Sharon Shoesmith court appeal ruling- UNISON reaction

UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, said: “This ruling will give a much-needed boost to social workers up and down the country who protect daily thousands of vulnerable children and adults. It should serve as a lesson that whipping up a campaign of vilification and hatred will never save a single child’s life. http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=2308  

“The torture and killing of Baby Peter Connolly at the hands of his mother and carers rightly horrified and angered us all. It is right when something goes so tragically wrong that we as a society question what went wrong, how it happened and how to prevent it happening again.

“But, we as a society must accept that if we are to place such enormous burdens on social workers and other child protection professionals, we must support them and make sure they have adequate resources.

“Social work teams continue to operate with high turnover, high vacancy rates and high caseloads. And the situation is unlikely to improve in the foreseeable future with local authorities facing huge funding cuts.”