‘SERIOUS and widespread failures’ have been identified by Ofsted inspectors in a damning, ‘inadequate’ report into Gloucestershire’s children’s services.

Published on Tuesday, the review of Gloucestershire County Council’s ‘services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers’ labelled them as ‘inadequate’ and questioned “the integrity of the current senior leadership team”.

Despite in its last inspection for, in 2011, also being given an ‘inadequate’ rating – the lowest on the Ofsted scale – inspectors said that the county’s services for children and families “has now deteriorated significantly”.

The number of children requiring the council’s services by the end of February was 7,319 – a steep increase from 6,062 at the end of March 2016 – while it was looking after 604 children, most of whom (473) were living with foster families.

Senior leadership of children’s services at the council were heavily criticised with inspectors saying “serious concerns about the integrity of the current senior leadership team were raised” with “significant discrepancies” in some information provided to them demonstrating that some staff felt “vulnerable” and “fearful of challenging or exposing poor practice”.

In the two years prior to the inspection, seven serious notifications were submitted to Ofsted by the council which also carried out three serious case reviews into serious childcare incidents.

The report also outlines concerns that failures in the service were leaving some children “exposed to unassessed risk for far too long” as children are not seen early enough by social workers.

Pete Bungard, chief executive of Gloucestershire County Council said: “I am sorry that we have not supported our children and their families as quickly as we should have done.

“The Ofsted report states that we have been taking too long to make decisions and don’t have the right procedures to highlight delays.

“Immediate action has been taken.

“We have changed the leadership of our children’s services and are making fundamental changes to the way it works.

“We have brought in some of the country’s top social work specialists to lead our 500 dedication, passionate and committed social care and support staff.

“We will continue to work very closely with the Department for Education, Ofsted and the Local Government Association. With them we have produced an improvement plan.

“There are some areas of good practice that have been recognised: our record on adoption and fostering, the commitment of individual social workers to their children, our young ambassadors programme and our work with homeless young people.

“We must build on our track record in these areas to ensure all of the support we provide to children and young people is the best it can be.

"Ofsted is also positive about the leadership that has come from senior councillors, and have acknowledged the £9.2million investment the council is putting into this area of work.”

Following the publication of the report, the council’s Liberal Democrat members have called for an extraordinary meeting to be held.

Group leader, Cllr Paul Hodgkinson (Lib Dem, Bourton & Northleach) said: "This is an utterly damning report on the state of local children’s services in Gloucestershire. It is a story of failure.

“It is alarming that the report states that "senior leaders have not sufficiently prioritised or improved the quality of social work practice since services for children in need of help and protection were judged inadequate in 2011, and the quality of services to children and families has now deteriorated significantly". 

“We have seen several ‘inadequate’ inspection reports across the country where there have been calls for resignations and requests made to establish independent peer review boards. 

"Here, we know that heads are already rolling as a result of this report with the sudden resignation of one and the quick retirement of another senior officer within the department.

"We have therefore today written to the Chair of the Council calling for a special meeting of elected members to discuss the findings of this report in detail and to hear Ofsted's recommendations to tackle the serious failings that have been identified in this report.

The council’s leaders need to explain how this has happened under their watch."