Recently released figures published by the Department of Education & Skills show that Haringey’s Children’s Service has the second highest rate in London of children on the child protection (CP) register.

In 2005 Haringey had 240 children on the register – giving a rate of 48 children per 10,000 children under 18.Lib Dem Deputy Leader Wayne Hoban had put down an oral question for the Executive Member for the Children’s Service on these worrying figures at the last Council meeting. However, the question was not reached due to Labour filibustering, where the Labour Council Leader took 25 minutes to answer a single question.

Haringey is the only authority in the country to show an annual increase in CP registrations for each year between 2000, the year Victoria Climbie died, and 2004, when it hit the highest figure in England for the number of children per 10,000 on the register. The overall trend for England has shown a gradual decline in the rate of registrations since 2000, whilst in Haringey, the trend rose inexorably, climbing throughout the Climbie Hearing in 2002 and then rising sharply after 2003, when the inquiry report was published, to a peak in 2004.

Cllr Hoban states,

“It is clear that the shock of Victoria Climbie’s death and the ensuing public condemnation of Haringey Social Services caused Haringey to lower the threshold for CP investigations, with the intention of identifying as many children as possible who may be in need of protection from abuse. This process has clearly increased the number of CP referalls, often at the expense of protecting the interests of innocent parents who have been subjected to unnecessary trauma and suffering by the process.”

Cllr Hoban has dealt with several cases of Haringey families with children with disabilities whose children have been referred to the Children’s Service on suspicion that their children were in danger of serious harm, but who were subsequently found innocent.

Cllr Hoban comments:

“I want the Children’s Service to be far more open to the public about how it sets the threshold for identifying children it suspects are in danger of serious harm. It is clear that the Children’s Service has been placing more and more children on the CP register year by year between 2000 and 2004, when no other local authority was following this trend. The Children’s Service must be subject to greater scrutiny and openness if the public are to be reassured that they are acting responsibly when placing children on the CP register.”