By Charlotte Webster-
Devon council has been branded ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted, after an inspection revealed that some care leavers had been forced to live in tents on the streets, as senior leaders at the council were unaware of the situation.
Services for care leavers were condemned as ‘inadequate’ in a shameful criticism of the poor running of the council’s affairs. “In general, care leavers with the greatest needs, including struggles with their mental health are left in unsuitable accommodation for too long because their corporate parents do not step in and act,” Ofsted’s report said.
”Until this inspection, senior leaders did not know about the extent of the failures to protect some of the most vulnerable children and young people from harm.They were unaware that a very small minority of their care leavers were or had been living in tents on the streets.
”In some areas, politicians, senior leaders and practitioners have demonstrated that they have the capacity to make the changes required. In others, they have lacked grip, and the pace of improvement has been far too slow. The development of early help for families, a mature approach to addressing exploitation, and strong partnerships with key agencies are all making a positive difference to children’s lives”, it said.
The report said that “senior leaders have lost their line of sight to some of the most vulnerable children.” “The quality assurance of the care leavers service through case auditing has been negligible over the last 18 months, despite it being an area that has inherent weaknesses.”.
“An incoherent approach to legal planning, poor oversight of children’s plans by team managers and over-optimism about families’ capacity to change”, was affecting decisions concerning accommodation for children in care.
More accommodation and support available for young people including assessment of risk and safety planning for young people is necessary for things to improve in Devon Council, the regulator said. Access for young people to full information about their health histories. The quality of social work practice, to assess, support and protect children who experience neglect, and the effective use of pre-proceedings.
Permanence was “not consistently embedded” in social workers’ thinking, with independent reviewing officers failing to challenge practitioners, Ofsted found, though the report added that senior managers had recently tried to address these deficiencies.
SOCIAL WORKERS LACK CLARITY
Children experience extreme variability in the services that they receive. There are areas where progress has been made, particularly in the early help offer and when teenagers present as being homeless. However, some children who have suffered chronic neglect and emotional abuse are left with their families for too long because social workers and their managers lack clarity about how
and when to escalate concerns into the legal arena.
Life story work was identified as another problematic area, with social workers and personal advisors “not equipped or driven” to help children.
“Rather than being an integral part of direct work with children, life-story work is seen as a discrete and time-consuming piece of work by social workers,” Ofsted’s report said. “Children’s memories are not routinely gathered in a way that helps them to make sense of their identity and history.”
CHILDREN IN NEED OF HELP AND PROTECTION
Devon’s services for children in need of help and protection were the only category not rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted, which said they ‘required improvement’.
Inspectors praised the county’s early help offer, which they said had been “significantly strengthened” via effective partnership working, showing that senior leaders had been able to get a grip in some practice areas.
“Increasingly, children and families are getting the right help at the right time from people who they know and trust,” Ofsted’s report said.
The multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) was also deemed to be “well-resourced and effective”, with the use of thresholds also having been strengthened and a “shared ownership of the analysis of risk”..
“There are too many examples of children being the subject of child protection or children in need plans for extended lengths of time without families being able to evidence progress or change,” inspectors said.
Performance management across the county was also found to be highly inconsistent, a situation reflected in the poor quality of many child protection plans.
DISAPPOINTING
Devon council’s cabinet member for children’s services, James McInnes, said the authority accepted the “bitterly disappointing” findings and would be working with ‘outstanding’ neighbour Cornwall to set them right.
“Any parent will recognise that trying to help a young person to become a thriving young adult able to stand on their own two feet can be a tough job,” McInnes said. “This is especially true of the most troubled and vulnerable of our care leavers who are living chaotic lives, and struggling with things like drug and alcohol or mental health issues.
McInnes added: “The cases highlighted by Ofsted are clearly extreme, but we fully recognise we have a duty of care to every single care leaver and as a corporate parent we must do more to reach out and wrap support around them better.”