'Step change' in social work needed (Lord Laming Report)

Full Article: http://www.stopinjusticenow.com/news/archive/2009/march/12/02.htm

WATCH THE NEWS BROADCAST:
Frontline social workers are overstretched and hampered by "form filling", a review into child protection
services in the wake of Baby P's death has said.
The review called for a "step change" in protecting children from harm and offered 58 recommendations, all of which were accepted by Children's Secretary Ed Balls who ordered the review.
Lord Laming was asked to carry out the audit at the end of the trial of those responsible for 17-month-old Baby P's death in August 2007.
He also delivered a similar full-scale review into failings in the Victoria Climbie case in 2003.
In that he severely criticised the local authority involved - Haringey Council in north London. It was the same council who had Baby P on the protection registered when he died in August 2007.
But this time Lord Laming refused to criticise saying: "It must be very hard for them to do that job and then have society condemn them. It's not the fault of social workers."
He called for those intervening in cases of child abuse to be given "special training" to cope with the emotional burden.
However he added: "It has been put to me that it is inevitable that some adults, for whatever reason, will deliberately harm children. That may well be so.