Extra social workers being hired in Staffordshire after failures to children killed in house fire

Siblings Riley Holt, Keegan Unitt, Tilly Unitt and Olly Unitt - all aged between three and eight - perished in a house fire at their Stafford home in 2019, which was believed to have been caused by a lit cigarette.

A serious case review into the tragedy found that social services’ care for the children fell short, and that the children “suffered significant harm as a result of neglect” before their untimely deaths.

The children had been on a child protection plan drawn up by the local authority due to concerns over their mistreatment since July 2017 but, according to the review, social care services "fell short" in the build-up to the fatal blaze.

Now, Staffordshire County Council's "transformation programme" implemented after the review has been completed.

Councillor Mark Sutton, cabinet member for children and young people, told councillors of improvements being made to children's services in the borough at a meeting on Thursday.

He outlined how many new staff were being hired, saying: “It will see 31 more frontline social workers, seven more SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) workers, 12 social workers assigned to the ‘front door’ that do the initial assessment when calls and referrals come in, three additional practitioners who can review cases and supervise front line staff and 24 extra family support workers, working directly with children and families together in their homes. We will also see social workers working directly in schools.

"All the staff have access to a case management system that updates daily to show each of their cases, if reviews are due, when the last visit was made and when the next review and visit are required. This replaces hundreds of previous databases and spreadsheets that were kept individually by staff."

Recommendations from the review into the care of the children before the house fire included the need for more training on neglect and its impact on children – with calls for groups to "better understand what is neglect and when it is likely to cause significant harm".

Councillor Sutton said social workers would be trying to spend less time on administration and more time with families.

He said: “We are determined to ensure that the balance between time spent updating systems and time spent with families continues to move towards more time with families. But it is a challenge – nationally there is a massive shortage of social workers and a lack of people wanting to enter the profession.

“We are doing here much better than many of our neighbours. Some of our neighbours have a 40 per cent vacancy rate. In Staffordshire we have one of the best programmes in the region around newly-qualified social workers.

“As part of the transformation we have appointed and strengthened a principal social worker and their team and it is the principal social worker that ensures practice throughout the service is good and is forever learning.

“During lockdown we worked together with schools to ensure that all vulnerable children, known to all partners as well as teachers, were still visited in person – in particular those children that were not attending school. Schools were able to provide us with lists of who they thought was vulnerable, that didn’t meet the criteria to be on the children’s services radar.

“Today, and very day, hundreds of social workers and other professionals across Staffordshire will make difficult, critical decisions about children and their futures that none of us will know about. They make these decisions based on their professional judgement and I tell you these are not easy decisions.

“I’m reassured that in Staffordshire we have a robust system in place around safeguarding. Our transformation will allow more time working with children and families, but we must remain vigilant and work tirelessly to protect and keep safe our vulnerable residents.

“We should never let our guard down.”

The issue was discussed after the conclusion of the trial of the father and stepmother who killed six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes in Solihull.

Members asked the meeting what action was being taken to protect local children from horrific mistreatment.

Councillor Charlotte Atkins, leader of the authority’s opposition group, said: “Such tragic cases are a wake-up call for all those who are responsible for keeping vulnerable children safe. Staffordshire has had its own cases where danger signs have been missed, so the county is not immune from incidents like this even though our social workers do a great job.

“What is being done to make sure our more experienced social workers share their experience about failings with newer social workers so the service can learn from them? I think we often learn more from our mistakes than our successes.

“And what is the county council doing to track so-called ‘ghost children’ who have disappeared from teachers’ line of sight, because post-pandemic I think we have lost sight of some children. I think it is really vital in the aftermath of this case that we redouble our efforts to make sure that no vulnerable child goes unnoticed.”

Staffordshire County Council leader Alan White said: “I know every member of this council would have been shocked and appalled when reading media coverage of the trial of the father and stepmother of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes – a truly terrible, awful case. This tragic case is a solemn reminder of the county council’s vital role, working alongside our partners to keep the most vulnerable young people in Staffordshire safe from harm and neglect.

“Our social workers do an outstanding job every day, often in hugely challenging circumstances. We will be looking very closely at the outcomes of the enquiries into Arthur’s death to make sure we are doing everything possible in Staffordshire to protect and support the children who need our care.

“There is a special place in hell for those who bring harm to children and we unreservedly condemn as an authority the actions of those people who harm children.”