News
Birmingham City Council, which was strongly criticised over the death by starvation of seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq, has sacked six social workers for failings in the childrens’ services department.
Colin Tucker, the council’s Director of Childrens’ Social Care said that the staff members had been dismissed over the course of the last year for continued poor performance.
“They did not adhere to standards and expectations that we laid down. They showed no sign whatsoever that they were keen to do so, so we dismissed them,” said Mr Tucker.
With a serious case review looming, there is the possibility that further members of staff could be sacked over their handling of the Khyra Ishaq case.
The seven-year-old Ishaq died of starvation at her Birmingham home in 2008 following extended mistreatment by her mother Angela Gordon and her stepfather Junaid Abuhamza. Gordon was sentenced last week to 15 years in jail for her part in Khyra’s death, whilst Abuhamza was detained indefinitely with a minimum tariff of seven and a half years.
News of the social workers’ dismissals was revealed when Mr Tucker was interviewed for the BBC television show “Hard Talk”. He claimed that although the sackings were not as a direct result of the Ishaq case, there was some resistance to the new culture which he was creating within the department.
Mr Tucker said that there had been a history of managerial and systemic mistakes within the department, which is handling around 2,000 cases during any one year.
During the trial of Khyra’s mother and stepfather the judge said that “in all probability" her death could have been avoided had there been "an adequate initial assessment and proper adherence by the educational welfare services to its guidance.”
