Leadership failures saw Trafford children left in 'neglectful situations'

Inspectors found some children were "living in neglectful situations for too long"

A "widespread deterioration" of a council's children's services has seen some youngsters left in "neglectful situations for too long" before being taken into care, inspectors have found.

Rating Trafford Council's services as inadequate, Ofsted said there had been "failures in leadership" and bosses had been unaware of the decline.

The services were rated good in the last inspection in 2015.

The council said it had "a lot of lessons to learn" from the findings.

The latest inspection, which was carried out in March, highlighted a number of concerns, including:

• delays in support for vulnerable children had seen some "living in neglectful situations for too long before they come into care"

• issues with quality assurance and record-keeping

• "weak" planning for care leavers

• social worker caseloads being "too high"

Council chief executive Sara Todd said she was confident "no children had been put at risk"

The report said a "lack of effective management oversight... had led to leaders and managers being unaware of significant weaknesses, such as those at the multi-agency referral and assessment team".

It said bosses believed services remained good or outstanding and it was "only when presented with findings... did they acknowledge practice had declined and required improvement".

However, inspectors found that children at immediate risk of harm had received "timely" interventions and most children with disabilities had "effective plans of support".

The council's chief executive Sara Todd said the criticisms in the "stark report" had been accepted, but "no children had been put at risk".

She added that changes had already been made to "put right" issues identified and more social workers had been recruited to lessen caseloads.