUDED NSPCC FAILURES TOO. THERE ARE STILL AT LEAST A FURTHER 40 NAMES TO ADD TO THIS LIST SO BARE WITH ME AS I AM SEEKING THEIR AGES AT DEATH



Thursday 21 January 2010

Birmingham hospital claims council owes £500,000 in bed blocking row

A Birmingham hospital claims council owes £500,000 in bed blocking row

Birmingham’s biggest NHS hospital is taking on the city council in a bitter row over alleged unpaid debts.

University Hospitals Foundation Trust claims it is owed £500,000 to cover patients who are well enough to be sent home but cannot be discharged because the council’s social services and housing departments have failed to provide suitable care packages for the mainly frail elderly patients.

Under the Community Care Delayed Discharges Act, councils must pay hospitals £100 a day for every patient occupying a bed unnecessarily.

It seems that Birmingham’s other NHS Trusts are also talking to the council about alleged unpaid debts.

In a statement, University Hospitals said: “If the council, as per its contractual arrangements, cannot provide appropriate facilities into which the patients can be discharged, the patient will not be transferred and will remain in hospital.

“In such cases of delayed transfer, the council has an agreement with UHB to fund continuing hospital care.

‘‘As a result of this agreement, the council owes UHB approximately £500,000 for the care of such patients.”

The dispute highlights a growing row over bed blocking, which is rapidly leaping up the political agenda.

Audit Commission inspectors recently awarded Birmingham a ‘red flag’ for failing to address an unacceptably high number of delayed hospital discharges.

The Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) found that 150 patients were blocking beds in city hospitals.

The red flag, denoting poor performance, seemed to suggest that Birmingham might be slipping back eight years when more than 300 mainly elderly patients were marooned for weeks on end in city hospitals.

The then Labour-run city council was severely criticised by the Government and ordered to take action.