Sefton Council has been slammed for not being "consistently effective" when dealing with child sexual and criminal exploitation as well as a variety of other issues.
The local authority has been deemed inadequate by the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted). The report is opened by explaining that there has been a "significant deterioration" of the children's services offered by the council following the last inspection in 2016.
Following a joint area inspection in September 2019 and a focused visit in March 2021, weaknesses in child protection practices and management oversight. The report claims "the council and senior leaders have not sufficiently understood these failures or taken the necessary actions to improve services for children".
READ MORE: Ava White murder trial updates as boy, 14, in court over death of Liverpool schoolgirl
Following those findings, an external interim director was appointed in June 2021 which exposed "extensive inadequacies". This report nine months later identifies "both serious and widespread failures in core areas". The report, based on findings between February 21 and March 4, noted a number of areas where children's services needed improvement but two points noted the lack of planning on response.
The report said: "The response to child sexual and criminal exploitation is not consistently effective and does not always reduce risks to children. Action is taken to manage immediate risks, but social work support is not sufficiently proactive in connecting, understanding and supporting children in the longer term to be safer.
"The response to children who go missing from home and care is weak. Return home interviews are not always offered, even when children are constantly going missing from care. When interviews take place, they lack depth to understand risks to inform planning to keep children safe.
"When allegations are made against professionals working with children, the response is not timely. There are delays in following up referrals and organising strategy meetings to secure children’s safety.
"The designated officer does not have sufficient capacity to progress the work and ensure a robust oversight. Records of the advice being offered, and actions being taken, are not consistently kept."
Responding to the report, Martin Birch, Director of Education and Children’s Services who joined Sefton Council in April this year, said: “Whilst we are very disappointed about the overall outcome of the Inspection, Ofsted has acknowledged the improvements we have made since last year’s pandemic focused inspection, but these improvements have clearly not been fast enough in some parts of the service.
“We accept the findings of the report, and we are absolutely ready and willing to take these recommendations on board, learn, and improve. We take Ofsted’s findings incredibly seriously and we have already started making changes in response to the report.
“We knew from the findings of the report that there was much work to do in order to make the necessary changes to the department, and that this process would need both additional investment and time to improve. During 2021/22, the Council agreed a further circa £10 million investment of both permanent and temporary funding, and agreed to support the service to increase staffing levels with a new structure being approved in October 2021.
“Ofsted have recognised in this report how changes over the last year are starting to make a positive difference in areas such as the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub and the Fostering Service but most importantly, inspectors did not find any children at risk of immediate harm. Our dedicated staff have a renewed sense of optimism and are committed to delivering the improvements needed.
“Our main area for improvement must now focus on the need for better permanence planning for cared for children, to ensure that all children know what their long-term plan is, so that they feel safe and secure about their future. We want this for all our children and to make our support for vulnerable children and young people as good as it can be.
“The next step will now be to continue working with our Improvement Board and support from the Department of Education to deliver our action plan to address the recommendations made. Our ambitious plans will be a collective top priority for everyone responsible for caring for vulnerable children; elected members, council employees across the organisation and various partner agencies – all playing a part in driving improvements to the system so we can all deliver better outcomes for children.
"Our children and young people will remain at the heart of everything we do, and their voices will be strong in their care plans and the voices of all children and young people will be strong in future Council consultation and engagement activity. It is vital that each and every one of them receives the support and care they need and deserve.”
