Liberal Democrats welcome moves to improve child safety in Suffolk

12.00.00am GMT Thu 15th Jan 2009

Liberal Democrats at Suffolk County Council have supported moves to increase the number of Social Workers to improve child protection in the County.

Liberal Democrat group leader, Kathy Pollard, said "This is an issue which I raised with the Chief Executive last year after the Baby P tragedy, and she assured me that she would be looking into the staffing ratios."

"The Conservative administration had been aiming to cut the budget for Children and Young People by £1.3m, even though the service was overspent by £1m in the current financial year. I am relieved that they have now agreed to increase the budget by £3.8m over the next two years in order to employ 50 front line social workers."

The average caseload of Social workers is currently 25 cases. In Haringey it was 18 and this was seen to be too high. This will bring the ratio down to 1 social worker to 15 cases.