A Government commissioner could be appointed if Nottingham City Council fails to improve its inadequate children's services. This comes after a report found children in the city don't yet receive a "consistently good service" and, for some children, that means there is a risk of serious harm.
Ofsted had visited the city council's children's services earlier in July and handed it the most serious 'inadequate' rating. The rating was lower than that of the previous inspection of the council's children's services in 2019.
The Labour-run authority must now have a host of monitoring visits, followed by a full re-inspection, over the next 18 months. And during a corporate parenting board meeting on September 27 it was made clear Ofsted had informed the Department for Education of the council's inadequate rating and, should it fail to improve, a commissioner may be sent in to oversee what's been described as "some of the most important statutory services the council has".
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A commissioner has just this month been assigned in Herefordshire after its council's children's services were also deemed inadequate. The role is funded by the taxpayer.
During the meeting Ailsa Barr, the director of children's integrated services, said: "Ofsted do alert and have alerted the Department for Education, and they will determine the approach to clear improvement assurance.
"That can range from the appointment of an improvement advisor right the way through to a children's commissioner, where they might be asked to make a determination as to whether the children's services in the council, in Nottingham city, should be moved into a trust arrangement as opposed to run by the council.
"We are much nearer the first option in terms of the improvement advisor as opposed to the latter."
Nottingham City Council has already faced commissioner intervention over its financial situation. Following the collapse of Robin Hood Energy the Conservative Government appointed an improvement board to oversee its improvement and the authority only recently narrowly missed further intervention in the form of commissioners, costing the taxpayer up to £1,200 a day, after a new Tory cabinet was announced.
The commissioner would play a similar role, however with a focus on children's services. The council now has a period of time to improve before further action.
Ofsted highlighted eight areas for improvement, including the effectiveness and timeliness to responses to children's needs and social worker capacity. "That is something we have had real challenges with," said Ms Barr.
"There are real challenges there for us to make sure we have a consistent workforce."
Service to care leavers needs improvement, as well as the response to children under 18 who present as homeless, which is a "significant and extreme vulnerability". Further work is required in the council's return to home interviews for children who go missing for many hours or days and with children reported missing from education.
"The scale of improvements that need to be made are substantial," Ms Barr added. "Children in the city don't yet receive a consistently good service and for some children that means there is a risk of harm."
As part of plans to improve, the council says eight additional social workers will be recruited and a recruitment retention package will be given to "stabilise the workforce". Training will also be given to management.
Maria Ward, the Building Better Opportunities stakeholder manager for D2N2 and chamber of commerce, made a suggestion that updates on children's services should feature in regular public meetings going forward. The council replied to say it would consider it.
She added: "I'm really keen to have a stand in item on this agenda. I don't see this children's partnership as a place where you give us a report and that's what happens and that's it, if that is what it is about we are not going to make the progress we need to make, perhaps we could have it as a stand in item and go these are the issues we want to talk about."
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