THE leader of Wirral Council has admitted “disappointment” after government inspectors graded the Children’s Service department as “requiring improvement to be good”.

In all areas of judgment, HM Inspector summarised that the service “required improvement” in the final recommendations of the latest Ofsted inspection of its Children’s Services department.

The latest inspection was carried out in September 2023, with the final report published this week.

The report judged the department in five areas including the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families, the experiences and progress of children who need help and protection, the experience and progress of children in care, the experiences and progress of care leavers and overall effectiveness.

The report stated that the standard of social work practice for children is variable across the service and “not all areas of practice have improved at a sufficient pace to meet children’s needs”.

Lead inspector Teresa Godfrey reported: “For example, the response to 16- and 17-year-old homeless children and the identification of and response to those in private fostering arrangements remain underdeveloped.

“Transition planning for children in care is not always effective in order to ensure that children feel prepared for leaving care.

“Decision-making when children are on the edge of care is sometimes too adult focused, which means that a small number of children remain for too long at risk of ongoing harm.”

Whilst accepting the judgements, Wirral’s Director of Children’s Services, Simone White, described the overall report as “harsh” stating that “it did not fully take into account the progress the service has made since 2019”.

Wirral Council leader, Cllr Paul Stuart said: “The report demonstrates that, in all areas, our practice is sound and safe. There are clearly areas of very good practice identified, although we acknowledge that there are still areas where the service has been slow to improve, or has shown a degree of inconsistency, and these issues are reflected in our overall judgement from the inspector.

“In 2019, the verdict of the service was that it ‘requires improvement’ so we can take a degree of solace in the fact that we are now much closer to receiving a ‘good’ rating. We have delivered improved services even while dealing with the impact of Covid-19 on children and families and decreases to our budget due to the council needing a recovery plan due to financial challenges.”

One area of improvement that was praised during the inspection was around early help. The inspection noted that ‘the early help partnership response is creative and effective and the response to children at risk of exploitation is well co-ordinated’.

However, the report also points out that ‘standards of social work practice for children is variable across the service’ and ‘not all areas of practice have improved at a sufficient pace to meet children’s needs’.

Chair of Wirral Council’s Children, Young People and Education Committee, Cllr Sue Powell-Wilde, said: “Overall, the final report is disappointing because it doesn’t adequately reflect the improvements that have been driven forward since 2019 and that were delivered for children and families despite the unprecedented pressures of the last couple of years.

“We note the areas identified as requiring further improvement and I am encouraged by the fact that in many cases there are already plans in place and already being enacted to achieve this progress, which is again something I think the inspection could have better reflected that in its judgement.

“Providing high quality care and support for our most vulnerable children, young people and families is one of the most important duties for a local authority and our services, based on sound and safe core practices, are clearly moving the right direction.”

The full report can be read on the Ofsted website.