Cornwall Council taking ‘decisive action’ over children’s services

Cornwall Council says it is taking decisive action to improve the quality of the social care services it currently provides to children, young people and families in the county.

Following a critical inspection of children’s social care referral services in July, which raised concerns about the overall quality of practice, and the more recent Ofsted inspection carried out last month, the council’s chief Executive Kevin Lavery has drawn up an action plan which will be implemented over the next few weeks. This includes the appointment of two new interim directors who will lead the planned improvements to the service.

It has already appointed Richard Hubbard as the interim director for children, schools and families. He is an experienced director of children’s services, having served in this role in two councils over the past seven years. He was director in a unitary council, West Berkshire, followed by a three year term with Worcestershire County Council, a period which saw the creation of a fully integrated children’s service which was rated as “good with outstanding features” in the joint area review last year. He also has extensive teaching experience in the primary sector in both inner city and rural areas.

Kevin Peers is also joining Cornwall Council as the interim Head of Improvement in the Directorate. He trained as a social worker and has extensive social care expertise covering both adults and children’s services. He worked in Devon in 2007 and 2008 and took the strategic lead for all aspects of social care for children’s and family services. Most recently he has been interim assistant director for children’s services (social care) in Leicestershire.

Announcing the two appointments, Kevin Lavery said that he was confident that, with their assistance, the Council would be able to address the areas of concern.

“The council is committed to providing a high quality service which meets the needs of children, young people and families in Cornwall. The unannounced inspection in July raised a number of serious issues which need to be addressed as quickly as possible. We had already drawn up an action plan to begin this process when we were told that we would receive a further inspection in September. “We have not yet received the final Ofsted report but we supplied the Inspectors with the evidence they have used to make their judgements so we know that we have major issues to address. Our focus is to improve children’s care as quickly as possible. Therefore we were not prepared to wait for the final report to be published and have taken immediate action to put the problems right. The appointment of Richard and Kevin is the first step in driving through the improvements we need to make to ensure that we provide the high quality and effective children’s services the people of Cornwall deserve.

“Making these changes will not happen overnight and we will now be looking to work with our partner organisations such as the Children’s Trust, health and the police to create a truly excellent children’s services authority in Cornwall.

Both Richard and Kevin are already working with elected members, Council staff and partners to implement the action plan.