Solihull's children services found to have "serious and widespread failings"
A report has been released today (13th January)
Last updated 13th Jan 2023
An Ofsted report into Solihull's children services, published today (13 January), has identified "serious and widespread failings across all service areas."
The report comes after a government intervention in November, in the wake of the death of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.
Since the last inspection of local authority children’s services in 2019, when Solihull Council was judged to "require improvement to be good," services to children and families have "significantly declined."
The report found:
- Children are not getting the help they need at the right time.
- When there is a concern that a child is at risk of harm, the response is too slow.
- A delay in response had led to some children experiencing significant harm.
- Children in need and child protection planning is ineffective for most children.
The report goes on to say that leaders and partners have "overseen this decline in services and have failed to have a clear strategy to improve the outcomes for vulnerable children and families."
Serious failings identified last year following the death of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes were also found not to have been responded to with "sufficient urgency and rigour."
Six-year-old Arthur suffered a catastrophic brain injury while in the care of his stepmother Emma Tustin in June 2020. Tustin was jailed for murder and Arthur's father Thomas Hughes for manslaughter.
Tustin and Hughes's trial heard that after his death, 130 bruises were found on Arthur's body, and that he was subjected to salt poisoning, deprived of food and drink and made to stand alone for hours on end.
An earlier review found that social workers failed to investigate bruises on the murdered schoolboy, which was a "pivotal" moment to save him.
Councillor Ian Courts, Leader of Solihull Council, said: “We accept the findings of the Ofsted report relating to the inspection carried out in November. Although we are very disappointed at the grading, we are grateful to the inspection team for the thoroughness and detail put into their work, which will help us to make the necessary improvements.
“This Council is fully committed to making the necessary changes to children’s services and we understand what we need to do to improve and realise that we need to do this at greater speed than we are already doing."
“An Improvement Board was put in place last year made up of experts and a good representation from the agencies involved, including in particular the police, NHS, and Council, and improvements have already been made over the last 12 months. However, we are updating our improvement plan to ensure it addresses the things that Ofsted have found.
“A new leadership team is in place in children’s services. We have recruited more social workers to meet the rising demand from people contacting us with concerns about children, and this has provided us with the capacity to ensure there is a dedicated social worker for all the children that are assessed as needing one. This will help us to meet the continuing increase in demands for our services.
“Along with my fellow councillors, we have agreed to continue to invest significantly in children’s services over the coming years, as a priority for the Council.
“It is fair to say we have been under an unprecedented level of scrutiny over the last 12 months, culminating with the appointment of Sir Alan Wood, the Commissioner appointed by the Secretary of State, who has been working with us since November.
“We are doing our utmost to support Sir Alan in his review of the leadership across the three safeguarding partners – police, health and local authority – which is necessary to ensure we have the most effective way of securing and sustaining improvement in Solihull. Sir Alan will present his findings to the Secretary of State later this month and outline his recommendations.”
Ofsted has made a number of recommendations to the council for improvement.