Report shows council knew about children's services failings
A report has revealed a local authority knew about failings in its children's service more than a year before an inspectorate said children had been put at serious risk of harm.
A 'People Too' report had been completed just over a year before the damning Care Inspectorate Wales report on Powys County Council that was published in October 2017.
Within the report it had shown warning signs that children were at risk, and the service was inadequate and required vast improvement.
Councillors have called for the report to be published, but those calls have been ignored by the authority, however through a freedom of information request the report has now been made public.
Council leader Rosemarie Harris has confirmed an independent internal investigation is under way to understand what actions were taken after this report.
People Too was commissioned by Powys County Council to carry out a review of children's services in a bid to strengthen the service.
The report, completed and given to the council in July 2016 threw up a host of findings, one showing that work in over 50 per cent of cases was inadequate.
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In total eight cases found there was no evidence of discussions with children, or if intervention had made a difference to a child's outcomes.
Other points included critical comments over a lack of case notes, often written with little detail.
The report also found little case supervision, a lack of management oversight, no evidence of referrals, and some cases had no attempt to gather a child's views.
Concerning
The report also detailed that there had been hardly any use of legal advice in cases where it was evident it had been required.
The people who carried out the report said a 'concerning picture' had been drawn from the service, and a lack of management oversight was directly linked with a diminishing quality of practice, and poor oversight for children.
On top of this, the council was aiming to save £2.7 million from the service budget between 2016 and 2019.
Now it could be spending almost £10 million to turn the situation around.
Councillor Harris said: “Our highest priority is the safety and well-being of children in our care and we are satisfied that the children highlighted in the report are safe or no longer require support from the council.
“We are holding an independent internal investigation into issues around the report to understand what happened to it, the extent of actions taken and learn important lessons for the future.
"We anticipate that the work will be concluded by the end of September will be shared with group leaders of the council.”
