Blame bosses for failure; YourSay.

EVER since the BirminghamCity Council's Scrutiny Committee report published the banner headline "City's Child Services are damned" I feel that I must contribute something to this debate.

I have 25 years' personal experience as a social worker/manager specialising in children and family work and a number of those years have been spent working Birmingham.

It seems the problem which has existed for at least ten years has at last reached its peak. It is not the front line workers who are totally at fault here.

The blame for this situation, the suffering of the children and their deaths must be shared equally by the elected representatives of the city, for ignoring good advice, and by the senior managers of the department for not having the vision or enthusiasm to address the issues of staff needs, of training, the lack or awareness of the diversity of the community, and for not creating confidence in the community, front line staff, first line managers and middle managers.

As I understand there have been previous reports which have criticised the department and no notable improvements have been achieved. By all accounts the situation has got worse.

While it is true that the pressures on front line staff has increased over the years mostly due to the deterioration of social values and norms, increased burden of new legislation, the number of social workers at the 'coalface' has decreased and support for these workers has dissipated.

The workers have not only become victims of insensitive management indifference but also become quasi administrative workers. In general, social workers, though perhaps not typically of Birmingham, spend about 70 per cent of their precious time in front of computer screens instead of face to face work with clients. Unrealistic targets are set, which further erodes the professionalism of social work.

Ultimately, these approaches to children's social work has left themost vulnerable in our society isolated, frustrated, trapped in poverty and from which there is little hope of return.

In order to put things right in Birmingham's Children, Young People and Families Services, Central Government and Local Authority must be bold in their approach to weed out inefficient management as soon as it is detected and to root out favouritism and indirect discrimination.

There needs to appropriate and fully trained staff who have the support of administrative staff to free them to do the job that every one expects. Preventative and innovative service provision is needed which involves clients in service planning as well as a reduction in management tiers and the de-centralised recourses.

Kneejerk reactions such as an international recruitment drive will not serve the community well and it would probably alienate them.

Instead we should be looking towards bringing experienced professionals back in to the service.

Mr Jan Alam, Kings Heath CONGRATULATIONS to Mr Alam, who wins a beautiful sterling silver impression of the historic Penny Black Stamp in a presentation folder from Royal Mail Heritage worth pounds 26. The letter is nowinwith a chance of scooping the fantastic 'letter of the month' prize, a 2008 boxed Stamp Yearbook, worth pounds 58.