Coventry children at 'continuing risk', says Ofsted

Some children under the watch of Coventry's children's services are at "continuing" or "increased risk", Ofsted has said.

The findings come following its first inspection of the department since rating it "inadequate" in 2014.

Inspectors spent two days in Coventry at the start of November, in the first monitoring visit since its full inspection.

The city council said it was "constantly evaluating" its own work.

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In an overview of its findings, the regulator said: "There has been insufficient progress in ensuring that outcomes for children and young people in need of help and protection have improved."

"In some cases, not enough consideration was given to continuing risk and lack of progress in reducing risk over sustained periods of time," the report said.

It added: "This has left children and young people at continuing and, in some cases, increased risk."

Ofsted found there had been progress in reducing social worker's caseloads and said the establishment of multi-agency safeguarding hub is helping manage the volume of work into social care.

But added: "Insufficient progress has been made in key areas of practice since the last inspection.

"Some children and young people remain at risk and as a result their outcomes remain poor."

John Gregg, director of children's services at the authority, said: ""We are constantly evaluating our own work and we know the areas we're doing well in and the areas that we need to continue to focus on."