Council backs children’s services bosses following Ofsted report

Local authority chiefs have said the department is in safe hands after Ofsted said there are ‘significant vulnerabilities within the service’ which leads to many children not being assessed in a timely and effective way.

In particular it highlighted weaknesses in the assessment of disabled children, which has promoted the council to undertake an immediate review of all such cases.

Its findings are a blow for the council which 14 months ago was told it was making significant progress since being rated inadequate in 2016.

In a letter following the latest inspection, Ofsted inspector Alison Smale has said a newly appointed leadership team has not yet had an impact on services.

The agency has called for number of improvements including recognising the impact of domestic abuse on children, identifying and understanding long-term neglect, how it deals with youngsters vulnerable to radicalisation and the council’s approach to 16- and 17-year-old young people who are homeless.

In response Dudley council said the report has praised Catherine Knowles, interim director of children’s services and the new chief executive Kevin O’Keefe, who had “strengthened” leadership within the service.

It added the inspection letter said the newly implemented children’s services senior management team had brought “energy and direction” and was developing a “clear vision” for the service.

It also pointed out that Ofsted said that not enough time had passed to see the impact of the management reshuffle on services.

Councillor Ruth Buttery, cabinet member for children and young people, said: “We have accepted all of the feedback provided by the inspectors during the course of this visit.

“We were aware of what we need to do to improve and this visit has reinforced that. We are already well along the road towards making the suggested improvements, although of course we recognise there is some way still to go.

“I think it’s important to highlight there were no safety concerns at all in the letter, or any implication that vulnerable children under the care of the council are unsafe.

“There were a lot of positives to indicate we are moving in the right direction and I have every confidence that our new senior management team will deliver, given time.”