Child Abuse Lawyers Call For Immediate Action

21/07/10

A team of lawyers specialising in child abuse have today called for immediate action after an Ofsted report found that Birmingham City Council was failing to protect vulnerable children and questioned its ability to improve.

The call comes after the report, carried out following the tragic death of seven year old Kyra Ishaq in 2008, said that although some improvements had been made some ‘key and important deficiencies remain’.

Luke Daniels, from law firm Irwin Mitchell’s specialist Birmingham based child abuse team said: "Worryingly we continue to see a high number of referrals where social services teams have failed to take appropriate action to protect the most vulnerable of children, leading to the most serious of consequences.

“This Ofsted report into Birmingham City Council highlights failings that are indicative of those we see in the cases we manage time and time again. It highlights concerns about the lack of management supervision and resources available, an issue we do not believe is exclusive to this Council.

“Though we welcome Birmingham City Council’s acknowledgment that more must be done and improvements implemented as quickly as possible.  However the people we work with are often victims of horrific abuse and, in almost all cases, will suffer long-term effects as a result of that abuse. It is therefore essential that immediate action is taken to ensure that the necessary resources and funding is available to take the steps needed to create a safe children's social care service.“

Ofsted inspectors contacted children and young people receiving services, front-line managers, health professionals, senior officers including the director of children's services as part of their report.

They also reviewed 42 case files for children and young people.