Sandwell Council is failing children in care, damning report reveals

Government inspectors have said too many children are not receiving a good enough service, facing 'drift and delay' in their care, and have rated the overall effectiveness of services as 'inadequate'.

Today's damning judgement comes just months after the wider children's services department was given the same rating.

Borough children's services boss Councillor Simon Hackett today said the report, which follows an inspection in June, was 'disappointing'. He has criticised Ofsted for carrying out the inspection just months after their previous visit in April, but insisted the authority was doing all it could to improve.

He said: "I fully accept the service is not good enough yet, but things are improving. We have made a great many changes, and the report does acknowledge this, but all these changes are new and we need time to get on with the job."

Ofsted found the overall effectiveness of the service for looked after children was inadequate, as was its leadership, management and quality of provision. However, the service's capacity to improve was adequate.

Ofsted inspector Christopher Sands said there was a lack of care plans for a significant number of children and young people. He also found there was a poor take-up of training by social staff.

He said senior management posts had been filled, and that their impact was beginning to show, but the number of agency staff used was still too high.

He said: "Whilst there are some improvements demonstrated, as evidenced in current practice, the council acknowledges that the pace of improvement in practice has been too slow and has potentially left too many children and young people to suffer from drift and delay in their care planning arrangements."

But he added: "During the inspection, there were no areas of concern identified about which the council was not aware."

See also: Boss urges rethink on children's care rating