Southampton children 'at risk from social services failures'

Southampton's children's services were rated as "requiring improvement" in November

A council has been accused by some of its senior social workers of making "unsafe decisions" which put children at risk.

The union Unite said it had filed a whistle-blowing complaint on behalf of more than 35 staff in children's services at Southampton City Council.

It said some children's cases were closed prematurely while others had no allocated social worker.

The council said it was investigating the "very serious allegations".

Unite said the complaint was backed by 70% of the department's team managers as well as other senior staff.

Shop steward Hayley Garner said some decisions on children had been driven by cost rather than safety.

Ms Garner said more than 100 children had been left with no allocated social worker

She said: "Cases were closed early without assessment and without any proper precautions being taken.

"What we are finding now is that those cases are coming back in through the council and we are having to react which we feel shows that they were inappropriately handled."

Ms Garner said "unplanned decisions to dismiss large numbers of agency staff" had left more than 100 children with no allocated social worker.

She added: "Staff have come forward despite threats to staff to 'think about their future' or that there will be 'repercussions' for speaking out."

The complaint has been submitted against the agency interim service lead and the service director, she said.

Southampton's children's services were rated as "requiring improvement" in an inspection by Ofsted in November.

In a statement, the council said the Ofsted report had not reflected any of the concerns raised by the union.

It said: "We are extremely disappointed that the Unite union chose to raise these issues with the local media before bringing them to the attention of the council."