SOCIAL workers dealing with spiralling numbers of child protection cases are suffering from low morale, inspectors have warned.
The Social Work Inspection Agency report found staff spirit was among the lowest of any local authority reported on so far.
Referrals from members of the public about a child they fear is being abused or neglected have risen by 75 per cent since 2
000, and last year a damning HMIE report found social workers were too slow in removing youngsters from possible harm.
Meanwhile, care for the elderly has suffered cuts in recent months, with 50 of the council's health and social care department staff set to be offered voluntary redundancy in a bid to save £1 million.
Despite this, the SWIA report was generally positive, with five areas evaluated as good, four as adequate and only one as weak.
In particular, it found that social workers interacted well with the community, and that members of the public were generally happy with the service they received.
Alexis Jay, chief inspector at the Social Work Inspection Agency, said: "The report highlights a number of strengths in the service delivery of the City of Edinburgh Council's social work services.
"People who rely on the services it provides agreed they were of good quality and that they were treated with dignity and respect.
"However, there are key areas where improvement is required notably in how people get access to services. Issues of low staff morale also need to be addressed."
The inspection report was carried out at a time when the council was in the middle of a financial crisis, partly caused by the growing cost of child protection.
The report said: "Despite feeling they were doing a good job, many staff who responded were not positive about morale in their team. Over six in ten of those in the department of health and social care, and four in ten staff working in the children and families department, disagreed that morale in their team had been good for at least the last six months. The overall level of disagreement is one of the highest of the authorities inspected to date."
The city council said improvements recommended in the report were already being acted upon.
Paul Edie, the council's health and social care convener, said: "It was reassuring to hear that all the areas for improvement identified by the inspection, including child protection, were already within a range of social work action plans, with much progress already noted."
•
www.edinburgh.gov.uk•
www.swia.gov.ukThe full article contains 431 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
