Government steps in to improve Rotherham's failing Children's Services

THE GOVERNMENT is taking urgent action to improve Rotherham’s crisis hit children’s services following a damning OFSTED report.

The service, which is heading for an overspend of nearly £4 million,  dropped from three stars to two in this year’s ratings, which triggered an internal review.

Now Children’s Minister Dawn Primarolo has stepped in to take further action to improve children's safeguarding services.

It could mean issuing an Improvement Notice to secure swift action to upgrade children's services.

This is a new intervention by the Government following an unannounced inspection of Rotherham’s contact, referral and assessment processes for children's social care.

The inspection highlighted a number of areas in need of development and three priority actions which needed to be taken to keep the children of Rotherham safe.

They were the workload of social workers, quality assurance and information systems.

Ms Primarolo said:"Since the unannounced inspection of contact, referral and assessment which took place in August 2009, the Department for Children, Schools and Families has been in discussions with Rotherham Borough Council. 

“The council have agreed that there is significant room for improvement in Rotherham's children's services.

"I have written to Rotherham council explaining that I am minded to issue an Improvement Notice.

“This will set out the actions that need to be taken to secure the necessary improvement to ensure all children in Rotherham are safe and can achieve the best possible outcomes.

 “I will take whatever action is necessary to ensure the safety of children and young people including using statutory powers where it is right to do so."

  The proposed Improvement Notice will outline the steps the council needs to take to work with DCSF to make sure that improvement happens swiftly and is sustainable. The council has until 10 December to make representations.

Cllr Shaun Wright, chairman of the Rotherham Children's Board, said: "We have taken a long hard look at ourselves over the past 12 months and are already making important changes to how we support our children and young people.

"These changes do take time to have an effect so we are happy to have the challenge and support of the DCSF who have seen our plans for improvement and are now confirming the actions we both want to achieve to ensure our service is of the highest possible standard.

"We know that some of the services we provide for our children and young people have not reached that high standard and pledge that we are committed both as a council and across partner agencies to continue to make the necessary improvements."

He added: "There has been a massive shift in what is expected from children's services both locally and nationally. We also face similar issues to other areas such as recruiting new social workers, an increase in children coming into care and a subsequent overspend in terms of children services budgets.

"However, we need to ensure that faced with those issues and while trying to tackle them, we make our services as efficient as possible.

“Our response to previous inspections has been rapid and we are confident that we are tackling all the issues raised by the DCSF."

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