Jo Fisher, the Executive Director of Children’s Services at Hertfordshire County Council, has achieved a supposed, ‘Outstanding’ for her department on a recent Ofsted inspection … but is it deserved, or have systemic problems been missed by the regulator?
In modern public life, it has become all too clear that there are two sorts of public services that achieve, “Outstanding” ratings on regulatory inspections. Those which are actually delivering a good service, and those which simply hide failures and conceal problems, including abuse. For example, a hospital for the vulnerable known as Whorlton Hall received a CQC rating of, ‘good’ until it was exposed by BBC Panorama as an institution in which staff systematically, cruelly, abused disabled adults (archive). A clue as to which sort Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) is can be found in a Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) report from 2021, reported in the Herts Advertiser that, “Herts Council has ‘pattern of mishandling children’s services complaints'” (archive). At the time, the Hertfordshire County Council, Director of Children and Young People was Jo Fisher. MHN has been horrified recently to identify similar and ongoing problems, some of which have now been admitted, which have not been picked up in a recent Ofsted inspection of the authority. The circumstances raise questions about the leadership and suitability of Jo Fisher, Sarah Canto from Ofsted who recently inspected Hertfordshire County Council Children’s Services and also Amanda Spielman, Chief Inspector at Ofsted. Weak leadership and weak procedures risk enabling abuse. In my opinion, Hertfordshire County Council and Ofsted have both.
Hertfordshire County Council safeguarding times … could be improved … if this output from its system is to be believed, showing a child safeguarding referral open for around 20 months. Screenshot anonymised and taken on 11 April 2023.
How long should it take a council to deal with a safeguarding concern? A week, two weeks? A month? Baby P did not even live two years, and he spent much of it experiencing horrific abuse (archive) before his tragic death at 17 months. The question is not rhetorical. I made three child protection referrals about a family (who have been anonymised here), via the Hertfordshire County Council system and the first is still showing as, ‘Open’ after nearly two years. Reading the referral screen, I was concerned that at best, the council workflow system is insufficiently robust. At worst the case was ignored.
Child protection matters in the UK are rightly highly confidential. I would not expect much response as the result of a referral. I would have expected, however, the state to change from, ‘open’ to, ‘triaged’ or ‘reviewed’. In fact, until a recent complaint, I have never had anything from the council beyond an automated email acknowledgement to show these reports were submitted. It is clear, however, that something happened with the more recent ones due to what seems to be a subsequent breach of confidence by the council.
