Trafford Council senior leaders believed that their Children’s Care services remained good or outstanding,had no awareness of the decline in services and no accurate understanding of the current quality of practice.
That’s the stunning conclusion of OFSTED inspectors who have reported on the state of services across Trafford following an inspection in March of this year.
The Inspectors found that many children in need of early help do not get the support that they need quickly enough, and some children who need social work assessment experience delay before they are passed to teams for their needs to be considered.
Children at immediate risk of harm received timely assessment and intervention that make them safer and all other children receive an assessment of their needs, and for a small
number, the quality of this work is good and ensures effective support.
However, said the team,for the majority of children, the quality of the assessment and the plan to support them is not good. This variability in response to children’s needs leaves some children living in neglectful situations for too long before they come into care.
They also concluded that some children remain the subject of care orders for too long when they are living with their parents or with family members. Although care leavers do get some good support, long-term planning is weak and does not ensure that they achieve the best possible outcomes.
