Vulnerable youngsters experience ‘repeated cycles of neglect and domestic abuse’ despite improvements to Rochdale’s children’s services

Vulnerable youngsters in the borough of Rochdale are experiencing ‘repeated cycles of neglect and domestic abuse’ according to a report by Ofsted, despite improvements to children’s services since the last inspection.

Ofsted officials carried out a ‘focused visit’ to assess the council-run service’s performance last month.

This was a follow-up to a 2018 inspection which found the experiences and progress of children who need help and protection, ‘required improvement to be good’.

The watchdog reported that the quality of work with children in need of protection had improved ‘in some areas’ – leading to a good understanding of children’s needs. 

It also praised the service for keeping pace with increasing demand, despite the borough having experienced high rates of Covid-19 throughout the pandemic.

However, the service was still found to ‘require improvement to be good’ due to shortcomings in some areas – including the ‘understanding of and response to domestic abuse’.

The report reads: “An increasing number of children in Rochdale experience emotional harm as a result of the impact of domestic abuse. Children and adults experiencing domestic abuse have access to specialist services.

“However, the nature of abuse, the behaviour of those who abuse, and the experiences of the victims of domestic abuse are not always comprehensively assessed and understood. 

“This means that some children repeatedly experience harmful situations because the plans to protect them are overly optimistic.”

An important role of children’s services is to carry out assessments of youngsters who may have unmet needs or be at risk of harm.

These were said to have improved since the last inspection, with ‘children’s wishes and feelings’ being ‘well considered’ in the majority of cases.

However, some failed to give ‘effective consideration of children’s histories and the effectiveness of support previously received’.

This meant that some children – particularly those experiencing neglect – ‘continued to experience risk and harm as previously unsuccessful actions are repeated’.

Ofsted has been telling the council its children’s services ‘require improvement’ since 2014 – having found child protection arrangements were ‘inadequate’ two years earlier.

And although the last three inspections have noted progress and ‘positive developments’, this has not been enough to secure a ‘good’ rating.
 

Read more: Watchdog finds children’s services have improved since last inspectionPublished: 04 February 2019

Following last month’s inspection, Ofsted said children’s services must still improve in four ‘areas of social work practice’.

These include its focus on the progress and impact of child protection planning, its understanding and response to domestic abuse and the quality of auditing practices.

Finally, management must improve its oversight of the ‘quality and timeliness of pre-proceedings work for children and families’.

Pre-proceedings are entered into when a local authority has concerns about the care a child is receiving. The aim is to avoid court proceedings, but only when there are no immediate and pressing concerns about the child’s welfare.

Councillor Rachel Massey, cabinet member for children’s services and education, said the council was pleased Ofsted had recognised that improvements it had made – and that the authority was on its journey to ‘good’.

She said: “We have already made changes to further improve some aspects of our service that Ofsted highlighted in their visit and we continue to look for ways to improve our service, based on their feedback, so that we provide the very best support to children, young people and families.

“Our teams have been incredibly stretched during the pandemic as demand has risen and we’re pleased to hear the feedback from our staff that they enjoy working here and feel supported.”

Councillor Massey added: “The Covid-19 lockdowns were an incredibly difficult time for all social workers and staff who work closely with children as workloads increased significantly and they couldn’t have the usual sight of children they normally would. The way our staff dealt with that, showing creativity and innovation, is a credit to them.”

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter