'Inconsistent' Lancashire children's services 'still have room for improvement'

Ofsted said Lancashire County Council's children's services are no longer "inadequate"

Children in Lancashire who need help and protection are receiving better support from the county council to keep them safe, a report has found.

But Ofsted said that while children's services are no longer "inadequate", they still need to improve.

Inspectors visited the department in June and said there was evidence of "renewed energy and focus" since its previous inspection three years ago.

The regulator said there was still "inconsistent practice", however.

It said senior managers and people who run the council "have started to do a much better job".

Staff get training to do a good job and young people who are looked after are getting "much better help" with their education or job prospects.

There was also praise for adoption performance, which was rated as "good".

But the report said the authority needed to get better at "effective early help to all children" and improve planning and feedback from children and families.

'Started to improve'

It concluded that its rating had gone from "inadequate" in September 2015 to "requires improvement".

John Readman, Lancashire County Council's interim executive director of education and children's services, said: "Whilst there is still work to be done this report shows that children's services in Lancashire have started to improve and good progress is being made.

"I would like to thank staff for all their hard work."

According to the report, there are about 246,600 children in Lancashire.

In May, 1,699 children had been identified as being formally in need of a specialist children's service and 1,986 children were in local authority care. It operates 14 children's homes.