‘widespread failings’ found in Gloucestershire children’s services

In Gloucestershire, Ofsted has stated that there are “serious and widespread failures” in their children’s services. They have also said “too many children” were being left in situations of “risk of significant harm for too long” because dangers were not recognised. It found that standards had “deteriorated significantly” since it was last rated inadequate in 2011. The council admitted it had “fallen short” but they have made “major changes”. The report found that the major concerns lie with the services’ senior leadership team. Ofsted found that there is a “lack of management oversight” and children are in “situations of risk”, as well as finding a “significant number” of cases being referred back to the local authority because of managers and social workers “[failing] to identify children at risk” or “appropriately to escalating risks in families”. A spokesperson for Gloucestershire children’s services, stated that they are working on these concerns and that “our social workers do very difficult and complex work - they are not to blame” and that “the responsibility lies with their leadership and management team and we have taken swift action to deal with this.” There is hope that these reports will lead to an improvement in children’s services Ofsted has said that children’s services are “improving” in Birmingham and continue to make steady progress, giving hope to the other children’s services which were rated inadequate. This is a boost to Birmingham children’s services, which had been labelled a “national disgrace”having held an inadequate rating since 2008. Ofsted has said that: “Although substantial further progress is require before services are consistently good, in a number of key areas in Birmingham are receiving better and timelier services”.