Halton Council children's services improving, Ofsted finds

A recent report into children's services at Halton Council said the situation had improved

A council has made much-needed improvements after inspectors found "significant weaknesses" in its children's services department, an education watchdog has said.

Ofsted said a new senior leadership team at Halton Council had accelerated changes to its improvement journey.

It follows a critical report by the education watchdog in November 2021.

Halton Council said the authority was pleased by the acknowledgment but there was still "some way to go".

In the report published by Ofsted, inspectors found "significant weaknesses" in social work practice and shortfalls in management, which had "failed to safeguard and promote children's welfare".

It also said senior managers had reported a high prevalence of neglect in Halton but that there was currently no clear and consistent approach to managing the situation.

But following the last inspection in November, inspectors said the new chief executive officer, Stephen Young, had "secured corporate commitment and significant financial investment to children's services" in the council's "drive to improve social work practice".

The report also said a newly-established senior leadership team had begun and this "accelerated the much-needed pace of change to the local authority's improvement journey."

But the report said there were areas which could be improved including the quality of social workers' supervision and the consistency of audit practice.

Milorad Vasic, the council's executive director of children's services, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he was pleased Ofsted had recognised the "council's commitment, backed by significant investment," to make improvements.

He said there was "still some way for us to go" but there was a "robust improvement plan" which would deliver the necessary changes going forward.

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