Shoesmith warns of pressures on child protection system from soaring referrals

The child protection system cannot cope with soaring numbers of care referrals of children at risk, Sharon Shoesmith has said in her first interview in almost two years.

Speaking to Children and Young People Now, the former director of children’s services at the London Borough of Haringey said: "We haven't got the money to pay for it; we haven't got the residential homes, we haven't got the foster carers so supply and demand are out of kilter. We haven't got enough adoptive parents. I don't think we want to bring twice as many children into care actually. The system can't take it, the finances can't take it and we're not facing up to that."

In a wide-ranging interview, Shoesmith criticised the government’s decision to publish serious case reviews in full, arguing that it was unlikely to boost transparency or confidence in the child protection system.

“I think the impact of it will be that the detail will find itself in the internal management reports [conducted by individual agencies] that aren’t published, so the detail will get pushed back there and the overview report will be a slightly more benign document,” she said.

Shoesmith also revealed that she is looking for a “protective costs order” in her legal action against the Secretary of State and Haringey, with financial support from the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives having run out. She has also asked permission to include Ofsted at this next stage of the case.

To read the interview in full, click here.