Childcare services in Capital are slammed

Full Story:
http://www.stopinjusticenow.com/News_0322.htm
VULNERABLE youngsters are being left at risk by a slow and inadequate child protection service in the Capital, a damning HMIE report revealed today.
There are too few foster and residential places in the city for children who need to be taken out of their family home for their own safety. Young sexual abuse victims and the disabled are among those being let down by the city council, according to the report.
Some at-risk children were not seen regularly by a social worker, there was no co-ordinated approach to track youngsters moving from one part of the city to another, and there were delays in getting specialist help for those with challenging behaviour or mental problems.
Adam Ingram, Minister for Children and Early Years, today demanded "significant improvements" and asked for a progress report from the council in six months.
The number of vulnerable youngsters has spiralled in recent years, with high-profile cases such as baby Caleb Ness, shaken to death by his brain-damaged father in 2001. The 11-week-old had been left in the care of his father and drug-addicted mother in Leith.
The death triggered a major review of the city's child protection service and the council today claimed it has learned the lessons from the subsequent O'Brien report.
But Unison, the public sector union which represents social workers, said the service is operating on a shoe-string budget and called for a new national strategy.
John Stevenson, Unison spokesman, said: "There are simply not enough resources. It is not within the power of the council to create the service that is required, without a huge increase in council tax.