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Many social workers quit their jobs following vilification in media and attracting new entrants has become harder
The Baby P tragedy continues to cast a long shadow over the field of children's social care, which has yet to recover from events in Haringey three years ago.
The removal of Sharon Shoesmith, and the vilification of social workers by the tabloids, was traumatic for many in the profession. Damned for taking children into care and damned when – as in the case of Peter Connelly – they didn't, the events of November and December 2008 triggered a huge crisis of confidence in children's social work.
The number of children referred to child protection has soared since that time, as has the number of those made subject to a child protection plan. The number of children in care – steady for the best part of a decade in 2008 at around 60,000 a year – is now 64,400, with little sign that this is decreasing.
No council, it seemed, wanted to run the political risk of a Baby Peter on their hands, and they were happy to take a "no risk" approach to child protection.
Caught in the sheer intensity of the media glare – and the message that failing to prevent the death of a child, however complex the situation, was career-destroying – many professionals quit. Attracting new entrants became harder and harder, with recruitment crises solved only by importing safeguarders wholesale from the US and Australia. The result for many councils has been catastrophic at a time when budgets are shrinking dramatically and the number of children at risk is reportedly increasing, partly as a result of the recession.
Earlier this month, a review of social work by Professor Eileen Munro offered the profession a fresh approach, calling for a return to hands-on social work and a casting off of unnecessary paperwork. Her report was widely welcomed. But with budgets getting tighter, the prospects for the profession remain gloomy.
