Past scandal back to haunt borough
By Stephen Lucas
First published in Highbury and Islington
Express
A CHILD abuse scandal surrounding former Islington Council
leader Margaret Hodge could spell disaster for the borough’s social
services department, according to the council.
Council leader Steve Hitchins fears that the storm surrounding Mrs
Hodge’s
appointment as minister for children will wreck a recruitment drive for
the borough’s chronically understaffed services for children at
risk.
He
said: “I’m anxious that we don’t put any more barriers
in the way of recruitment. The last thing I want is for people to be
reminded of what the council was like years ago. I think dredging all
this up again won’t help.”
He added: “A great deal has changed since then and like everyone
else we are delivering services in very different circumstances.”
Mrs Hodge has been slammed for the way she handled allegations of abuse
and paedophile activity in children’s homes when she was leader
of the council 13 years ago.
An Evening Standard report in October 1992, which Mrs Hodge dismissed
at the time, prompted an independent investigation which found evidence
of widespread child abuse in Islington’s care homes.
Senior social worker, Liz Davies, who headed an investigation into the
abuse at the time, said the council tried to sweep the allegations under
the carpet – something Mrs Hodge denies.
Ms Davies, who now teaches police and social workers how to interview
abused children at London Metropolitan University, told the High&I:
“Recruitment is a huge issue across social work. It is not my intention to discredit Islington today and make this problem worse. But there are people still suffering today who need to tell what happened. We can’t say they have to keep quiet.”
Mrs Hodge said: “To the best of my knowledge, at no time during my period as council leader was any accusation of sexual abuse ignored.
“ Whenever accusations were made, child protection procedures were always followed. Again to the best of my knowledge, no evidence emerged from these investigations which enabled the authority to take appropriate action.”
The borough’s Child Care Service now has 45 social worker posts,
only 17.5 of which are filled with permanent staff. The council has put £160,000
into making sure the vacancies are filled by agency staff and earmarked
an extra £300,000 so that by next March at least 90 per cent of
the vacancies are filled with permanent staff.
Social services spokeswoman, Cllr Meral Ece said:
“ The child abuse is part of Islington’s unfortunate history. It’s 13 years ago. We’re very short staffed. We are right in the middle of a challenging recruitment drive and we don’t want this to put people off. We’ve put a lot of money into the recruitment plan and this kind of thing isn’t helpful.”
But the Lib Dems have come under fire over the number of children who have not been allocated a permanent social worker. In March this year there were 55 children in care and 34 children on the child protection register without an allocated social worker. This number has gone down but there are still 21 in care and 31 on the register without an allocated worker.
Labour’s health spokeswoman, Cllr Catherine West, said it was not good enough.
“ Ensuring that child protection cases are allocated and pursued is one of the most important recommendations in the Laming Report. Unless there is a named person looking after the child, no-one is taking responsibility for them – that’s what happened with Victoria Climbie.”
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