Adviser appointed over Herefordshire Council childcare failings

Herefordshire Council leader David Hitchiner said it was a "watershed moment" offering an opportunity for improvement

An adviser has been appointed to boost services at a council which "utterly failed" three fostered children.

A High Court judge found children's services in Herefordshire failed to include the young people's mother in their lives, and a fourth child died.

Herefordshire Council said "improvement adviser" Gladys Rhodes White would work with it for at least 12 months.

Its leader David Hitchiner said after the meeting it would make "much needed changes in our culture and practices".

The council held an extraordinary meeting following a damning ruling by Mr Justice Keehan who said the council did not have the children's "best interests" at the heart of its decisions.

The ruling, published online, said that over more than eight years, it failed to promote contact between the children and their mother, and to take any steps to preserve the connection to their family.

When the fourth child became ill with septicaemia at the age of 14, the ruling said, the authority "gave consent to medical procedures without any discussion with the mother or any application to the court for a best interest decision".

Their failings, were "tragically but graphically" illustrated by events leading to the death of the child, the ruling said.

'A watershed moment'

Mr Hitchiner said the authority took "full accountability for the failings of our children's social care services" and would be guided by recommendations made by the high court judgement, which it accepted.

"I believe we have reached a watershed moment, which we as leaders must recognise and embrace as an opportunity. We cannot hide, we cannot live in denial and cannot fail to deliver," he said in a statement.

"We must improve and our current culture must change, however significant change will take time."

Mr Hitchiner said it would work with Mrs White who had "substantial expertise and skills in transforming and improving services and outcomes for children and families".

As part of measures to improve, the council said it had recruited qualified social worker, Cath Knowles, as an interim director of children's services, while its new chief executive Paul Walker would lead its "drive for improvement".