This is sad to hear and is not a reflection on the staff delivering the service but a reflection of the massive restructure within Cumbria county council! i believe the vision is to work smarter not harder ? well how can this be with the amount of staff being made redundant within the authority.How much does Julia morrison get paid ? 125K per year i believe! in the private sector she would be dismissed for that report

@Anon - "It's time this country realised that most children have one mummy and one daddy that can look after their offspring!"

And what if they don't, or can't look after them? What exactly are you suggesting? Perhaps we should just abandon children to their fate - at least your Council tax bill would reduce a bit, Anon.

Even with my basic understanding of demography I can work out that 166 social workers is about 1 per 500 children in Cumbria. Across the whole of the UK there were 9,200 applications to take children into care in 11/12. So in Cumbria each social worker must have about 2 children in their care.

It's time this country realised that most children have one mummy and one daddy that can look after their offspring! I wonder why my council tax is so expensive. It's also worth considering how much good could be done for all if this money was spent on 166 extra teachers!

As an social worker who moved from Cumbria to Newport Gwent this year I read your article with interest. I would say that I agree with some of the concerns about the early intervention teams as based on my own experience they were clearly not receiving enough support and guidance but also needed more time and perhaps the inspection will help quicken this process .I would add that on the whole however that Cumbria children’s services works hard, diligently and skilfully in such a complex area of work. I t would help the morale of staff if both Julia Morrison and Anne Burns also made themselves s more visible as up until the period I had left Julia Morrison I think had not visited many if any child protection social work teams and this was noted by many staff

i have had dealings with the social services and i could not praise them enough they were always there to help when i needed it and they certainly make sure there doing there best for the child who is involved i have not got any bad comments about them and believe me they have got some hard jobs to deal with