Government appoints commissioner to oversee ‘inadequate’ council

A commissioner has been appointed to oversee improvements in an ‘inadequate’ children’s services.

Trevor Doughty has been brought in to Surrey children’s services, rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted earlier this year.

He will give instructions for the improvement of children’s services and review whether the council should be stripped of its children’s services.

Doughty, who is strategic director of children, schools and families in Cornwall and oversaw its improvement from ‘inadequate’ to ‘good’, was drafted in as a commissioner in Worcestershire children’s services last year, and authored a review which saw the council lose control of the services, which are currently being transferred to a trust.

Dave Hill, a former president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, was appointed as executive director for children, families and learning in Surrey just before a damning Ofsted report was published in May. Previously he helped turn around children’s services in Essex from ‘inadequate’ in 2010 to ‘good’ by 2014.

The Ofsted report found “serious shortcomings in frontline management” and that social workers were ending involvement with children “too soon”.