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Wirral Council has announced a £2 million investment in children’s services to tackle issues identified in the latest Ofsted inspection.

The council said it and its partners are taking urgent steps to improve services for children and young people, after regulators Ofsted judged them to be “inadequate”.

Ofsted highlighted “serious and widespread failures” in the delivery of services to children who need help and protection in Wirral, focusing on frequent changes in social workers, issues with how partners work together – and evidence of poor records management across a range of areas.

Despite financial challenges, the council has committed an additional £2m of targeted investments to recruit additional social workers, improve training and management – and to put more experienced, long-term leadership in place.

Chief Executive of Wirral Council, Eric Robinson, said:

“The Ofsted report found serious and widespread failures in some of our practices – these failings are unacceptable and do not reflect the quality services Wirral people expect or deserve. It is absolutely vital we put them right as quickly as possible.

“Last week, an Improvement Board was established and met for the first time – and the leader of the council instructed me to begin taking the required actions to deliver the changes we need to make.

“When I joined Wirral last year, it was clear that unprecedented levels of staff turnover in senior, key positions were having an impact on our social work teams.

“We have already taken steps to rectify the issue – and we are now going further more quickly.

“New staff members are being recruited, new training programmes are being developed – and we are taking urgent steps to implement Ofsted’s recommendations.”

Director of Children’s Services, Julia Hassall, added:

“Our front-line social care teams work incredibly hard in trying to protect our most vulnerable young people, but it is absolutely clear improvements need to be made.

“We know how important it is to keep a young person safe – when our social workers come to work every morning, it is the thing at the forefront of their minds: keeping children safe.

“I understand the pressure they are under– they are constantly being asked to do more with much less and have coped with an almost constantly changing management team above them; but we need to be absolutely clear on what is expected.

“We need to create the right environment for our staff – and give them the right tools to do their jobs well, but also hold them to account when certain standards are not met.

“This goes for everyone, from the Chief Executive, myself, my management team, all social workers and every council employee.

“We are taking immediate and urgent action to make sure our vulnerable young people are provided with the very best possible protection, which always has been – and always will be – our priority.”

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