Statement – Serious Case Review, June 2009

Statement – Serious Case Review, June 2009

Councillor John Merry, leader of Salford City Council said: “The death of any child is a dreadful thing to happen and my heartfelt sympathies are with the family.

“I was anxious that this serious case review was robust enough to draw out where we could do better. I am satisfied it does that, highlighting a number of child protection concerns.

“I do not want to make excuses: it is rightly critical and we should all have done better, but the report’s sad conclusion is that this tragedy could not have been foreseen and it could not have been prevented.

“Child protection in Salford has been under intense scrutiny for a number of months and I am confident that the city council’s service today is significantly better than it was when Ofsted delivered its judgment in December 2007.

“We have improved our processes and made changes to our structures as part of a major programme of change and the issues highlighted in the serious case review were already being addressed in that programme.

“We are a year on from these terrible events and we have had a year of improvements. The city council’s safeguarding team has so far delivered all that has been asked of it by this improvement programme and by Ofsted. Making that change has involved a great deal of hard work and commitment.

“Any professional in the field of child protection absolutely understands the importance of what they do. They have chosen to carry out an incredibly difficult and demanding role which places immense responsibility on their shoulders.

“There will always be improvements that can be made to any service and this is even more important in child protection. I can reassure our residents that I will do everything I need to to ensure that children are safe in Salford.”