{"id":328246,"date":"2025-08-08T15:54:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T15:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/328246\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T15:54:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T15:54:12","slug":"council-takes-immediate-action-after-ofsted-finds-multiple-issues-in-childrens-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/328246\/","title":{"rendered":"Council takes ‘immediate’ action after Ofsted finds multiple issues in children’s services"},"content":{"rendered":"

“This is about how it impacts the life chances of our children”\"TheThe council said things are already changing.<\/p>\n

Stockport council said it is taking \u2018immediate\u2019 steps to fix problems with children\u2019s services after an Ofsted inspection found multiple issues.<\/p>\n

The watchdog’s report in July<\/a> ordered the Lib Dem-controlled council to make changes and highlighted several concerns, including leaving some children in care \u2018in harmful situations for too long.\u2019<\/p>\n

Inspectors also said the council\u2019s response to domestic abuse is \u2018inconsistent\u2019 and \u2018relies on victims to protect their children from the people who have abused them.\u2019<\/p>\n

To see planning applications; traffic and road diversions and layout changes; and more, visit the Public Notices Portal HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The council was rated \u2018Good\u2019 in the experiences and progress of care leavers. Ofsted\u2019s findings were discussed by councillors during a town-hall meeting on August 7.<\/p>\n

Christine McLoughlin OBE, the council\u2019s director of children\u2019s services, said: \u201cI think it\u2019s really important that we say categorically that we accept the findings of Ofsted, that we take their feedback to us very seriously, and have taken action both immediately at the time of the Ofsted inspection taking place, and since then with pace we\u2019ve already taken steps to make improvements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CouncillorsCouncillors met at the town hall to discuss the situation.<\/p>\n

Lib Dem councillor Wendy Meikle, the council\u2019s cabinet member for children, families and education, said the authority is under growing pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe increase on our service since Covid has almost doubled, in 2013 we used to have an average of 300 young people in care, now it\u2019s over 500.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of keeping a child in care has increased massively from about \u00a31,800 in 2013 to now \u00a36,200 per week to keep a child in a residential placement, the pressures are enormous.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou add \u00a36,200 by however many people we have in care and it’s a huge amount of money, we do need more funding, we need fairer funding, we could employ more social workers, you can do a lot more with money.\u201d<\/p>\n

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An improvement plan will be ready by September for councillors to give feedback. Ofsted requires a full improvement action plan in October.<\/p>\n

The first steps taken by the council to turn things around include moving ahead with planned improved pay and recognition, with social care pay grades reviewed and uplifted to support the recruitment and retention of staff.<\/p>\n

It also involved setting up trackers and dashboards for timeliness of key statutory decisions, bringing forward training plans around neglect, planning and leadership oversight, and introducing panels to oversee and monitor progress.<\/p>\n

Coun Graham Greenhalgh said: \u201cWithout wanting to downplay the importance of the improvements, I just want to say on a morale point, I don\u2019t believe \u2018Requires improvement to be good\u2019 is the worst diagnosis I\u2019ve ever heard to be fair, it means we have to tweak things, it doesn\u2019t sound like armageddon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coun Rosemary Barratt hit back: \u201cThis isn\u2019t about a slap on the wrist, this is about how it impacts the life chances of our children.<\/p>\n

“In this Ofsted report – a lack in effectiveness from neglect, domestic abuse, delays in their plans, insufficient management oversight leaving children without the necessary support during critical times, children do not always benefit from robust multi-agency plans to keep them safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are the important things, it\u2019s not about a slap on the wrist, it\u2019s about those things that we need to address and that\u2019s why we need to scrutinise.<\/p>\n

“What is the point of this scrutiny committee if we’re not here to scrutinise?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“This is about how it impacts the life chances of our children”The council said things are already changing.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,1288,2622,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-328246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-stockport","13":"tag-stockport-council","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114993959280203171","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}