Thread by @louisetickle

Gearing up to livetweet the Herefordshire Extraordinary General Meeting at 10am tomorrow, which will discuss the *fourth* excoriating judgment by Mr Justice Keehan in three years, re its latest children's social work catastrophe - and that is not too strong a word #herefordEGM 1/

Anyone interested in attending, it's a remote EGM being livestreamed here: #herefordEGM 2/

Here is the latest judgment for anyone who has an hour and a very strong stomach: councillors.herefordshire.gov.uk/documents/s500… #herefordEGM 3/

All the papers for the meeting are on this link, including the letter sent by Director of Children's Services Chris Baird: councillors.herefordshire.gov.uk/ieListDocument… #herefordEGM 4/

The letter starts: "HerefordshireCouncil is deeply sorry that it has failed to safeguard and look after the welfare of the children and their family... #herefordEGM 5/

And ends by saying there is a new improvement strategy (echoes of a previous promise made by the same DCS to the same judge in 2018 after the first of four horrendous judgments) - this one, the judge is told, will be different because... #herefordEGM 6/

"is that a new CE, Paul Walker, and an independent chair of an impr' board and the chair of the children’s s'guarding board, will monitor delivery of the required reforms within defined timescales and together drive+ deliver the required performance and outcomes.” #herefordEGM 7/

I decided to look back through the Herefordshire children's services department Ofsted inspections. It was rated 'Requires Improvement' in 2014... #herefordEGM 8/

In 2018 it was rated 'Requires Improvement' in three areas and 'Inadequate' in 'The impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families' #herefordEGM 9/

The 2018 report said: 'Leaders and managers have not secured an environment in which good-quality social work practice can flourish, and the majority of core practice requires improvement.' #herefordEGM 10/

There have been two 'focused' Ofsted visits since then. The first one wasn't great. The second one, in January 2020, was pretty awful (files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/501434…) #herefordEGM 11/

It said: 'The local authority has made little progress in improving the quality of practice for children in need and those subject to a child protection plan since the last inspection.' #herefordEGM 12/

It also noted that newly qualified, so inexperienced, social workers, had very large and inappropriate caseloads: "one new social worker has been in post for only eightweeksand has 19 cases. It is also in relation to types of case allocated...' #herefordEGM 13/

'Several newly qualified social workers were seen to have complex cases in care proceedings and on child protection plans.' #herefordEGM /14

I'll be tweeting on this thread from just before 10am tomorrow, and wonder how different the remote nature of this meeting will feel from the last EGM I attended and live tweeted in 2018, when the mood was outraged and distinctly febrile #herefordEGM /15

I'm doing this on a completely voluntary basis, because I think it's important to hold the state to account in public when things go so terribly wrong, so if anyone feels like bunging a few quid to my Patreon, I will be very grateful! patreon.com/louisetickle #herefordEGM /16