Haringey Lib Dems have condemned “shocking” safeguarding failures at Haringey Council, as the Local Government Ombudsman revealed that the council had over 1100 emails left unread in its social work inbox, including over 500 police welfare reports.
The Ombudsman was initially contacted by a woman who complained that the council did not act quickly enough when she reported concerns about a friend’s living situation. Both she and emergency services raised the case with the council, but no action was taken and the friend later fell during a seizure, leaving him with life-changing injuries.
During their investigation, the Ombudsman discovered that the council’s inbox was not being properly monitored, leaving hundreds of reports from emergency services, including police welfare reports, unread, leaving residents at risk.
Haringey has a history of horrendous safeguarding failures, most notably the Victoria Climbié and Baby P cases.
Both the Ombudsman’s report and its action plan will be formally referred to the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and the relevant scrutiny committee – with both bodies kept under regular and transparent updates on progress.
Following the report, Cllr Pippa Connor (LD-Muswell Hill), Opposition Spokesperson for Social Care, said:
“These failures from the council are absolutely shocking. This behaviour is utterly negligent, and Haringey of all places should have failsafe measures in place when it comes to serious safeguarding issues like these. It seems inconceivable to me that managers were not aware of these longstanding issues prior to the Ombudsman’s intervention. Apologies are no longer enough: we have heard ‘this must never happen again’ too many times before.
“Senior officials and politicians need to front up and explain to the public not only how this was allowed to happen for seemingly an extended period of time, but what robust monitoring processes are now in place, and how those individuals involved are being held accountable to protect the safety of Haringey’s most vulnerable residents.”
