Inspectors to probe city council children's services

Ofsted will begin a week-long inspection of Peterborough City Council’s (PCC) children’s services on Monday

Ofsted is to begin an inspection of Peterborough City Council's children's services on Monday.

It follows a previous short, focussed inspection of its multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) in March that found it was not "effectively promoting the protection of children" and that some were being "left in situations of potential risk for too long". 

The inspection is due to finish on 8 December, with a report expected by the council in January. 

At the council's most recent children's and education scrutiny committee meeting, Labour councillor Samantha Hemraj said it was "highly likely that the whole of children's services will need improvement".

Following the March inspection, the council was issued with an improvement notice by the Department for Education (DfE).

That led to the setting up of an independently-chaired board which drew up an improvement scheme for the MASH and appointed former Ofsted inspector John Gregg to oversee it.

Mr Gregg previously told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he was striving to make Peterborough a “truly child-friendly city”, but admitted that “more and more people are needing more and more help at a time when there’s less and less money”. 

Financial statements have since revealed that a single child’s care plan could cost the council £2.6m this year, while children’s services more generally make up £4.2m of its forecasted £6.4m overspend in 2023/4.