Troubled Cornwall on the mend

It has been a long journey. After years of government interventions and damning inspections, Cornwall County Council finally pulled itself out of the safeguarding mire last month.

Its latest Ofsted inspection report might lack glowing praise, but the verdict of “adequate” is a breakthrough after the inadequate ratings of 2009 and 2011.

Trevor Doughty, Cornwall’s corporate director for children’s services, knows there is more to be done but the recognition that the council has turned a corner is, he says, “gratifying”. “We do think this is a major step forward for us,” says Doughty. “The current Ofsted rating is very fair. We’ve still got a lot to do to be good and then outstanding.”

Cornwall’s problems were deep-seated, he says. “Cornwall has been in intervention in one way or another since 2006/7. I came in about 10 months after the 2009 inspection, which I think was one of the most damning inspections that there has been. The overall structure right through to management and practice weren’t seen as fit for purpose.”

Fixing these problems was, and is, a long process. Doughty sees the changes that got Cornwall out of its rut as a two-part story. The first part was the structural flaws.

“The service was over-managed with people not having clear responsibilities and accountabilities,” he says. “So I was able to take out layers of management and save money but improve accountability and understanding. But turning the standard of practice around has been the biggest challenge.”

It is a challenge made harder by Cornwall’s remoteness. “We tended to be cut off from what was leading-edge practice elsewhere, so poor practice did get reinforced and that happened for years,” he says.

Improving the quality of social work was crucial and while the council upped its game on workforce development, bringing in new, experienced social workers was also vital. But that too was slowed by Cornwall’s location. “Because of our geography, you don’t have the option of just upping s