Nottingham second on child at risk list
NOTTINGHAM has the second-highest rate of children at risk in England.
New figures show 410 under-18s in the city were placed on a child protection plan during in 2008/09.
This meant that 74 youngsters out of every 10,000 in the city were referred to social services and considered to be at risk of harm.
The only area with a higher rate was Middlesbrough, which had 82 per 10,000. The national average is 31 per 10,000 – less than half the rate in Nottingham.
But Coun David Mellen, portfolio holder for children's services at the city council, denied there was a problem with the safety of children. He said: "These figures show that the city council takes its responsibility very seriously when it comes to the welfare of children. If we were at the bottom of the league, in terms of the number of children under a child protection plan, then I would consider it was time to be concerned."
Child protection plans are made if a youngsters is deemed by social services to be at risk of harm. They decide what can be done for an individual child to steer them away from risk.
The new figures have been released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
They also show 33% of the 4,835 children referred to social services in the last financial year had been so before in the same 12-month period.
After a child is referred, a child protection conference is held if concern is sufficient. The conference can then place the child on a protection plan.
In Nottingham there were 395 of these last year, compared with 255 four years ago. Of the cases last year, only 24% were not then put under a plan.
Of the children subject to a plan, slightly more than half were girls. There were 55 children aged under one, 170 between one and four, 105 between five and nine, while the rest were aged 10 or above.
Neglect was the most common reason for placing a child under a plan, accounting for 215 cases, while 140 were linked to emotional abuse; the rest covered physical abuse, sexual abuse and other concerns.
The city's social services reviewed 99% of cases within the time-scale laid down.
The issue of child protection came to widespread attention after the death of Peter Connelly in the so-called Baby P case. He had suffered multiple injuries.
Children's minister Delyth Morgan said: "These statistics show that, compared to recent years, while the number of children referred to social services has remained stable, more children are being protected as a result of the action being taken.
"These statistics cover a particularly turbulent period for everyone involved in children's services and, more specifically, for everyone in child protection. The Government has been taking the action needed to ensure the reforms we introduced are being implemented effectively."
newsdesk@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk
10 Comments
by ray, derby
Friday, September 18 2009, 7:49PM
“trust snottingham to be near the top of a table that is bad at everthing”
by Mel, City
Friday, September 18 2009, 3:33PM
“Yes Mel, clearly a chip pan incident.”
by FW, Nottingham
Friday, September 18 2009, 2:48PM
“It mainly comes down to sloppy journalism, or a deliberate pleasure in misrepresenting the area.
Nottingham City has very tightly drawn boundaries that, unlike other cities, exclude most of the leafy middle-class suburbs.
Since bad things happen preferentially in inner-city areas, and the populations of inner cities tend to be rather low, the number of bad things per head of population will always come out high in Nottingham for simply that reason.
It is a shame that the NEP is so cheap and/or nasty that it continues to try and sell newspapers on the back of this simple fact that has nothing at all to do with what the area is really like, thus perpetuating a myth that the City is exveptionally bad, and giving its dimmer right-wing readership a sense of smug self-satisfaction.”
by Single parent but responsiable, Nottingham
Friday, September 18 2009, 2:30PM
“Its have a go at Nottingham again.
Whenever there is a tragedy or something bad happens Nottingham is somewhere in the top of the list.
Ok there are some and have been some incidents of child abuse and some case's of lack of parental control but surely we can be the 2nd worse place for child abuse and neglect.”
by Mel, Nottingham
Friday, September 18 2009, 2:21PM
“Chip pan did it!!!”
by dawn, nottm
Friday, September 18 2009, 1:37PM
“not surprised one bit, you only ave to go to the shops an see ppl treating there kids badly, if your a normal loving family you would`nt be involved with social services! social workers should be doing more an taking these poor kids off parents who ave no idea how to be one!”
by Bobby, Abed
Friday, September 18 2009, 11:57AM
“Daddy, No
A poem.
'Special secrets' burn my mind
Why did you do those things unkind
Too young to know or understand
When you took me upstairs by the hand
'Daddy no', my voice so soft
As the light dims in the loft
A child went up that wooden ladder
A man came down, older, sadder.”
by The Lost Packet, Nottingham, EN
Friday, September 18 2009, 11:41AM
“People, you need to wake up to the possibility that not all parents are potential killers. Most of us, in fact, are loving, caring people who wish they had the same rights as every other creature in the animal kingdom: that instinct to kill to protect our children is still there, fettered only by the law. This is most certainly NOT any sort of reflection on how we bring up our children; rather it is a reflection on how far WE will go to protect them from the paedophiles, child snatchers etc who threaten our children every single day of their lives. Social Services need to get this into their heads - those parents who hold a kitchen knife to the throats of social workers and growl "GET OUT!" at them are not a danger to their children, they are a danger to those who would steal them for financial gain. Just like Social Services, Surestart, CLA-funded family panel solicitors, the family court system, SS' "expert" witnesses, CAFCASS, CORAM, NSPCC, Barnardo's... the list goes on but their modus operandi is the same: take the healthy, happy and young (hence impressionable) children, fill a catalogue with their portraits, and sell them like hanging meat in a butcher's trailer to feed the sick fantasies of some rich middle-class professional couple.
It disgusts me, and makes me ashamed to be British.”
by melizza moore, nottingham
Friday, September 18 2009, 11:06AM
“I am one of those families, my own children have been taken into care, Social Services are quick to remove kids from ordinary loving families. Families who could have been helped better if they were actually asked what kind of support they needed to remain together safe and sound. Yes there are families that cannot be helped, but not all families should be stereotyped.”
by Andy, Long Bennington
Friday, September 18 2009, 10:16AM
“This headline shouldn't surprise anyone. I'm Nottingham born and bred, from the terrace slums of St Anns, but I barely recognise my home city anymore. The place seems full of the disfunctional and uneducated and downright lazy.
My mum and dad still live on the council estate on Cardale and I remember a couple of years ago seeing a small child of 18months - 2 years, toddling down the road dressed only in a nappy (no shoes, no other clothes) on a cold January afternoon! Luckily someone picked the baby up and started knocking on doors to find out where it lived.
The sad thing is, nothing surprises me anymore. I think people are becoming immune to the state of these children's lives and the hopeless futures that they face.
I despair.”