A child protection boss has described how Kingston’s social services have changed since she walked through the door two years ago.

Fiona Cisneros, an Achieving for Children (AfC) social work manager, joined in April 2013, less than a year after Kingston Council’s services were deemed "inadequate" for the first time following a string of failures, including ignoring warning messages from the NSPCC in the run-up to the murder of Charito Cruz by her boyfriend in front of their young daughter.

Earlier this year Kingston Council confirmed all social workers involved in Miss Cruz’s case no longer worked for the authority.

Community interest company AfC has run Richmond and Kingston’s children’s services since last April.

When Ofsted rated it "good" earlier this month council leader Kevin Davis praised "hard work and great professionalism" by staff.

Ms Cisneros, a social worker for more than 20 years, said: "It's been well documented, the history of Kingston, and the Ofsted ratings. I came in at a time where I had been a manager previously, knowing that there was work to do.

"It was obvious when I first came in to the authority that some of the practices and policies needed to be tightened up.

"There were some people that I wanted to move on, and I did, because they didn’t share the same passion and professionalism. You need to care about a family, about a system, about the community.

"I wanted people that are going to invest in their place of work.

"When I came in there wasn’t a proper telephone system. But I don’t want people in dire straits getting an answering machine – all our clients have my mobile number. All the managers and social workers have stepped up.

"I was going to [joint agency] meetings and because of the reputation that of course had been widely publicised through the grading, and through some of the things that had happened, there was a less than positive view of children's social work."

That view has since changed, she said, and headteachers in particular have said the service has "turned around".

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Compliant: Workers are assigned no more cases than were recommended by the Munro Review

From only one permanent and seven agency members of staff two years ago, Ms Cisneros now oversees a team of seven full-time social workers, plus a business support worker and a family support worker.

But that is not to belittle agency staff. Ms Cisneros said one of her temporary workers "went the extra mile" to resolve a serious case involving intergenerational sexual abuse, then became a permanent team member before going to university to learn how to train new social workers.

Ms Cisneros, a trained counsellor, said although her team often worked beyond their hours including under significant stress, AfC’s support structure met their needs.

She said: "I encourage them to go at 5pm; they don’t always. Public perception is that we go in, we criticise, we stay minutes and we’re out. We don’t.

"We don't have the power to remove children - the courts make those decisions, or the police.

"Workers sometimes come back and they ask for a word. They get threats of violence. They sit and they take a verbal hammering. You have to be quite brave and quite measured.

"AfC has created a very comfortable working environment where we have lots of little rooms we can go off to.

"Everyone knows Nick [Whitfield, director of children's services]. Sometimes you're in authorities and people don't even recognise their director."

Workers have supervision meetings every three weeks, and the team holds fortnightly meetings together. Staff work with no more than the recommended 18 children at one time, Ms Cisneros said.

She added: "For me there's no more stressful piece of work than child protection. My job is to keep children safe; my job within that is to keep children with their families. We do that by offering respect. I don't ever want to hear any oppressive language.

"We model good parenting, we model good ways of working with children. We model good ways of parents seeking their own needs, their own therapies.

"If they can't keep a child safe then you must work with them. Maybe they can't care for them day-to-day, but maybe they can see them a lot. Our first port of call is other family members."

Ms Cisneros has obtained further training for her team in Korean and Sri Lankan cultures to improve relationships with Kingston's large minority populations.

She added: "That doesn't mean we accept cultural differences if it causes harm to a child but it does mean we understand the context."

In terms of caseload, Kingston is "compliant with the thoughts of Eileen Munro", Ms Cisneros said.

Five years ago Prof Munro was tasked by the Government with reviewing the way child protection was run across the country following a number of serious failures, including the Baby P case.

She said a social worker should be assigned no more than 18 children at one time.

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Surrey Comet:

Coun Andrea Craig and Nick Whitfield

But councillor Andrea Craig, lead member for children during this summer’s Ofsted inspection, admitted "there will always be a challenge" to keep costs down.

Ofsted said Kingston could further improve its services by the sharing of reports before child protection conferences and reducing delays in assessing adopters.

Coun Craig said: "We fully accept that everything isn’t perfect. There are always things that need to be done. Authorities are interested in what the AfC mechanism is.

"To the question of whether it gets too big or spreads too thin, there is a senior managment structure which means that it safeguards our services.

"The front-line services will be protected and must be protected. There will always be a challenge for all departments to work as efficiently as possible."

AfC chief executive Nick Whitfield will soon take on extra responsibility as child services commissioner in Sunderland.

The company plans to expand to other parts of the country and gain £6m in new business.

Coun Craig praised Mr Whitfield and the staff in his charge, and said Britain should treat its social workers better.

She said: "It's really sad that in the UK social workers are not actually praised more. In the rest of Europe and the new world they're really highly-respected.

"They're working in an incredibly critical area all the time. They don't get recognised."

Richmond and Kingston councils have tasked AfC with cutting £7.5m from its budget within its first three years.

Asked if this meant job losses, a spokeswoman said front line services had been protected and back-office costs cut to save £796,000 a year.

She added: "Since its launch, AfC has made 21 redundancies. Eight redundancies have been compulsory and 13 have been voluntary."

AfC employs 1,263 full and part-time staff.

How do you rate the new child protection services? Email newsdesk@surreycomet.co.uk or call 020 8722 6313.