Inspectors have criticised a Merseyside council for leaving too many children in high risk situations for too long.
Ofsted found “drift and delay” at Sefton Council’s children’s services department.
While the inspection report praised the way Sefton had coped with the Covid-19 pandemic, Ofsted inspector Mandy Nightingale found “too many” children were being left in high-risk situations “for too long”.
Ms Nightingale identified several areas of “drift and delay”, including in making decisions for children subject to child protection plans, escalating cases where progress has not been made.
She added that senior leaders “were not aware of the degree of drift and delay experienced by most children” while the quality of social work was “variable” and “too many social workers have high caseloads”.
A spokesperson for Sefton Council said the authority had taken steps to address Ofsted’s recommendations and, prior to the inspection, had already agreed a £7m investment in children’s social care to deal with rising demand.
The report followed an inspection carried out at the beginning of March as part of Ofsted’s work examining how the care system has coped with the pandemic.
In her report, Ms Nightingale said Sefton Council and its partners had “worked well together to continue to provide an effective response to children in need or at risk of harm, in a town where deprivation is high.”
Responses to children requiring immediate protection were “timely and proportionate” and decisions on bringing children into care were “mostly appropriate”.
However, difficulties recruiting social workers continued to be a problem, meaning staff could not complete all of their statutory duties and had to work weekends and evenings to keep up with their caseloads.
Responding to the report, a spokesperson for Sefton Council said: “We acknowledge the recommendations of the report and have taken steps to address them since the visit took place.
“Prior to the visit the council had agreed a £7m investment in children’s social care following unprecedented increases in demand for services, which has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“However, we are committed to reducing social workers’ caseloads and growing our workforce at all levels to ensure that we provide high quality services to children, young people and their families.
“The report recognises many of the strengths and the areas where we have improved including the strength of our multi-agency safeguarding hub, and relationships with educational providers have significantly strengthened.
“As demand continues to increase for children’s services, and with limited resources available to us, we accept that this can have an impact on the delivery of certain areas. As such we recognise there are opportunities for improvement highlighted in the report but are pleased that the report also acknowledged the effective response to children in need or at risk of harm in a town where deprivation is high.”
