Middlesbrough Council children's services see improvement

Ofsted found Middlesbrough Council had responded swiftly during the pandemic

A council's children's services department rated inadequate has made progress in improving care for vulnerable children, Ofsted has found.

The Middlesbrough Council unit had to be overseen by the government after the watchdog's report in January 2020.

Ofsted found vulnerable children were then being "chronically neglected" for too long before they were helped.

In the new report inspectors warned some services were still not good enough.

Children's services director Sue Butcher said the past year had been "exceptionally challenging".

"But staff at every level have worked with immense dedication and professionalism to ensure that we continue to make the improvements required of us," she said.

"This report shows we're moving in the right direction."

During inspections in late-2019 Ofsted found "serious and widespread weaknesses" had left children "at risk of significant harm".

'Not good enough'

Inspectors returned in September last year and found improvements in how risk assessments were carried out and better services "at the front door", the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

However, they were still concerned about social workers' caseloads and said some services were "not good enough".

During their latest visit in May, which was "remote", they found new areas where improvement was needed "in addition to the serious and widespread weaknesses identified" in 2019.

Their report asked for action to be taken to ensure vulnerable children, those in care and those with special educational needs or disabilities received their "full educational entitlement".

Better understanding was required of the children's, and their families', needs, it said.

However, inspectors found there had been a "comprehensive programme of improvement".

The authority had responded swiftly to the pandemic, with children seen regularly and safely throughout, they said.

Social workers also were found to be "creative and persistent", which inspectors found to be "demonstrably making a difference" to children's lives.

The multi-agency children's hub, which is many children's first point of contact with the department, had "continued to strengthen" after causing concern in the initial inspection.

'Variable quality'

Ofsted said efforts were being made to manage caseloads but they remained "challenging" and too much social work was still of "variable quality" and again rated poor.

"Although social workers' workloads are reducing, they remain too high for some social workers, particularly in the safeguarding and care planning and pathway teams," the report said.

"In addition, some children experience too many changes in social workers. 

"Children told inspectors that, if they could change anything, they would like to have social workers who stayed with them for a long time."

Middlesbrough Mayor Andy Preston said the progress was "no cause for complacency". 

"This latest report is clear on our progress and also the issues we need to address," he said.