Council pledges action

This is an archived news story from June 2010

Salford City Council leaders have promised to take whatever action is necessary to improve their child protection service after it was criticised in an official report.

Ofsted inspectors carried out a two-week investigation of the authority's safeguarding and looked after children service - the service that protects at-risk children and cares for them.

Inspectors said the safeguarding service was "inadequate" and that services for looked after children were "adequate" and met minimum requirements.

Salford City Council Leader Cllr John Merry said: "I am not going to pretend the report is not critical and I am deeply concerned about the problems it outlines. We could and should be doing better in some absolutely key areas.

"We now have a new leadership team in place which is driving through the necessary improvements and I have asked for inspectors to come back in six months to ascertain what progress we have made."

Ofsted inspectors noted there was a new leadership team in place but it had not yet had the sufficient time to make a long term difference.

They rated the authority's performance in 33 different areas. They found four were "good", 21 were "adequate" but eight were "inadequate", mostly in the safeguarding service.

Cllr Merry added: "We have demonstrated that we will do what is necessary to do the best we can for the city’s most vulnerable children and we will continue to do so.

"There have been major management changes in the directorate and while I accept this may have caused some uncertainty for staff, the changes have been necessary.

"We need to move forward with our new team which has an absolute clear view of what needs to be done next to turn performance around.

"I have asked for this follow-up inspection so that our progress can be independently verified. It won’t be a case of me having to reassure people that we are doing better, there will be an independent verdict which will be made available to the public."

Date published: Monday, 21 June 2010
Reference number: 10-2642

Press and media enquiries only: