Ofsted highlights ongoing children's services failings in Birmingham

An inspection last month found serious failings had not been improved upon since Birmingham Council's last Ofsted inspection in 2014.

The inspectorate said the council has not addressed problems quickly enough, and services to protect and help vulnerable children remain "very poor".

"Arrangements to identify, manage and intervene where children and young people are at risk of child sexual exploitation are not consistently effective," the report states.

Serious concerns were also raised about the department's education responsibilities.

Ofsted said the leadership of safeguarding children in schools was "weak", and found that a "significant" number of children were missing from education.

It highlighted a lack of information sharing between children's services teams that share safeguarding responsibilities for children in schools.

"Delays in establishing the whereabouts of children mean that staff are not complying with the council's own procedures and risks of children falling beneath the council's radar may increase," the report states.

Concerns were also raised over the council's responsibility to support children with special educational needs (SEN).

"Too many children with a statement of educational need or an education, health and care plan are not receiving a formal education and some of the city's most vulnerable young people are not receiving the help and support they need," the report states.

It highlighted that social workers do not see disabled children regularly enough, and a number of children with complex needs had not been allocated a social worker. 

This inspection was the first of its kind since Ofsted announced in May that it would begin visiting councils with inadequate children's services every three months, as part of a shake-up of how struggling local authorities are reinspected.

The inspectorate said it wanted regulations to change so that reinspections focus solely on service areas causing concern, rather than all elements of children's services.

The Birmingham inspection specifically looked at the council's multi-agency safeguarding hub, the application of thresholds for statutory intervention and assessment and planning processes for children in need of help and protection.

The department announced in May this year plans to move to a voluntary trust.

There have been a number of child protection scandals in Birmingham, including the case of two-year-old Keanu Williams, who was beaten to death by his mother in 2011, and seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq, who starved to death in 2008.