Fears over state of children’s services

THE true state of Herefordshire’s troubled children’s and family services directorate is being kept quiet, a senior councillor has alleged.

The Department for Education (DfE) served Herefordshire Council with an improvement notice in May in the wake of a damning High Court judgment on the directorate’s conduct.

Cabinet member for children’s and family services Diana Toynbee has now prepared a report into the programme of improvements required of the council.

At a full council debate, some councillors thought her report was too critical of the service and would further damage morale within it.

But Lib Dems group leader Cllr Terry James called it “a positive spin on what is a damaging position for the council”.

“Most of the staff, and the families that are being dealt with, would be appalled at this debate, given the true state of the service,” he said. “We are not being told the legal and financial implications of what has happened. We are paying out substantial sums of money that members are not aware of, and are incurring phenomenal legal costs [resulting from] the way staff have been treated.”

Chair of the children and young people scrutiny committee Cllr Phillip Howells denied the committee was unaware of the true situation.

“We are taking bottom-up approach, getting feedback from those on the ground who experience the services,” he said.

Leader of the council Cllr David Hitchiner said Cllr Toynbee’s report was “honest”, adding: “I question whether we haven’t in the past been too soft on ourselves. I was shocked and appalled what the DfE said about the voice of the child not being heard.”