It has been a turbulent few years for children’s services in Bradford. The department, which as recently as 2017 had received a positive joint targeted area inspection, has been hit hard by an exodus of experienced social workers, a surge in child protection work and disruption caused by an overhaul of senior management. The problems resulted in Bradford children’s services being rated “inadequate” in September 2018 and despite the arrival in 2019 of a new director of children’s services (DCS), the most recent Ofsted monitoring report published in March 2020 found progress in some key areas was too slow.
Diverse population
Bradford has the sixth largest population of any English local authority and has the highest percentage of under-16s in England. It has an ethnically diverse population, with 20 per cent of the area’s citizens of Pakistani ethnic origin, the largest proportion in the country.
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