Northamptonshire: Fresh oversight for troubled children's service

The Independent Improvement Board will monitor children's services in Northamptonshire

A newly-created Independent Improvement Board will monitor children's services in Northamptonshire.

It comes after the county's children's services commissioner, Andrew Christie, stepped down.

Government minister for children and families, Will Quince, has appointed Jenny Coles as chairwoman of the board.

Councillor Jason Smithers said oversight of children's services was still needed to give young people "the best life chances".

North Northamptonshire Council leader Mr Smithers lobbied the government for a new role to be created after Mr Christie stepped down.

Mr Christie was appointed in 2019 after Northamptonshire's children were found to be at "potential risk".

He left the role as he said "significant progress" had been made in the county.

Andrew Christie left his role at the end of 2021 having reported children's services in Northamptonshire were progressing

The board's role will be to report on the progress of children's services across Northamptonshire.

The government first sent a commissioner, initially Malcolm Newsam, to oversee children's services in the county in 2018.

That followed a highly critical Ofsted report that said social workers were "overwhelmed".

In July 2019, a further inspection found Northamptonshire County Council was "failing to keep children safe".

Two serious case reviews published the same year found the authority had failed to protect two murdered children.

Dylan Tiffin-Brown, two, and Evelyn-Rose Muggleton, one, were victims of separate murders in Northamptonshire in 2017 and 2018.

Northamptonshire County Council failed to protect Dylan Tiffin-Brown who was murdered by his father, a serious case review previously found

Mr Christie took over the role of commissioner in October 2019, with the remit of overseeing the service and helping to usher in a new children's trust in November 2020.

Since then a local government re-organisation has seen the financially-crippled county council abolished and replaced by two new unitary authorities in North and West Northamptonshire.

Mr Smithers said he welcomed Mr Christie's report of "positive improvement" in children's services, but added: "I am firmly of the view that independent oversight is still required, reflecting both the importance of the service and the early position of the Trust's improvement journey."

Jason Smithers said he believed children's services in Northamptonshire requires external oversight

He said he had worked with government and "insisted there was a continuation of this oversight role so that Northamptonshire is in the best position possible to give our children and young people the best life chances in the future".

West Northamptonshire Council's executive member for children, Fiona Baker, said children's services continued to "grow from strength to strength and it is a real sign of progress that the government felt that a commissioner was no longer required to oversee the improvements".

She said the new role would help the authority be "in the best position possible to give our children and young people the best life chances".