The report, by the now defunct Social Services Inspectorate, said the service was undermined by poor and sometimes "unacceptable" practice in referral quality, initial response, assessment and planning.
Poor practice was characterised by "insufficient focus upon the child, failure to identify risk, the lack of defined action, incomplete assessments and lax timescales", it said.
But the inspectors praised the child protection conference process, reviews of cases on children in need and case recording of allocated cases.
Since the inspection was carried out, a new director of social services, Rita Lally, has been appointed. She said: "We have suffered from a lack of recruitment, but we're improving our terms and conditions for social workers and introducing a new post of senior practitioner."
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