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Peterborough City Council children’s head quits after damning Ofsted report
John Richards who has resigned. Picture: Rowland Hobson/Peterborough ET
A damning Ofsted report that found that Peterborough City Council failed to adequately safeguard some vulnerable youngsters has brought the immediate resignation of its head of children’s services.
The report, released this morning (6 September), found that the city council was inadequate in seven of the nine safeguarding categories.
The inspection revealed continued departmental failures after two previous critical reports into the council’s safeguarding came out in March 2010 and February 2011.
Although the report was published today, council chiefs have known about its findings for two weeks and accepted the resignation of director of children’s services John Richards last Friday.
Criticisms include fewer potentially vulnerable children being assessed early, under-staffing on the front line, poor record keeping, staff failing to understand senior managers’ vision and delays in dealing with complaints.
Council bosses accepted Mr Richards’ resignation and have blamed his leadership for the poor report.
They claimed they were unable to deal with issues because he failed to disclose them to their internal board, which was set up to oversee previous Ofsted recommendations.
Cllr Sheila Scott, cabinet member for children’s services, said: “John has taken accountability for it.
“The quality of feedback to the board was not sufficient, and some of the information was more optimistic than the reality.
“After reading the Ofsted, you feel we heard reports of good practice when there was not. The board was getting a rosier version of what was really happening.
“We take it extremely seriously and are not just paying lip service.
“We now have a new director and team, and I am confident they will help push us in the right direction.”
Andrew Mackintosh, the council’s director of communications, said: “As the report clearly states, the leadership and management has not been sufficient. The leadership did not ensure that children and young people are adequately protected.
“Significant issues identified through previous inspections have not been confronted or resolved, and the pace of improvement has been too slow and ineffective.”
MP for North West Cambridgeshire Shailesh Vara said: “This is a damning report concerning some of society’s most vulnerable people.
“Urgent action is needed to be taken now. I have already spoken with Cllr Scott and have received assurances about the way forward.
“I want those assurances to translate into practice immediately.”
MP for Peterborough Stewart Jackson said: “This is an historic problem, and Peterborough’s Achilles heel has been children’s services for years now.
“There has been a long-standing issue of mismanagement but I think this should serve as a wake-up call for Peterborough.”
Mr Richards received an unspecified payment from the council when leaving the job, as is the norm for outgoing staff.
He will be temporarily replaced by Cambridgeshire County Council’s director of children’s services Adrian Loades for three months.
Cllr John Holdich, cabinet member for education, skills and university, added: “I think the reaction has been fast but thorough.
“This is not a financial issue – money has been made available to the department and it still will be.”
The report does praise the authority’s elected councillors and recognises additional resources have been made available if required.
It also says partnership working is adequate, and praised a review by the Peterborough Safeguarding Children Board due out in October, that mirrors the Ofsted report’s findings.
View the Ofsted report, published on 6 September 2011 on Slideshare:
Inspection of safeguarding - Peterborough the original document can be found on the Ofsted website
=====================
WHAT THE OFSTED REPORT SAID
Institutional failures within the children’s services team resulted in them failing in seven of the nine Ofsted categories.
- quality of provision
- overall effectiveness
- making children feel safe
- ambition and prioritisation
- capacity for improvement
- performance management
- leadership and management
The two sections that were not deemed inadequate were equality and diversity (graded as good) and partnership working (graded as adequate).
Alarming examples of neglect are listed, such as one child who waited a year before being transferred into the children in need team.
The report stated: “Issues and trends have not been fully confronted or resolved.
“The percentage of initial and core assessments completed within timescales has deteriorated following progress in 2010.
“The current electronic recording system is not fit for purpose.”
SHAKE UP ALREADY IN MOTION
Since learning of the report’s findings, council chiefs have spent two weeks creating a new-look children’s services team.
The changes include a move towards ‘sector-led support’, a government proposal that sees more help from specialists drawn in from other regions.
A team of around half a dozen specialists will attempt to fix the embattled department’s problems.
Leading them will be interim director Adrian Loades. He will do the job for three months for three days a week while still doing the same role for Cambridgeshire County Council. City council chief executive Gillian Beasley will be replaced as chair of the board overseeing the department, so a person from outside the authority can fill the role. She will still sit on the board. Cllr Sheila Scott said: “The chief executive (Gillian Beasley) stepped in straight away and took control of the situation. We expect to be re-inspected in 18 months and we are working to put this right in advance of that.”
