Sefton Council is still failing to respond in a timely manner to cases where children are at risk of ‘significant harm’, an Ofsted monitoring report has concluded.
Ofsted has carried out six monitoring visits since a 2022 inspection identified ‘widespread failures’ in the council’s children's services.
The latest report found that leaders have not taken ‘sufficient action’ to improve the service.
It also found that the response to children at risk of ‘significant harm is not consistently timely or reducing risks to children sufficiently well.’
Despite these problems, Ofsted’s report did highlight some areas of improvement. For example, it said the council’s approach to dealing with domestic abuse concerns is ‘improving’.
The leader of Sefton Council, Cllr Marion Atkinson, described the report as ‘sobering’.
‘It is our duty to keep children safe and respond in an appropriate and timely manner when concerns are raised. We have immediately introduced the improvements needed that were identified in the report and have asked Ofsted to come back to Sefton to review our progress in the near future.’
