Fears for children as red tape mars social workers

Full Story:
http://www.stopinjusticenow.com/News_0341.htm
SOCIAL workers are being prevented from helping Edinburgh's vulnerable children because they are overloaded with bureaucracy, a union has warned.
John Stevenson, of Unison, called for an end to skilled professionals being weighed down by paperwork or having to ferry youngsters back and forth when they should be devising care plans to keep them from harm.
An HM Inspectorate of Education report into Edinburgh City Council's child protection services on Thursday criticised the local authority for being slow in removing vulnerable children from dangerous situations.
The report followed an investigation in February and March, and since then the number of social workers in the city has risen sharply, from 114 to 143, with a further Pfund6 million being ploughed into the service.
But Mr Stevenson, who works in health and social care at the city council, said social workers were still not being freed up to do what they did.
He said: "There's not enough administrative support. At the moment qualified social workers are spending their time trying to arrange taxis. You get a situation where a child is going to see their parents once a week and the social worker drives them there and back. That would be better done by someone else.
"We need more social work assistants and nursery nurses to do the work that social workers are not required to do. Progress has been made in this area, but more needs to be done."
The HMIE report was critical of the uncoordinated approach taken to protecting children from abuse and neglect in their own homes. It found that when some children move home in the city they slip off the radar, while in other cases the authorities fail to act fast enough to remove youngsters from harmful situations. Mr Stevenson said social workers were not always given time to come up with detailed long-term plans because they were too busy with mundane tasks that less-skilled council employees could take care of.
"Some of the focus has gone off the planning side of things," he said. "That is because some of the work they have to do does not take someone of their experience."
The city's education, children and families leader, Councillor Marilyne MacLaren, said improving support for social workers, as well as streamlining the computer system they use, were among her key aims to get the city's child protection system on track.