So, Jill Baker, Head of Children's Services, has been sacked; loads of staff at the department have left - and Councillor John Warmisham, who refused to resign as Lead Member for Children's Services, has been shunted out of harms way, in the post local election re-shuffle, to Salford's excellent Adult Services (God help them!). But still our kids are High Risk.
The latest Salford Council `Strategic Risk Register' puts safeguarding in a big red High Risk box, stating "Practice in safeguarding children may develop with insufficient pace or sustainability".
The report goes on to describe all the great measures that are in place – `report cards', `monitoring of progress', `project management' and other such waffle - but the fact remains that the safeguarding of our kids is still `High Risk', er, as it was in the previous `Strategic Risk Register'.
Perhaps the Council should learn to spell the word `Safeguarding' which would be a great start. The report is titled `Safegaurding'…
PS. Would the Council like me to return a confidential Child Protection Conference report, complete with names, addresses and full family history, handed into the Salford Star after it was found on the street for anyone to see?
Just e-mail maryburns@salfordstar.com , ask nicely and I'll return it…
Update: 7pm 28th May
Earlier today Salford Council did ask nicely and the Confidential document was returned, after it had been passed around The Racecourse pub...only joking.
The problem is that the Council said they hadn't lost it, that none of their reports had gone missing. Very strange. Apparently, `several' other people had access to the document with SALFORD CITY COUNCIL stamped across it, and it could have been one of them who left it lying in the street for anyone to see. That's very reassuring...