WYRE Forest Labour group has backed a whistleblowing social worker who made a number of damning claims about Worcestershire County Council’s damning children’s services.

Earlier this week, the Shuttle reported how the former council employee described how social workers were carrying out their duties under a climate of bullying and stress.

And the whistleblower’s “bravery” has been praised by Labour politicians in Wyre Forest who said cuts to the number of social workers and services, as a result of austerity, had left staff with “unsustainable workloads”.

But the authority's chief executive says the whole-council and staff are working "really hard" to improve the service, a point recognised recently by Ofsted.

The Shuttle has previously reported that a damning report by the Department for Education's Commissioner for Children's Services in Worcestershire spoke of "widespread, systemic failings" in children's services, with Essex County Council being brought in as an 'improvement partner’.

Among the claims made by the whistleblower include staff being “belittled”, overworked employees having to complete 25 hours unpaid on top of their contracted hours, social workers being silenced and ignored when highlighting issues and some being signed off work on sick leave due to stress.

They also claimed social workers were being told to disregard quality to get crucial work – such as assessing risks to children – done quickly.

Stephen Brown, of Wyre Forest Labour, said: “I was aware of this whistleblower and commend their bravery in coming forward, which is never easy.

“Indeed, I have helped provide advice to protect them from potential recriminations by the council.

"Whistleblowers are poorly protected under the current regulations and more needs to be done to help and support them when exposing such problems in the public sector.

“What this case demonstrates is the utter managerial chaos that the County Council’s Tory political leadership in their ideological pursuit of austerity has created. The former Chief Executives and Council Leaders are equally to blame.

“They’ve cut too many Social Workers and vital services leaving staff with unsustainable workloads and unable to cope.

“They’ve prioritised targets over quality to create a false narrative of success and then bullied staff to get the job done.

“What’s often forgotten in all of this, is that we are actually talking about people’s lives here. The lives of the children, their families, and the social workers.

“Everyone involved is at the blunt end of this and yet the senior leadership and political leaders talk like things are all hunk dory. Well they ain’t are they?

“It’s no wonder with such leadership Children’s Services is facing outsourcing to another body. That, however, won’t solve the problems.

“Worcestershire County Council has slashed its Children's Service Budget from £82m to £77m since 2010 and that includes the recent boost in funds.

“The truth is it needs more money when facing rising demand and inflationary pressures.”

Chief Executive of Worcestershire County Council Steve Stewart said: "We don't think that it's helpful to respond to the claims of an anonymous individual who may or may not have gained some experience of working in Children's Social Care.

“Instead we would rather point to the evidence from Ofsted and the latest report from their most recent monitoring visit.

"Inspectors have identified that we have made tangible improvements here in Worcestershire. Ofsted acknowledges the whole-council’s commitment to improving services.

“Inspectors have seen that the significant investments that we have made in additional staffing has supported those improvements."