Rise in child safeguarding referrals to Haringey Council

The council is also facing “challenges” to the recruitment and retention of social workers, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

Children (credit Markus Spiske via Unsplash) — credit Markus Spiske via Unsplash

Haringey saw an increase in the number of people contacting a child safeguarding hub as its social services supported a “high level of need” because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The total number of contacts made to the borough’s multi-agency safeguarding hub was just over 13,000 during 2021/22 – almost 1,800 or 16% higher than the previous year and 4% more than the last year that was not affected by Covid-19 (2019/20).

At the end of March 2022, the rate of referrals to social care was 568 per 10,000 children aged up to 17 – an 18% increase on the rate at the end of 2020/21. The council says this was “in line with the last published rate for statistical neighbours”.

The figures were set out in an annual performance report presented to a meeting of the council’s children and young people’s scrutiny panel on Thursday (23rd), which states that safeguarding and social care is supporting high levels of need and complexity in families as a result of the pandemic.

According to the report, there was a 10% increase in children living in relative low-income families in Haringey between 2015/16 and 2020/21. During 2020/21, nearly one-in-five of the borough’s children were living in poverty (18%), with the highest levels of deprivation in the east.

Bev Hendricks, the council’s assistant director of safeguarding and social care, said the welfare of Haringey’s vulnerable children was one of the council’s “highest priorities”.

She told the meeting that the “growing relationship” with the borough’s early help service – which aims to take action as soon as possible when problems are identified within a family – had helped to deal with the increase in referrals.

Bev added that although some of the data was higher than in previous years, the response had not been reduced.

Panel member Lotte Collett asked officers to explain why the number of education, health and care plans (EHCPs) issued by the council had fallen by around 50 year-on-year, with the percentage issued within 20 weeks dropping from 67% to 30%. EHCPs are designed to provide additional support for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).

Jacqueline Difalco, the council’s assistant director of early help prevention and Send, said the figures had been impacted by a “significant change in the service” resulting from a restructure. She said new workers had been recruited, and that during the past four months 70% of EHCPs had been completed within 20 weeks.

The council is aiming to reduce the number of EHCPs as part of plans to avoid running up a huge budget deficit. It claims more early intervention work will reduce the need for the support plans, but some panel members have previously raised concerns that there could be a negative impact on children.

In response to a question from panel member Anna Abela, Bev gave assurances that the council was taking an “ethical approach” to the recruitment of social workers from overseas and providing support and training to help them relocate.

The report reveals there have been “challenges” to the recruitment and retention of social workers, “particularly during the Covid-19 period”. It adds that the council has put in place a number of measures to retain qualified staff, including setting up a children’s services academy.

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