Failures 'put children at risk'

Kevin Lavery and Richard Hubbard said they were working on an action plan

Children have been put at risk because of social work department failures, the chief executive of Cornwall Council has said.

Kevin Lavery said that front-line practises needed to improve and the council was taking decisive action to improve services.

The new interim director of children's services, Richard Hubbard, said that he believed the situation was "fixable".

A new action plan is due to be implemented over the next few weeks.

An unannounced Ofsted inspection in July said children's services access and assessment teams referrals "were not always promptly responded to".

We're not happy with social work practice on the front-line Kevin Lavery

It said a number of children had to have three or more repeat referrals before being accepted as cases for intervention.

Mr Lavery said that although the report was only talking about a small number if cases, it showed the council "we have a problem here".

He said: "We're not happy with social work practice on the front-line, it needs to improve.

"I think the truth is there are some risks [to children] there."

He added: "I think it's about consistent practice on the ground. It's about cases being dealt with in a timely way and closed off properly.

"It's also about those assessments, making sure that we are providing the right course of action to address the problems for each individual child and family.

"We're sorting that out now."

'Performing well'

Mr Hubbard has taken up his post following the resignation of former director Dean Ashton, who stood down saying children's social care in the county had not improved enough in recent years.

Richard Hubbard said his job was to "get on this case very quickly".

"Our first task is to focus on what needs to improve and then ensure that everyone works together to deliver the improvements," he said.

"While we fully accept the problems identified by the report in July, we must also remember, however, that there are many areas of children's services in Cornwall which are performing well, such as our schools and our youth service."

Another Ofsted inspection was carried out in September. The report on that is due out later this month.