County Council's Children's Services 'Inadequate'

Lancashire County Council has been told that its services for children and young people are inadequate. Inspectors visited the department in September and October and, today, published their report saying its services for children who need help and protection are inadequate, those for looked after children require improvement and the leadership, management and governance of the service is inadequate. County Councillor Matthew Tomlinson, cabinet member for children and young people, said: "The children and young people who need these services deserve the best care and support, and we are very sorry that in some cases they have clearly not been receiving it. The council must now act quickly and effectively to resolve the problems identified during the inspection. "Since the inspectors told us their initial findings, a lot of work has been done to set out and begin implementing a plan that will address all of their concerns. "To support this work, the Cabinet has approved a £5m investment in children's services which will allow us to recruit more frontline staff and provide extra training opportunities. "The inspectors did identify a number of strengths in the council's work. For example, they were positive about the way children and young people are listened to, and the way in which we are tackling child sexual exploitation. "However, we need standards to be consistently high across all of these vital services and I am determined to make sure that happens." The £5m investment represents an increase of around 5%, in the council's overall budget for children's services. More staff will be recruited to help cope with the high demand on social care services and a range of extra training and support programmes will be delivered. A Post Inspection Improvement Board with an independent chairperson will oversee the council's work to deliver improvements in response to the report. The report is available at:

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