Abuse claims to Shropshire Council rise

The rise in the number of claims is due to family cases, with the council as a social worker not being able to protect children.

The news was revealed at an audit committee meeting on Thursday.

Members questioned a risk and insurance annual report presented to the committee, which says: "In recent years we have also started to see an increase in the number of abuse cases which are classified as public liability claims."

Angela Beechey, risk and insurance manager, said: "It is within the family, the claims come to us as social workers when we've not been able to protect a child."

Councillor Brian Williams asked if there was a way to "safeguard" the council against such claims.

He said: "Is there any way that we can safeguard ourselves against this sort of claim? Has there been a lack of a duty of care on the part of our employers that gives rise to these claims?"

Ms Beechey said work is being carried out to train social workers.

She added: "A lot of work is being carried out to ensure social workers have the best training they can have.

"The numbers are skewed with the historic claims, the more recent ones we have been receiving would have been the failure to remove."