Salford children services slammed in new report

The shocking catalogue of failure of Salford’s under-fire children’s services is today revealed. A scathing report by Ofsted inspectors has branded a key part of the children’s services as inadequate – for the second time in four years. The government could now bring in an outside team to take over.

Council bosses said they accepted the damning verdict – and pleaded for more time to put things right. But opposition leaders laid the blame at the door of council leader John Merry and called for him to quit.

The findings follow an inspection last August. And they come a year after the council was strongly criticised in a report on the death of toddler Demi Leigh Mahon, who was known to children’s services.

The new children’s minister Tim Loughton must now decide whether to issue improvement notices or send in a team of specialist consultants.

The report says that in seven out of 15 categories covering provision of safeguarding services the council is ‘inadequate’ – the lowest ranking a local authority can get. Safeguarding services monitor and provide support for children living in the community deemed to be at risk from neglect or abuse.

Care for youngsters looked after in children’s homes was rated just ‘adequate’ – meaning it meets only minimum requirements.

The report says: “Insufficient progress has been made in addressing important issues identified in the unannounced inspection in August 2009. The identification and management of risk when children are referred to social care services are still not consistent.”

Three cases selected randomly by inspectors indicated the need for immediate child protection action.

Senior managers accepted that responses had not been appropriate.

The Ofsted report also found:

    * Child protection concerns are not properly identified or responded to quickly, ‘leaving some children at potential risk’.
    * Case loads of some social workers in the court and child protection team was too high.
    * Arrangements between police and children services are not fully established, leading to disagreements about when a child protection investigation should start.
    * The leadership and management of senior managers and councillors was ineffective in delivering improvements.
    * Records of management decisions were not consistently available in case files.

Ofsted rated the council’s safeguarding and looked after children services in 33 different areas.

They rated four as ‘good’; 21 as ‘adequate’ and eight as ‘inadequate’. Seven of the eight inadequate rankings were in safeguarding. Since last year’s inspection there has been a complete change in the senior management team.

The report is the latest blow in a tumultuous three years for the department.

It has seen critical inspection reports, the sacking of the head of children’s services Jill Baker, and the departure in recent months of five high-ranking officers. In June 2009 a Serious Case Review into Demi Leigh Mahon’s death was damning about failures by the council, health professionals, and police in responding to the risk Demi was exposed to.

Demi Leigh, aged two, was killed by her 15-year-old babysitter Karl McCluney.

Norman Owen, the leader of Salford’s Liberal Democrats said of the report: “I do believe that the crux of this is the failure of political leadership and Coun Merry should resign.”

Karen Garrido, leader of the Tory Opposition, has called for government intervention.