Northamptonshire children's services branded 'worst yet most expensive'

Government-appointed commissioners have been sent to help improve services across cash-strapped Northamptonshire County Council, which was subject to a Section 114 notice, banning it from new spending outside of children’s and adult social care.

Their October 2019 letter to the government, which has just been published, updates ministers on efforts to improve services. This includes turning around children’s services, which were rated as "inadequate" by Ofsted last year after inspectors found multiple failings, including placing children in unsafe settings.

The commissioners’ report details that contingency funds have been released to recruit four new assistant directors to reduce a high turnover of staff, agency staff costs and improve support for children.

“These posts are currently coming online and we believe that the opportunity can be taken to make the savings necessary in the service’s operations," states the letter to ministers from commissioners Tony McArdle and Brian Roberts.

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“Poor performance and the chaotic conditions under which the service operates are key reasons why staff turnover is unsustainably high.

“This represents a drag on effective performance as well as posing a high financial cost due to the consequent reliance upon agency staff.

“A proper and capable management cohort in the service is vital to its future.”

The letter stresses that the recovery of children’s services “is fundamental to the recovery of the council, and ultimately, the viability of the new unitary councils”.

It states: “It was the loss of control of children’s services over a number of years and the lack of any viable plan to address that loss which set the council upon its path toward failure.

“Children’s services in Northamptonshire is now, by any available measure, one of the worst-performing yet most expensive in the country.”

The beleaguered council is due to be axed with services reorganised from April 2021 into two unitary authorities, North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire.

In addition, children’s services is due to be handed over to an independent trust this year. This follows a previous attempt to set up a limited company called Children First Northamptonshire that was shelved in 2018.

The commissioners' letter to ministers says that the creation of the trust will “hold out the hope of a new beginning” for children’s services in the county.

“It is vital that the trust commences life on an ambitious and sound footing,” state the commissioners.

“We have begun the task of engaging with those appointed to support the setting up of this trust and are pleased at the realistic approach taken by them.”

The children's commissioner for Northamptonshire is Birmingham Children's Trust chair Andrew Christie, who replaced Malcolm Newsam, after he resigned last year.

Northamptonshire County Council has been contacted for comment.