Problems remain at Doncaster's children's services

Ofsted inspectors who carried out an unannounced inspection last month acknowledged that improvements had been made to safeguarding services but found that a number of problems still remain.

Poor decision making regarding children at risk of harm was highlighted as an area for priority action and inspectors said eight other areas were in need of development.

The electronic recording system is still "underdeveloped" and has no clear audit trail of decisions. This makes evaluating performance difficult for managers.

Quality checking procedures are in place but have not yet been linked in with the work of the area's Local Safeguarding Children Board.

Inspectors also found that some staff were still not receiving formal supervision and support. As a result "poor performance is not being consistently identified and challenged".

This latest unannounced inspection follows a torrid time for the council's children's services team, after being judged inadequate by Ofsted last year. Since 2004 seven children are known to have died as a result of abuse or neglect.

The council was also criticised in its handling of the case of two brothers in care from Edlington, who were given indeterminate sentences earlier this month for torturing two other boys.

Inspectors did mention some improvements following this latest inspection. Managers had shown "effective leadership" in addressing problems and social workers' caseloads and training had improved.

Chris Pratt, Doncaster's director of children's services, said: "A great deal more still needs to be done and we are pursuing the further improvements that are needed with great vigour."