Squaring up over social services

For some, the spectacle of Swansea’s latest occupant in the social services musical chairs hot-seat taking on Edwina Hart in a political scrap will stir echoes of how Denis Healy used to famously regard an attack by Geoffrey Howe.

Lib Dem Nick Tregoning, who job-swapped earlier this year with ex-cabinet member Wendy Fitzgerald following an Assembly government intervention over failing children’s services, has accused the health minister of "playing politics" after she expressed concern at staff claims that some children had spent the night in a motorway cafe with a social worker due to lack of residential facilities.

The row erupted against a backdrop of controversy sparked by the closure of two childrens homes in the city – claimed by the ruling parties to be a necessary measure in the local authority’s laborious attempts to get out of special measures. Interestingly, and for all the apparent outrage at Calamity Hall, it was a faceless ‘spokesman’ and not the council’s political post-holder who issued a full denial, saying of the AM’s claim that "It would be illegal, it has not happened and we would never contemplate doing such a thing”.

The "playing politics" reaction came a bit later but Hart, or rather her political staff, say they stand by the allegations made to them by social services staff members. It will be interesting to see if the pony-tailed Tregoning is as robust in his reaction if evidence actually does comes to light - and whether he agrees that his boss Peter Black is really the best person to pass comment on lapses in judgement.