Details came to light today about the inadequate care received by children from Sandwell’s social services after inspectors from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission gave Sandwell Council the lowest rating in 13 categories.

A copy of the Ofsted report, which is to to be discussed by Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust Board tomorrow, reveals that cases were not pursued quickly enough by social workers, including those of children deemed to be at immediate risk of physical harm.

The reporting inspector, Martin Ayres, said: “The overall effectiveness of safeguarding services in Sandwell is inadequate.

“The Sandwell Local Safeguarding children Board is not fully functional and safeguarding priorities across the partnership are not clearly defined.

“Assessments of need and risk lack necessary detail and do not lead to clear plans for safeguarding.”

Case recording is of poor quality and the views of children are not routinely sought, the report said.

“Capacity for improvement is inadequate. Im-provements that were achieved after the joint area review in 2006 have not been sustained and the current structures and strategies for safeguarding are not delivering the changes needed in key areas of service.”

Mr Ayres added: “Staffing capacity in referral and assessment services is inadequate. Frequent staff turnover and use of agency social workers have led to front-line managers in social care too frequently having to act down in order to fill practice gaps. This in turn has reduced their own capacity to oversee the quality of work and outcomes for children.”

A number of recommendation for areas of improvement in the safeguarding of children were made in the report.

These included the coun-cil immediately starting closely monitoring that children are being seen alone during assessment pro-cesses, and that their views are fully ascertained and recorded.

Within three months the council should also review staff workloads and pressures.

Following the publication of the report, Sandwell Council leader Councillor Darren Cooper promised improvements and apologised for “serious failings”.