Ofsted’s chief inspector has written to the education secretary
calling for quick “remedial action” in Sunderland council’s children’s
services after a damning
inspection report.
The watchdog found a corporate failure by senior leaders and managers that left children and young people at risk.
During the inspection, 21 children’s cases were referred back to the
local authority by
inspectors requesting action be taken to ensure
children’s needs were met. This was one out of every 10 children’s cases
looked at by inspectors.
Deterioration
Services in Sunderland had “significantly deteriorated” since it was
rated good in 2012, inspectors found. Poor practice had been identified
by two independent reviews last year and there is a voluntary
improvement board and plan in place.
However, the report stated that, “these measures have not had a
discernible impact on improving practice or outcomes for children and
young people”.
An Ofsted spokesperson said chief inspector Michael Wilshaw’s was so
concerned about the report that he wrote to education secretary Nicky
Morgan
to, “highlight the serious
weaknesses in care and protection given to vulnerable children in the
area, and to request that swift remedial action be taken”.
Nick Whitfield, chief executive of Achieving for Children, which runs children’s services for Kingston and Richmond, has been appointed by the secretary of state as the children’s commissioner for the council.
Fundamental shortfalls
Frontline practice was criticised for “fundamental shortfalls” across
children’s services and social workers were criticised for not
consistently following safeguarding procedures.
“Assessments of children are often absent or incomplete and those
seen by inspectors were mostly poor. A ‘Back to Basics’ training
programme, introduced to improve front line practice, has only just
started and is yet to show impact,” the report said, and it also
criticised high caseloads leaving workers unable to provide effective
support to children.
The number of unallocated and unworked cases was of serious concern,
Ofsted said, as 122 cases were held within the multi-agency safeguarding
hub for five months without progressing.
Potentially unsafe
“Children are left in circumstances that are actually or potentially
unsafe without their needs or the level of risk being assessed or action
taken”, the report said.
Sunderland council is too slow to take appropriate legal action to
safeguard children, and once children do become looked after there are
further delays in finding permanent homes for them. Care leaver services
are “seriously lacking”, Ofsted said, with issues around poor quality
planning and a lack of appropriate housing.
Increased spending
Leader of Sunderland council Paul Watson accepted the
findings of the report, and said work is underway to improve safeguarding.
“While the report makes for difficult reading, Ofsted have
acknowledged our absolute commitment to improve safeguarding and that we
had already begun to take action to address many of the issues they
have highlighted,” Watson said.
“Despite spending cuts of £170m in the last five years and the need
for a further £100m savings in the next three, we have increased the
amount we spend on safeguarding and invested a further £5.4m to address
some of the concerns we have identified.
“We have also increased the number of social workers significantly to
help deal with rising demand and we are investing in training and
development so we can recruit and retain the best staff to get the best
outcomes for children,” Watson said.
Story taken directly from communitycare.co.uk
