Ofsted criticises Knowsley's 'inadequate' child protection services
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Children in Knowsley are being left at risk of harm due to serious failures in child protection services, a damning Ofsted report which labelled the authority "inadequate" has found.
An inspection of Knowsley Council’s children’s social care services found that too many children and young people who need help and support faced “drift and delay”, while some were “left for too long in situations where they have suffered harm”.
“Children do not consistently get the services they need at the time they need them to ensure that they are supported and protected,” the report states.
“There are significant weaknesses in the core areas of social work practice including management oversight, assessment and child protection. This leaves children and young people at risk of harm.”
The inadequate rating comes four years after the last Ofsted inspection of children’s services at the authority, published in March 2010, rated safeguarding and looked-after children services as “good”.
In April 2012, former director of children’s services Damien Allen stood down after seven years in the role, with the post remaining vacant until Eleni Ioannides was appointed in March 2013 as a part-time interim director of people services.
A permanent replacement – Paul Boyce – took over the role in October 2013.
The Ofsted report acknowledges that the recently appointed senior management team is aware of a number of “significant deficits” in services to children and families, and an improvement plan has been drawn up, with some remedial action already taking place.
The authority has also introduced a multi-agency safeguarding hub (Mash) to improve information sharing by partner agencies to help identify children in need of help and protection quickly and provide a single point of entry to children’s social care.
Knowsley is now the fourth authority to be rated inadequate as part of Ofsted’s new single inspection framework, which was introduced last November.
Birmingham, Coventry and Slough have all been rated as inadequate in recent months, with the government now intervening in both Birmingham and Slough.
Knowsley is one of five authorities to have a report into the quality of its children’s services published by Ofsted yesterday.
Of the others, North Yorkshire and Oxfordshire both received overall ratings of “good”, while Bournemouth and Herefordshire received “requires improvement” ratings.
