Birmingham to lose 750 jobs in children's services
Neil Puffett
Monday, March 28, 2011
Cuts of 68m to Birmingham's children's services have been rubber-stamped in a move that will mean the loss of around 750 jobs.
"The current arrangements need to be remodelled as they are not sufficiently focused on delivering our main priorities: protecting children from significant harm; improving learning and achievement in education; and reducing health inequalities," Lawrence said.
"The remodelled service will therefore ensure better use of resources through closer working with other agencies and better specialist support for those children who need it.
"By working better together we can provide a much improved service rather than by working in isolation, and ensure that resources are targeted much more effectively.
"We need to focus even more on early intervention and integrated family support to prevent, where possible, children moving into the care system in the first place and seeking to make children safer."
Birmingham’s children’s services department has faced a range of issues in recent years.
Ofsted rated Birmingham’s children’s services department inadequate because of problems with safeguarding in December 2008.
This led to the council being served with a government improvement notice. The same department was again rated as "performing poorly" by Ofsted last December.
