Council inspected over children at risk
THE COUNTRY’S watchdog for children’s services will carry out a full inspection at a Yorkshire council, four months after Ofsted found vulnerable children were being left at risk of harm.
Wakefield Council said it faced “significant challenges” but was “always ready to be held to account” as Ofsted began a twoweek inspection of all its children’s services yesterday.
It follows a focused visit by inspectors in February, which looked specifically at how children are referred into social care in the district.
The watchdog said there were “significant weaknesses” in the quality of the authority’s services for children, with delays in allocating cases and seeing and assessing children at risk.
It said social workers with high caseloads did not have the capacity to meet the needs of children and families.
Beate Wagner, the council’s corporate director for children and young people, who was appointed in March, said: “We are working very hard to deliver improvements as quickly as possible and we know that children will benefit from the additional management, social work and admin capacity we have already put in place.
“We also know that it is early days for some of the improvements we are making and expect Ofsted to acknowledge this.
“The inspection of the directorate will be thorough and indepth and everyone involved will treat it as an opportunity to further support our improvement journey.
“We face significant challenges in some areas and will share the actions we are taking to address these concerns.
“The inspection also gives us the chance to demonstrate the changes we have made and showcase some of the great work that our dedicated teams deliver.
“We must be – and are – always ready and willing to be held to account, so that we can learn and improve.”
The council’s children’s services were deemed to ‘require improvement’ after the last full inspection by Ofsted in July 2016.
The results from this latest inspection are expected to be published next month, the authority said.