Herefordshire Council given six months to improve children's services

Herefordshire Council should retain control of its struggling children's services, but with external support, a government report recommends.

Services are rated inadequate and found to be failing to protect children.

In a report to the Department for Education, children's commissioner Eleanor Brazil said the local authority did not yet have the capacity to develop the services in a reasonable timeframe.

The council has promised to improve.

It has now been given six months to "demonstrate that it can effect real change" with the extra support in place, including additional expertise and oversight.

Ms Brazil was appointed in September to help the council speed up improvements to the service after "widespread and serious" failures were identified in safeguarding children.

In her report to the Department for Education, Ms Brazil recognised the council leadership's commitments but noted that problems facing its children's services dated back years and had long been overlooked.

"Unfortunately, the council did not previously welcome support," she wrote to the minister of state for children and families, Claire Coutinho.

"The situation is very different now," she went on, but added the new leadership team was still relatively inexperienced.

Herefordshire has a high number of children in care and a high turnover of social workers - currently 50% of positions are filled by agency workers and some families have had multiple points of contact in a year.

Ms Brazil said this was "deeply worrying".

She said this was partially due to the council's "slow return to face-to-face working" after the Covid lockdowns and its policy of employing agency workers outside Herefordshire who mostly work from home.

However, she noted the council had moved to make improvements, including increasing its funding for children's services. She highlighted early signs of reduced caseloads, better management oversight and increased supervision.

"It is hoped this trend will continue," she wrote.

"But the lack of a sufficiently rigorous and systematic approach has meant that any improvements have been slow and have not created sufficient confidence that this will be as comprehensive as it needs to be, and sustained.

"In my view, the council does not currently have the capacity and capability to improve children's services in a reasonable timeframe."

She recommended that in the short term, the council continue to control children's services but with additional expertise and oversight from a commissioner and improvement adviser.

"If the arrangements outlined here do not achieve the level of progress needed... within this three to six month timescale, then consideration will need to be given to an alternative delivery model," her report concluded.

Council leaders thanked Mrs Brazil for her report and said they fully accepted her findings, reiterating their pledge to continue to improve services in Herefordshire.

"We welcome the opportunity to work with the commissioner, partner authorities, other agencies and families to bring to an end the failings which have affected our children's service for far too long," said council leader David Hitchiner.

"I would also again like to apologise to all the families and children who have not received the support they deserved over a number of years and restate the determination of my administration to put things right."

His colleague chief executive Paul Walker added the council accepted the pace of change had "not been fast enough".

He said the local authority had a three-year improvement plan in place which would serve as a "strong platform for progress over the coming months".

Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]