Sefton Council’s children’s services have been rated Good by Ofsted
Sefton local authority children’s services’ team(Image: Sefton Council)
Three years after a scathing Ofsted report, Sefton Council is celebrating a ‘major achievement’ after Ofsted updated the rating of its children’s services to ‘Good’.
In 2022, Sefton Council’s children’s services department was rocked by the findings of an inspection which detailed a series of ‘widespread failures’ – resulting in an ‘inadequate’ rating. Fast forward three years, and the local authority has gone from the worst possible rating to achieving an overall effectiveness score of ‘Good’.
In May 2023, Sefton Council officially appointed Dr Risthardh Hare as its new director of children’s services, and he was tasked with managing the local authority’s ‘improvement journey’. At the time, Sefton was still reeling from a report which said its services left children in “high risk situations”.
In an interview with the Liverpool ECHO in May 2024, Dr Hare acknowledged the monumental work that was going into improving children’s services but admitted the situation was ‘worse’ than what was noted in the Ofsted report.
Responding to the latest Ofsted inspection, Dr Hare said: “This rating is a testament to the dedication and resilience of our staff, partners, and the children and families we serve. We’ve worked tirelessly to rebuild trust, improve practice, and ensure that every child in Sefton receives the care and protection they deserve.
Bootle Town Hall (credit: LDRS)(Image: LDRS)
“Sefton is now in a strong position to roll out collaborative multi agency work and this Ofsted has confirmed what we knew already, our partnerships and relationships are solid and give families the support they need at the right time.”
The Ofsted report published today comes from a full inspection of its children’s service between June 23 – July 4 2025 and rates the overall effectiveness of the service as ‘Good’ – including a ‘Good’ rating in three of the four assessment categories. The report states: “Services for children and families in Sefton have significantly improved since the 2022 inspection, when overall effectiveness was judged to be inadequate.
“Most children now receive services that are making a positive difference to their progress and experiences, helping to keep them safer and well cared for. There are still inconsistencies in the response to neglect, leading to delay in the progression of planning for some children, which affects their outcomes.
“Children are now a clear priority for the wider council. The leadership team’s focus on recruitment, retention and managing caseloads has stabilised the workforce and improved practice quality. Staff report a positive shift in organisational culture.
“More recently, leaders have taken a steady, persistent approach to improvement, using external and independent scrutiny effectively. A robust quality assurance framework provides leaders with a clear understanding of service effectiveness. Leaders have a clear understanding of what further improvements are needed and have firm plans in place.”
The inspection commended the council’s leadership, workforce stability and commitment to improving outcomes for children and families. Ofsted highlighted significant progress in safeguarding, care planning and support for care-experienced young people.
This will be a major boost to everyone at Sefton Council, including council leader, Cllr Marion Atkinson who committed to making the local authority’s children’s services its ‘number one priority’. Cllr Atkinson said: “This is a proud moment for Sefton. Our children’s services have undergone a transformation, driven by strong leadership, dedicated, passionate staff and a relentless focus on improvement.
“We’ve worked tirelessly to build a children’s services in Sefton that our families, children and young people deserve and this Ofsted rating confirms that our children are now safer, better supported and more empowered.”
Despite an overall rating of ‘Good’ Ofsted’s report said the service still ‘requires improvement’ when it comes to the ‘experiences and progress of children who need help and protection’. Perhaps the most strongly worded criticisms are expressed in point 17: “For children experiencing neglect, practice does not always fully consider cumulative harm.
“For some children, this has led to repeated cycles of concern without decisive safeguarding action being taken to reduce risk. Management oversight and challenge by child protection conference chairs (the local authority call these independent reviewing officers (IROs)) is not consistently leading to children being protected effectively.”
Nonetheless, inspectors also stated that child in need and child protection plans are mostly ‘specific, timebound and outcome focused, with clear contingency plans’. Inspectors also submitted a five-point action plan to support Sefton’s ongoing improvement journey.