Three-quarters of councils are not delivering children’s social care at a good enough standard, an Ofsted report revealed on Tuesday. Of the 43 services inspected in 2013-14, 26 required improvement, and seven authorities were seen as inadequate. This is out of a total 152 local authorities responsible for safeguarding and protecting children.
Where services were found to require improvement, key factors were insufficient support for social workers and a lack of oversight by management. In contrast, at the 10 “good” local authorities, inspectors found that “managers and social workers have a discernible ‘grip’ on cases at all times”.
Child protection bosses were called upon to show “political and moral courage” to tackle child sexual abuse, in the wake of revelations about the extent of sexual exploitation occurring in Rotherham and elsewhere. The chief inspector of schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, who authored the annual review of children’s social care, argued that many local authorities are not alert enough to the problem of sexual abuse in their area.
Wilshaw recognised the pressure on services, with the number of children being looked after by local authorities at the highest level since 1987, at the same time as stretched or reduced budgets. He said: “We must recognise the context and constraints within which social workers and their managers work.” Wilshaw also referred to the difficulties faced by local authorities in recruiting and retaining social workers.
The inspections were the first carried out under the single inspections framework, a new model for inspecting children’s services.
Responding to the review, Alan Wood, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), argued that the findings – showing that nearly 70% of children’s social care services were not good enough – were “simply not credible”. Wood called the new framework “flawed”, and added: “We believe this framework does not get to the heart of how well services are working.”
We’ve gathered together a selection of responses from the sector. Share your views in the comments section below, or on Twitter @GdnSocialCare
Jo Cleary, chair of the College of Social Work:
“It is seriously worrying if half of children’s services are deemed to be ‘less than good’, but we are pleased that evidence from the 10 ‘good’ local authorities shines a light on the kind of high-quality practice that can be achieved everywhere with strong leadership and investment in social work.
“Whilst effective and proportionate inspection is one important lever for improving children’s social care, we believe that social work expertise and knowledge must be better integrated into and shape the inspection framework than is the case now. We are concerned that inspection does not yet act as a genuine lever for improving outcomes for children and families.”
Cllr David Simmonds, chairman of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board:
“Protecting children is one of the most important jobs councils do and this report restates the pressure the system is under. Children’s services are creaking under the strain as they work to protect the most vulnerable children from abuse, neglect and child sexual exploitation. In an NHS system failing to cope with winter pressures, the government recently pledged £2bn to alleviate the crisis. We need Whitehall to redress the balance and give us adequate resources we need to get on with the vital job of protecting children.
“High-profile crimes of abuse and neglect have brought sharply into focus the need for vigilance. As a result, there are rightly thousands more children on the radar of social services now. But this is in a climate where councils have faced cuts to their budgets of 40% since 2010.”
Alan Wood, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services:
“Regrettably, because this is largely a progress report on the new model for social care inspection, the single inspection framework (Sif), and because we believe the Sif is flawed, the same applies to this report. The UK has one of the safest child protection systems in the developed world yet the results of the Sif inspections undertaken to date suggest that the services of over 70% of authorities are not yet good enough. This is simply is not credible. We believe this framework does not get to the heart of how well services are working, and, with a single-worded judgment it tells a partial and excessively negative story, which runs the risk of weakening the very services it seeks to improve.
“We have no difficulty being held to public account, and where the evidence is clear that an authority is failing, robust action must be taken to secure rapid improvement. That is why we have been, and will continue, working closely with Ofsted to secure an inspection system which helps all of us to improve, including the inspectorates.”
Emma Smale, head of public policy and research at Action for Children:
“Spending time and money preventing a problem rather than repairing the damage is the right thing to do for children.
“Crucial to providing early help is listening to children when they tell you that they are not safe. It is shocking that Ofsted found that many professionals rely solely on what parents say about a case, failing to speak to children at all.”
Nushra Mansuri, professional officer for the British Association of Social Workers (BASW):
“BASW shares the frustration of others in terms of the constantly moving goal posts in respect of successive changes to the Ofsted inspection framework, which has made the task of meeting the requirements of the inspection process even more challenging – particularly in these times of straitened resources.
“Nevertheless, we would like to give some credit to Ofsted for not shying away from the narrative in this report and acknowledging the real pressures that services and social workers are under, and also putting some of the onus back on government to address this.”
