Bradford Council's Children's Services judged 'inadequate' with Ofsted saying the service has 'rapidly deteriorated'

In a report released at 9.30am today, the inspection body says that services for children in need of protection leave children "at risk of serious harm."

The report says the main reason for the drop in quality had been a huge increase in demand for services, at the same time that a "significant" number of social workers and managers who have left Bradford Council to work for other councils.

The report judges the Council's Children's Services in three areas, impact of leaders, judged requires improvement, experiences of children in care, also judged to require improvement and experiences and progress of children who need help and protection, which is judged inadequate. The judgement in this category has led to an overall inadequate judgement.

Inspectors had visited Bradford to inspect the service late last month, and the authority will now be subject to formal intervention by the Department for Education.

The service deals directly with 4,000 of the most vulnerable children out of the district’s population of 150,000 children.

Ofsted inspectors have raised concerns about how the Council offers support to children with specific vulnerabilities, including children aged 16-17 who are homeless and children who are privately fostered.

The Council has established an Improvement Board to turn the service around, and this will be chaired by an independent chair.

Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, Leader of Bradford Council, said: "We are extremely disappointed that at our recent Ofsted inspection the services we deliver to protect the most vulnerable were found not to be meeting the high standards our children deserve.

"We are very sorry this has happened and we will act quickly and address it.

We have increased spending in children's services by six per cent this year but we are going to have to spend more on Children's Services and we will deliver rapid improvements.

"Bradford has been very open about the pressure that staff shortages and increasing demand has put on our services. The inspectors acknowledge that services are stretched and that we have been addressing them.

"The Council has agreed an immediate uplift in resources to address management capacity."

The Council has said that in the last year Bradford saw a seven per cent increase in the number of looked after children, while the number of referrals was 30 per cent higher in September 2018 compared to 2017. The Children’s Services budget has increased by 6.2 per cent this year, but the cost of placements has risen by 25.3 per cent.

The report says that at one point earlier this year there were 38 social worker vacancies, around one fifth of the service's total workforce. But it points out that after a big recruitment push by the Council this had been reduced to five at the time of the inspection.

Cllr Hinchcliffe pointed out that the Council has spent £62.1 million on Children's Services, up from £57 million last year.

In the aftermath of the inspection, the Council has said it will create a Children’s Social Care Improvement Board, which will need to be approved by the Department for Education, Ofsted and the Council’s Executive, produce a draft "statement of action," and submit a full statement of action for Ofsted by February.

Under the Chief Executive’s delegated authority, the Council has also just pumped an extra £134,000 into the service to "provide additional capacity to review cases and strengthen oversight of decision-making."

There will be a further monitoring visit by Ofsted in January, then visits every three months until the service improves.

The Ofsted report adds: "Across child protection and children in need services too many children are not getting the right help they need at the right time. Inspectors found clear evidence of the detrimental impact of changes of social workers and managers, as well as resultant poor practice, leaving children at risk of significant harm.

"Other vulnerable children receive good support. For example, the response to children at risk of child sexual exploitation is a strength."

The Secretary of State has now appointed an improvement adviser and will issue a formal improvement notice. The Council will be involved in discussions on the content of the notice and it will specify the issues of concern, what improvements are required, how this will be assessed and what steps can be taken if improvement is not achieved.

Cllr Hinchcliffe pointed out that the Council had recently invested £500,000 into recruiting and retaining social workers. She said: "Last year we put additional money into the budget because we knew social workers were leaving the authority to go to other areas, and we knew we needed to strengthen our team.

"We had an extra 25 staff start in September, but it takes time for social workers to get up to speed.

"However, there are no excuses with this, we have to improve the quality of what we do. We are serving vulnerable children, and they absolutely deserve the best start in life. But we can talk about money all we want, we know we have to deliver a good service and we have already put steps in place to do that.

"As we enter our budget process we'll be giving huge consideration to this.

"There is nothing more important than looking after our most vulnerable people in our budget."

Councillor John Pennington, leader of the Conservatives on Bradford Council, recognised the pressures on the service, saying: "Whilst this is a universal problem across local authorities, I think the problem is greater in Bradford than in many other places. The demand for service has been going up at a time when, and this might seem strange coming from a Conservative, money is being cut to services.

"But I don't think we've kept up with the supply of staff - we've lost good people to other local authorities. We need to find a method of paying people more to retain them. No offence to newer staff, but when someone is new to a post, or they don't have as much experience, they won't be able to do the same job as someone with years of experience working in Bradford."

Councillor David Ward is the Liberal Democrat/Independent spokesman for children's services, as well as being a member of the Council's Children's Services Scrutiny Committee. He said he had predicted such problems in Children's Services when the Council announced last year that it would be making cuts to its prevention and early help scheme, which is aimed to help young people before they need to go into the care system.

He said: "When this was announced I think a lot of social workers thought it was the writing on the wall, and left the district before their workloads became too great. We said the load would end up being picked up by social workers. It seems like many social workers felt they would not be able to cope."

He claims the problems facing the service were never fully addressed by officers when they give regular reports to the scrutiny committee on how the service is operating. Cllr Ward added: "At four consecutive Children's Scrutiny Committee meetings I have asked for anonymised staff surveys, and every single time I have been told no. If the scrutiny process is to have any integrity, we have to be told the truth and not just good news.

"It is a very, very sad situation for the 4,000 children in Bradford who need this service. It is an embarrassment that we are in such a state that Ofsted will have to keep coming in to check up on us."

Shipley MP Philip Davies said: "The Ofsted inspection report is clearly damning and exposes unacceptable standards which Bradford Council must resolve straight away. I know that Kersten England appreciates the importance and urgency of putting this right and I trust that will happen”

Bradford South MP Judith Cummins said; "I am deeply concerned by the issues Ofsted have raised in this report.

“I will be seeking assurances from the council that they are taking immediate action to address the issues highlighted. Children's services provide a lifeline to thousands of vulnerable children and families across Bradford. The Government has cut council budgets to the bone at the same time as their austerity agenda has fuelled a huge rise in demand for their services. Councils must be provided with the funding that is needed to meet demand for children’s services.

“Bradford’s most vulnerable children deserve better.”

The union that represents many children’s social workers believes that keeping experienced staff in the district is key to turning Bradford’s fortunes around.

Karen Lochlan, regional manager for Unison, which represents many children’s social workers, said: “This is a disappointment to us as it is to everyone as this is about the children of Bradford. It is not a criticism of the existing workers, as like any job you need time to get into the role, but you need that continuity of care. As a union one of aims is to make sure staff don’t get demoralised and leave the job. That is a big priority for us, there has to be the right support mechanisms in there by leaders and managers. This report shows that the level of supervision wasn’t always what it should have been.”

She pointed out that many staff were encouraged to leave Bradford for similar jobs in neighbouring areas due to the pay, adding: “Some research I did shows that overall across the region there can be variations in pay of around £7,000 a year for a social worker. We need to make sure we make it more attractive to stay.”

Asked if she thinks the Council will be able to turn around the service, Mrs Lochlan replied: “I think they have to turn it around. It is not an option for them to fail to do it. Local authorities funding continues to be cut and cut, so Bradford will have to decide where the money needs to come from. Staff are key to this. It is their expertise in the field that is vital to turn things round. There is a lot of good work happening, but this is a worrying report.”