It has been a difficult decade for children's services in Gloucestershire. Since 2011, child protection at the Conservative-controlled council has been judged to be failing by inspectors culminating in Ofsted rating children's services "inadequate" overall in early 2017.
The inspectorate's report included strong criticism of leadership, management and governance in children's services, which was also judged to be inadequate.
Since then, a new director of children's services (DCS) has been brought in - the experienced Chris Spencer joined from Harrow in March 2018 - and Essex County Council has been providing support as Gloucestershire's improvement partner.
Spencer says the "long trail of underperformance" was reflected in the standards he found when arriving.
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