Doubts over new plan for child welfare cases
Prof Sue White from the University of Birmingham was part of the Munro Review of Child Protection which criticised a similar system that operated in Britain for much of the last decade.
Yesterday she addressed social workers at the launch of a discussion document and afterwards said she believed the HSE should go back and consult with staff before the system is up and running.
It emerged during the week that the Irish Association of Social Workers had raised concerns over the new system, arguing that it would lead to more time on administrative work and less face-to-face time with families.
They also highlighted issues they had with certain elements of the business process management model, including a lack of differentiation between sexual abuse carried out by family members and those from outside a child’s family.
Prof White told social workers that in the infamous “Baby P” case in Britain, where a toddler died after receiving horrific injuries, all the form-filling had been done properly but the child had still not been saved.
She said the system being proposed for Ireland “is nothing like as bad” as the system that was used in Britain, but she said it was still “excessive bureaucracy”, adding: “It creates massive pressure to clear [computer] screens.”
She also said that in a studio in Cumbria it emerged that the standardisation system had resulted in 53% “waste” in social work, as opposed to 47% of “value” work.
She recommended that the HSE renew consultation with social workers on elements of the system, a point backed by Prof Bríd Featherstone of the NUI Galway Department of Social Work, who stressed that Ireland did not have money to waste on implementing the system.
Another speaker, Prof Dave Wastell of Nottingham University, said business process management systems as proposed by the HSE did not work in unpredictable situations.
