Government will help Sandwell's ailing children's unit

The Department for Education has issued a statutory direction on the council to turn its department around more quickly.

The direction means the DfE can force the council to take action the DfE believes would aid improvement – such as introducing an improvement board to monitor progress is being made. It comes after an Ofsted report in April dubbed the department 'inadequate', leading to the resignation of two bosses.

Another visit by the same watchdog months later also found the overall effectiveness of the service for looked-after children was inadequate, as was its leadership, management and quality of provision. The news about Government intervention was published in the council's annual statement of accounts.

Michael McDonagh, from the council's external auditors KPMG, said: "The council has been under an improvement notice for a number of years.

"Due to the repeated failure and the scale of the issues, the Department for Education has indicated that the council will be issued with a statutory direction under section 497 A of the Education Act 1996."

A DfE spokesperson added: "Any failure in children's services is very serious. In the case of Sandwell we are extremely concerned that previous improvements have not been sustained, and by the extent of the failure identified by Ofsted – including child protection arrangements and services for looked after children.

"It is vital that there is a relentless focus on local arrangements for children's services. We are working with Sandwell to make sure their plans for improvement are robust and are undertaken as a priority."

The borough's children's services chief Councillor Simon Hackett said 'dramatic changes' had been made in the months since the Ofsted report, which he believed would reassure Government.

He added: "Along with our partner iMPOWER, we have made a break from the past, focussing on preventative work.

"We now have a multi-agency safeguarding hub in place with 12 partner agencies so we know far more about the children and families who are referred to us. Children are safer as a consequence.

"Also, we are reducing the number of agency staff and have many more permanent staff in managerial positions. Caseloads are falling and there are no unallocated child protection cases.

"These changes show how seriously we take our responsibility to deliver a top quality child protection system.

"A multi-agency accountability board, chaired by independent expert Professor Ray Jones, has been set up and is doing valuable work.

"Its primary role is to report confidentially to the minister that Sandwell is making satisfactory improvement."