Ofsted: A quarter of councils not protecting children adequately

Nearly a quarter of local authorities are failing to adequately protect children in their area, according to latest Ofsted figures.

The watchdog analysed all inspections between 2009 until the end of June this year. Of the 73 councils inspected, 18 were judged inadequate in safeguarding (23%). Of those, 11 were deemed to have an inadequate capacity to improve their child protection systems.

Not a single local authority was deemeed to be outstanding in its overall effectiveness of services for looked-after children but only two were rated as inadequate in this area.

Between 2009 and 2010 there was also a rise in the number of overall children’s services departments rated as performing poorly. However, the report’s authors pointed out this was largely because of the increase in the number of unannounced safeguarding inspections over the intervening year.

“A weakness in safeguarding was the key factor in all 15 of the LAs that received this judgement in 2010,” the report said.

Seven local authorities were assessed as performing excellently in their overall children’s services assessments for both years while only five performed poorly over both years.