Torbay Children's Services good after years of inadequacy

Torbay's Children's Services have been through years of poor performance

Children's services in a part of Devon have undergone a "remarkable transformation" and have been rated as good by inspectors.

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) visited Torbay in March.

It said Torbay's Children's Services performed poorly in 2011 and rated them inadequate in 2016 and 2018.

Council leader Steve Darling said the improvement was "absolutely incredible".

Following the inadequate rating in 2018, Torbay's Children's Services were taken over by Plymouth City Council but still failed to make needed improvements

In 2010, when Ofsted said some children were being left at risk of "significant harm", the then director of children's services, Carol Tozer, said she was "deeply sorry" for letting children down. She resigned the following year, citing health reasons.

Following the inadequate rating in 2018, Plymouth City Council was put in charge of Torbay's Children's Services.

Services were brought back under Torbay's control in 2019 after being found to have failed to deliver the needed improvements, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

Nancy Meehan was made Torbay's director of children's services and a monitoring visit check in January 2020 found improvements.

In its latest report, Ofsted judged the council as good in all four areas of inspection, including the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families, the experiences and progress of children who need help and protection, the experiences and progress of children in care and for those children leaving care.

Ms Meehan said the report "pays testament to the passion and dedication of our workforce".

Mr Darling said the improvement was "absolutely incredible" and the council was "making a real difference to the lives of our children and young people".

Ofsted said the council still needed to improve housing for children who had been in care and for families in temporary accommodation. 

According to the council, 157 households were in temporary accommodation in Torbay as of 3 May.