All areas of its children's services, including leadership, child protection, support for children in care and care leavers, as well as its overall effectiveness have been downgraded from ‘requires improvement to be good’ to ‘inadequate’ since its last full inspection four years ago.
“A lack of stable and effective leadership,” since 2020 is among concerns.
This has led to “shifting strategic priorities and an absence of continuous systematic improvement planning” at the Cheshire council, which includes Runcorn and Widnes.
Concerns around “workforce instability” and “weak governance arrangements” are also revealed by inspectors who note there are “too many changes of social worker” for children.
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