Following revelations earlier this week that Haringey Council had attempted to intervene in statements being collected by the Government’s Social Services Inspectorate during its investigations into Haringey Council, Lib Dem councillor Ron Aitken has obtained copies of correspondence received by ‘Ms B’.

According to the correspondence, the SSI sent out its question forms on 14 January 2002.Ken Adams of the SSI said in the covering letter;

“We place great importance on collecting the views of people who have used the (social) services, and will be very grateful for your help in this. Please return your questionnaire directly to me in the envelope provided.”

However, a letter from Haringey Social Services was then received by “Ms B” dated 16th January 2002 which stated:

“You should have by now received a Questionnaire for Parents from the Social Services Inspectorate who will be inspecting Children’s Services in Haringey from the 4th-21st February 2002.”

“We anticipate the form is likely to take between 1-2 hours to complete, and we have employed a team of administration staff to help you complete the questionnaire at your home address, if required…”

This letter was signed “Yvonne Doyle – Team Lead SSI Inspection.” Another Social Services officer later contacted Ms B to make an appointment, but Ms B declined the offer of ‘assistance’ and instead forwarded her completed forms direct to the SSI as they had requested.

Ron Aitken comments: “Having seen these letters, it is clear that this is an appalling misuse of Social Services Funds and calls into question whether the Authority is still obstructing a proper assessment of its children’s services.”