West Sussex County Council 'failing vulnerable children'

A council is failing vulnerable young people due to "widespread and serious weaknesses" in its children's services, a watchdog report says.

The quality of care children receive in West Sussex is a "lottery and depends on where they live", Ofsted said.

Signs of neglect were not always recognised, with "profound consequences" for some, it added.

The council has apologised and said it was carrying out "aggressive and targeted" improvements.

A report said there were "long-standing, widespread and serious weaknesses" in services intended to protect children, and "risks are seldom recognised".

Inspectors identified "critical weaknesses in how social workers, managers and partner agencies identify and respond to neglect".

The "continual turnover" of social workers and a high workload had a "negative impact on how often [children] are seen and how well they are enabled to build relationships with professionals," the report said.

Sophie Palmer, who went into care in West Sussex at the age of six, said she had about 10 social workers in 12 years.

The 21-year-old student said: "It does get quite tiresome. Every time somebody new comes in you have to re-explain everything to this new person, who then is in charge of your life and responsible for everything that happens to you.

"These are children who already don't have a lot of support in place and they need continuity.

"When you are a child that has been taken out of home and you have a stranger that you have to explain your life story to every six months, it's just like another straw on the camel's back."

She said the lack of contact with social workers made her feel "abandoned" and "worthless".

Inspectors found children in care "receive an inadequate service" with failings resulting in "missed opportunities to improve children's lives".

They found that care plans were out-of-date for a quarter of children.

It follows an inspection of children's homes in June 2018, which led to the closure of The Seaside Home for Children in Shoreham-by-Sea.

A restructure of the service in 2015 led to "significant staff turnover" with workers left "to cover a broad range of work, without the skills and expertise that are needed," the report said.

The failings had been known to the council's political leadership but pledges to increase funding had "come too late to prevent substantial service decline," the report said.

Councillor Michael Jones, leader of the council's Labour group said an investigation was needed to "identify those children who have suffered prolonged neglect".

Councillor Louise Goldsmith, the Conservative council leader, admitted Ofsted's report was "absolutely devastating".

She said action was under way to improve the service, including the appointment of a new director of children's services.

"We are building on what we know is wrong to get it right, because what we have got is unacceptable at the moment," she said.

Ofsted said members of the "corporate parenting panel" - a group of councillors appointed to oversee the authority's responsibility for children in care - were "aware of the significant concerns...but they have not been effective in making changes".

Ms Goldsmith said the report was a "wake-up call" and the council had made changes to the panel, which had not been "specific or hard-hitting enough".