Cambridgeshire County Council: 'Unacceptable' children's services findings

Teddie's injuries would have had him "screaming in pain", the trial had heard

Inspectors have uncovered "unacceptable" caseload findings at a council criticised for failures over the murder of a 12-week-old baby.

Cambridgeshire County Council admitted earlier this week not all "warning signs were seen" after a review into the murder of Teddie Mitchell in 2019.

An Ofsted inspection, published on Thursday, found "many social workers struggle with excessive workloads".

The council said the areas for improvement were being addressed.

Teddie was killed by his mother's partner Kane Mitchell, who had a history of controlling and violent behaviour, in St Neots, Cambridgeshire in November 2019.

The baby boy was found to have suffered 17 rib fractures, fractures to his right collarbone, a fatal skull fracture, and brain, spinal and eye injuries.

Kane Mitchell and Lucci Smith raised Teddie as if Mitchell was the father

A review into his death was published on Tuesday and found that two safeguarding inquires had been closed into the family.

It also said the response from agencies to neighbours' rising concerns about the children "was not sufficiently robust".

Ofsted carried out a focused inspection into Cambridgeshire's children's services in March and, in their findings, acknowledged the "pandemic has presented significant challenges to which senior leaders have responded well".

They said the implementation of a "new practice model" was affected by the pandemic.

"This, and continuing challenges in recruiting enough social workers, has meant that improvement has not been made at sufficient pace in services for children in need and those in need of protection," inspectors said.

Teddie Mitchell's mother called him a "perfect little baby" but was convicted of cruelty to a child

The inspection report continued: "Many social workers struggle with excessive workloads, with high caseloads predominantly of child protection or complex child in need work.

"This is unacceptable, as it limits the time workers have available to get to know children and families, and to work with them to address the problems they face."

Inspectors found the decisions over children at risk of sexual abuse "are not informed by a good enough understanding of risk by managers and social workers".

Inspectors also found inconsistencies in management decision-making "in too many children's cases".

"Decisions are sometimes changed without a clear rationale being recorded. Decision-making can be incident-reactive rather than based on reflective consideration of risk factors."

The high workloads also meant that some workers are not able to attend important training, the report added.

Ofsted recognised council leaders "are taking action to strengthen services," adding: "Adolescents are supported effectively by specialist teams, and services for young people at risk of extra-familial abuse are a strength."

Bryony Goodliffe said inspectors "rightly highlighted" areas for improvement

A council spokeswoman said they had "an outstanding team in children's social care and every member of that team, including our social workers, do incredibly good work".

But she added that the recruitment of children's social workers was a "national issue", adding: "There is a shortage of qualified, experienced social workers and fewer people entering the industry."

She added: "We've invested in our retention strategies and recently introduced retention bonuses in Cambridgeshire across our most critically impacted roles."

Labour councillor Bryony Goodliffe, chair of the council's children and young people committee, said that Ofsted had recognised "the many strengths in children's services - particularly the way we responded to the challenges of Covid-19".

She continued: "Inspectors rightly highlighted a few areas for improvement - areas which had already been identified and are in the process of being addressed."

In February 2021 Mitchell, who was not Teddie's father, was jailed for a minimum of 18 years after being found guilty of murder, while the boy's mother Lucci Smith was sentenced for cruelty to a child.