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Comments
There are 25 comments to this article
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HollygoLula
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 11:49 PMA decent man who tried his best......isnt it amazing how those at the very top of the council manage to keep their jobs though? There are 2 types of council...Member lead and Officer lead....PCC is very much member lead so how come the member for childrens services keeps her post?????? @ 21...absolutely correct, the problem does lie elsewhere in PCC.
Holly GoIightly
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 01:47 PMAnother person taking the money and not doing the job. Who guards the guards?
Dalek Sec
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 07:35 AM@19 The MP and council have also been quick to move in for the kill - that's what politicians do, they're like leeches - and we lap it up without bothering to delve deeper to find out the real facts.
wamdue
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 01:41 AMIts pleasing to read that despite everything else wrong, they got Equailty right, apparntly thats the only thing that matters there days.
Jane Doe
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 09:31 PMTotally agree with @19. Yet another senior officer receives a massive payoff to take the blame and keep quiet. Since 2005 PCC have paid off a Director of Corporate Services, Director of Community Services, Council Solicitor, Head of ICT, Head of HR, Assistant Chief Executive and the Director of Children's Services (Mr Richards' predecessor) and yet it still keeps happening. Makes you wonder if the real problem lies elsewhere. How much has this cost the taxpayers? My guess is many hundreds of thousand of pounds when pension enhancements are taken into consideration. Disgraceful.
Gekko Jnr
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 07:52 PM@19 - he was out of his depth and failed to deliver.... Simples.... I like my cleaner she is lovely and loved by my neighbours and my son but she will be out of her depth in many other jobs...
Ellie99
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 07:21 PMAs usual, the ET jump straight in for the kill and all the people commenting dont stop to think outside the box! John Richards is an amazing man who has done a lot for the children and young people in Peterborough. He is well liked by staff, parents, teachers and children themselves. As Stewart Jackson says, this is a historic problem - John Richards inherited this problem, he was NOT the cause of it - data published by ofsted shows this has been a problem long before John Richards was made director, however, it is Ofsted's new inspections that have highlighted it as a recent issue. What the ET have failed to include in this report is the number of areas Mr Richards helped improve - only the other week Cllr Holdich was smiling in the ET about the GCSE results - yes, an area overseen by Mr Richards and an area he was reported to be passionate about. Mr Richards has also been working hard on the university coming to Pboro - another ET headline a few months that highlighted his work which will be a huge asset to the city. Whilst Mr Richards may not have been able to fix the problem I would argue that it is too much to put that on one person and one person alone - he should have been supported fully. The fact that other senior staff deny knowing how bad it was is complete rubbish - the information is PUBLISHED - you can't hide behind it!
Trigger
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 06:55 PMFrom what we have been told this guy was obviously out of his depth, the fact the Council employs so many consultants suggests many other very senior employees are also unable to manage their departments effectively. If only Ms Beasley would do the decent thing and resign as well.
J J Carter
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 06:23 PMFAO PCC's HR Dept. I'm available immediately to bungle any job you give me for a laughably tiny £40k pa plus bonuses.
Sofedup
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 05:33 PMOutrageous! previous bad reports should have resulted in regular internal audit checks for effectiveness, this would have highlighted the reports being provided to the board were rubbish (or should I say a pack of lies, but no-one on the Board seems brave enough to say that!). What about the other senior managers? no one think to be a whistleblower? they must have known? Finally was it resigned or retired? I am sick to death of senior staff both private and public sector being rewarded for failure when further down the line people are sacked to preserve the salary and bonuses of these people! Senior Executives and Councillors are a cosy club and god forbid they should be made to stand up and get on with the not so difficult job of managing!
*Lula Mae Barnes*
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 04:26 PMI'm confused. How do you spot "potentially vulnerable children"? Aren't all children potentially vulnerable?
Gekko Jnr
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 03:15 PMplease close the door on you're way out!
Mavis Enderby
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 02:07 PMI wonder if Peterborough Council is subject to the “Peter Principle”. This is the theory that employees are promoted so long as they work competently. Eventually they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions. In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out their duties and work is actually accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.
Mavis Enderby
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 02:03 PMI wonder if the "Peter Principle" applies to Peterborough City Council? This is the theory that employees are promoted so long as they work competently. Eventually they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions. In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out their duties and work is actually accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.
Kermit
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 01:57 PMHave to agree @6 - that's the root of the problem. The only thing they were graded good at was equality and diversity. Far too many senior staff - and some Councillors - paying far too much time and attention to far too much political correctness and bureaucracy and too little attention the needs of the service users.
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