Inspectors found that poor quality support for children and families provided by Gloucestershire County Council is leaving vulnerable children at risk. They added that standards had "deteriorated significantly" since another damning Ofsted inspection more than six years ago found its safeguarding services to be "inadequate".
Inspectors also raised concerns about "significant discrepancies" in some of the information provided to them by the senior leadership team, which they said brought the integrity of the department's leadership into question.
They added that senior managers do not provide an environment in which healthy challenge is present and social work practice is allowed to flourish.
"A high number of staff reported that they feel vulnerable, unsupported by senior managers and fearful of challenging or exposing poor practice," it adds.
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