Progress at inadequate council 'too slow', Ofsted warns

A monitoring visit by Ofsted in September examined the Greater Manchester borough's efforts to improve services for care leavers, young people who go missing and children in care.

"The local authority has made some progress in the period since the last monitoring visit, but the pace of change is too slow," a letter outlining Ofsted's findings said.

Inspectors found that the council's improvement plan was not translating into coordinated improvements or consistent frontline practice.

"As a result, despite the hard work of staff and managers, the pace of change and improvement remains too slow," the letter states.

Ongoing problems include plans to introduce written referral forms for professionals not being delivered, meaning social workers still have to record verbal information when making decisions about children's needs.

Meanwhile, casework audits were found to focus on compliance over outcomes for children and, despite improved handling of return home interviews, the council's response to those interviews was inconsistent and - in some cases - slow.

Tameside's recording systems were also found to remain "a significant weakness".

"The authority cannot compare numbers of children who go missing with numbers who have return home interviews," the letter said.

"The authority is also unable to run its own reports on timeliness of the work."

There was also confusion about who should complete pathway plans for care leavers and while no care leavers have been placed in bed and breakfast accommodation for six months, the council's accommodation options were deemed to be "unlikely to meet future demands".

More positively, Ofsted welcomed the decision to exempt care leavers from council tax until they turn 21 and an increase in the size of the leaving-care team.

A spokesman for Tameside Council said the the findings represented "an important step on our improvement journey".