Some children still failed by council - Ofsted

Ofsted said there was a "poor" response to children at the risk of homelessness

A council has been told it needs to improve how it looks after homeless young people and children leaving care.

Cheshire West and Chester Council was also pulled up by Ofsted for still putting a small number of children in "illegal" unregistered care homes.

The watchdog also raised concerns about the authority's lack of proper planning around young people at risk of exploitation.

The council said it was disappointed by the judgement but that the report "acknowledges a high proportion of positive practice".

'Illegal placements'

In its first review of the council's children's services since 2019, Ofsted highlighted that too many children who went missing were not, on their return, interviewed about where they had been and whom they had been with.

This made it difficult to see how the council could be sure it was tackling exploitation risk effectively, the report said.

Services for children aged 16 and 17 who risked becoming homeless was "poor", the inspectors found.

They also said the services for children in care were generally good, although a "very small number of children were "illegally placed in unregistered children's homes".

Last year, the BBC reported that at one point there were 370 unregistered care homes across the country, although most were eventually closed.

In 78% of cases, young people were placed in them because there were no regulated children's home places available at the time.

The then-Conservative government promised £259m towards creating more care placements for children.

'Robust plan'

Adam Langan, Cheshire West and Chester’s cabinet member for children and young people said the council was developing a “robust improvement plan”.

“The report is clear that there are some areas that need to be improved, and the areas for development that were highlighted by inspectors are aligned to those which we suggested we needed to strengthen further as part of our set up session,” he said.

“Our excellent teams will continue to work hard to deliver the best outcomes for our children, young people and families.”

Ofsted also said "over-optimism" by leaders means that although improvement plans focus on the right areas "they have lacked sufficient pace and impact".

Adrian Waddelove, the deputy leader of the council’s Conservative group, said the report was "concerning".

"Ofsted’s report is clear that the council has been over optimistic in its own performance levels, meaning identified improvements have not happened quickly enough - sadly a familiar tale," he said.