Sefton Council child services in severe difficulties - commissioner

Paul Boyce called for urgent improvements at the department

A council's children's services is in "severe difficulties", a government-appointed commissioner has said.

Paul Boyce was brought in to oversee improvements after the department at Sefton Council was rated inadequate by Ofsted in February 2022.

Mr Boyce warned that the service could be removed from council control if improvements failed to be made.

He said the service was letting children down and called for urgent action.

Addressing the borough's overview and scrutiny committee, Mr Boyce said it was his responsibility to ensure all aspects of the improvement plan were implemented.

"I can't be any clearer - your children's services is in severe difficulties and unless you all work together to fix the problems you've got you will let children down in this borough as you already have as a council," he said.

Councillor Mike Prendergast said the committee had been left operating under "false pretences" as it had not been given minutes of the improvement board.

But Martin Birch, director of children's services, said: "There's nothing that goes into the improvement board that you don't see."

'Lack of trust'

Mr Boyce claimed councillors were mistaken in thinking it was their role to scrutinise the board.

He added that it sounded like there was a "lack of trust" between councillors and officers and urged them to work together.

Mr Boyce said that if after 12 months he was not satisfied that the service was improving, he "would start to get really worried about whether [the department] would get out of intervention."

"The bottom line is children need to be safeguarded and services need to be of at least a certain standard," he added.