North East Lincolnshire: Commissioner to examine child services after Ofsted report

Councillor Ian Lindley said: "We will not shy away from this, instead we will rise to it."

A commissioner is to investigate the state of a council's children's services after a damning Ofsted report.

Ofsted said the services in North East Lincolnshire had "significantly deteriorated" since 2017 and rated them inadequate in November.

The Department of Education said Peter Dwyer would look into the council, whose headquarters are in Grimsby.

He will decide if the council is to be temporarily removed from control of child social care in March.

The government notice said the council had "systemically failed as its children's social care services have been found to be 'inadequate' across all of the key judgements in the recent Ofsted inspection report".

Council leaders pledged to make urgent changes after the report was published in November, and said the authority would fully co-operate.

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Councillor Ian Lindley, Portfolio Holder for Children's Services, said they were "committed to work" with the commissioner "to accelerate an improvement plan".

A shortage of social workers is also exacerbating the issue, according to the council.

The authority is looking after 582 children, double the number that were in its care five years ago.

The number is almost three times the national average, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.