UNISON Deputation to City of Edinburgh Council Meeting
16/10/03 On the Inquiry into the death of Caleb Ness.
John Stevenson, Branch Secretary, UNISON City of Edinburgh
Branch
Let me say first that it is with immense sadness that UNISON
comes with this deputation today. Before I say anything
else, I think it is important to let you, and the public
know how social workers - and indeed many staff and managers
throughout the Council - have been feeling about the awful
death of Caleb Ness.
Those feelings freely expressed to me over the last week
and much longer are of shock, despair, heart-searching,
some anger and some utter disbelief and despondency. I've
seen many tears in the last week. You need to know that
those most directly involved who I've spoken to, have not
been thinking about themselves, despite their predicament
and despite the media frenzy. Their first thought has been
about Caleb and they will live with that.
It is in the nature of social work that we all feel responsible,
no matter how close or distant we were from the events.
That is because - in the face of constant vilification,
of relatively poor pay and constant pressures - social workers
do the job because they care about children and want to
protect them. Why ever else, after the last few days, would
they want do the job?
Some of you may know that, while I do some trade union
duties, I am first and foremost a social worker and proud
of it.
In 23 years I have thankfully not lost a child my team
was responsible for and hope I never will. That is, I hope,
down to good practice and excellent support - but it is
also and very largely due to sheer luck. Because, although
the Inquiry says this death was avoidable, not all deaths
will be avoidable or predictable and the dividing
line can be very very thin.
Social workers deal with risk, day in day out. Risk means
things will sometimes go tragically wrong. This is a fact
recognised by this Council in its statement after the Edinburgh
Inquiry and in its response to social workers' collective
grievance about lack of resources.
UNISON is not here to defend bad practice. But we are not
here either to collude with a frenzied search for scapegoats.
We are certainly not here to give any credibility to the
disgraceful antics of some of the media as they shamelessly
whip up anger and witchhunts.
We have never criticised the media's right to publish things
we might not like to see but we believe the way some have
handled this has been sensational, irresponsible and indefensible.
I know this Council today will be far above jumping to
pressure campaigns. You are the Council, you represent the
people of Edinburgh, you make the decisions, not the media.
But we are here to set a context for you. A context where
staff, not just in Edinburgh - but around Scotland - are
under so much pressure that they fear making mistakes they
would not normally make. In many situations they just cannot
fulfil the procedures and standards they want and need to
achieve.
Yes, they want to be challenged, they want to be held to
account, but to do their job they need support and they
need a mature understanding of the risks they manage on
a daily basis. And sometimes politicians will need to stand
up and say that, no matter what the media agenda is.
And it takes the courage to approach the issues addressed
by the inquiry with a mature reflection, a calm analysis
and a genuine programme to do all that can be done to minimise
the risk of something like this arising again.
That we believe will take continuity. That will take leadership
and that will need to avoid any unnecessary instability
at this crucial stage of the process.
That is why UNISON cannot support calls for the resignation
of Cllr Thomas whose record in understanding social work
issues and in actually delivering new resources is unparalleled.
No other administration in Lothian or Edinburgh since 1979
has delivered such a level of inflation-plus increase to
children's services. Most - and I include Labour, Lib Dem
and Conservative and even one SNP budget - have actually
delivered cuts over the years which children's services
are still struggling to recover from.
That is also why we could not support the resignation of
the Director, Les McEwan. It is a testament to the integrity
of the man that shines high above those who have bayed for
his blood, that he has even considered this course of action.
But it is not a decision we'd welcome. We believe that
his knowledge, his skills, his strength, his energy and
his commitment to children would be a powerful force to
bring us through this crisis and ultimately better protect
children. We understand and support him personally in whatever
decision he makes, but we do not share the view that it
is the best thing for Social Work and for children in Edinburgh.
If it takes his resignation to call off the vilification
of our members and their department, then there is a very
shallow understanding of what needs to be addressed. In
fact there is no understanding, just a lust for blame.
There are also technical implications arising from the
way things have been handled.
Where will we be in any future inquiry of any kind
if people, who give the best of what they can honestly
give to it, are aware that all they might be doing is
setting themselves up for disciplinary or other action?
Where do we all stand if the inquiry did not call all
the witnesses it might have before drawing some of its
conclusions? What happens if disciplinary procedures
call witnesses who further clarify some of the evidence
to the inquiry? What if that is in conflict with the
Inquiry?
How in heaven's name do already understaffed teams
cope with key individuals being moved away from them?
Even more reason for calm reflection and analysis.
I started on a social worker note and I'll finish on one.
I'll tell you about just a few of the hundreds of children
our social work colleagues have saved from death or serious
injury over recent years. I've changed and merged some of
the details for reasons of confidentiality.
The baby with a fractured skull they rescued from a
house on one of the twice-daily visits they were doing
because they had sought, but had been refused, a place
of safety order.
The 3-year-old they took to hospital outwith procedures
(and possibly the law) because they suspected injuries
and found healing fractured ribs and limbs - if they
had been wrong they would have faced disciplinary or
even legal action - but because their hunch was right,
all that was forgotten.
The child they took turns to take out during the day
and at weekends and bought in private care for because
she was on a Child Protection Order but they had no
foster parents in the whole of the Lothians to care
for her. Not an easily resolved resource issue, just
a fact of life.
The busy and harassed duty and emergency social workers
who were alert enough to spot and expose an evolving
group of sex offenders and removed a child from risk.
The young woman who phoned last month to tell about
the success of her own new family and had the generosity
to thank us for identifying and removing her from the
awful abuse she had suffered as a child.
Caleb Ness's death - as the inquiry says - was avoidable.
But remember too that that judgement came from a range of
issues across all of the agencies involved - only 8 out
of 35 recommendations apply only to Social Work and many
of them were already existing practice - yet always it seems
the sword falls just on the social workers.
But every day social workers across Edinburgh and Scotland
are protecting hundreds of children - over 300 on the register
in Edinburgh and many many more at a level of risk below
the register threshold.
Not just protecting, but also working with children so
they can recover, re-find their childhood and reach their
potential. And doing that very often despite the lack of
resources and supports available to them.
That is not just an Edinburgh issue, it is a Scotland-wide
issue and it is not enough for the Scottish Executive to
make demands, to rattle out sound bites about getting tough
with Councils and staff - it must finance the children's
services it says it aspires to.
As I stand here, there are Children & Families Social
Workers throughout Scotland - about 170 of them for Edinburgh's
almost half million population - who are protecting children,
who will do that tomorrow and into the future.
They were certainly doing it with me up to 10pm on Monday
night and with a colleague later on Tuesday when, incidentally
another agency firmly told us they were finishing at 6.
They were doing it to 9pm last Thursday night - all after
an 8.30am start.
We all have to think about the tragedy today. We all have
to think hard about the inquiry today. You have to think
about how we will ensure standards of practice and monitor
them - our members have no fears from that and they welcome
it if it will bring them the real tools to do the job and
a real understanding of their job.
But you also have to think about the morale of these workers
and at least do something to make them feel supported in
the job they do for you and for Edinburgh. We cannot afford
a climate where they will leave, or where the current recruitment
crisis across Scotland gets any worse.
That, if I can reiterate again, requires the anger to be
put to one side, the drive for scapegoats to be put on hold,
and real efforts made in an atmosphere of calm and considered
reflection.
Thank you for hearing this deputation.
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