Knowsley children's services have not improved in years, report says

Knowsley Council said it was a "major priority" for children's services to be "the very best they possibly can be"

Children's services in Knowsley have "not improved" since 2017, according to an Ofsted inspection report.

The inspection in October found "continuing weaknesses in the quality of practice" for children receiving social care services in the borough.

It said the situation for care leavers had "deteriorated" and rated services overall as "requiring improvement".

The council said it was a "major priority" for children's services to be "the very best they possibly can be".

Serious problems with Knowsley's children's services were first identified in 2014, when the quality of provision was deemed "inadequate" following an Ofsted visit, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Although improvements were made, leading the watchdog to upgrade the service to "requires improvement" in 2017, inspectors said there had been little progress since.

Key issues identified included weaknesses in domestic abuse services. leading in some cases to delays in taking action to protect children from risk of harm.

'Major priority'

The report said the council "places too much responsibility on mothers to take action to protect their children" and found assessments of children and families were often lacking thorough analysis.

The way disabled children are moved from children to adult services was criticised, with inspectors noting this happens too late, leaving uncertainty about the future for families and young people.

Inspectors said problems with private fostering arrangements remained un-addressed despite being flagged up at two previous inspections.

While some aspects of the service were deemed "good", overall inspectors found it continued to "require improvement".

Councillor Margaret Harvey, Knowsley Council cabinet member for children's services, said: "Naturally we want our services for children to be the very best that they possibly can be, and this is something we continue to work on as a major priority.

"We have been on a significant improvement journey in recent years and striving to make further improvements remains a key priority for us."