Wigan Council responds to watchdog's criticism over children's services

Wigan Council has responded to a “scathing” letter sent by a government watchdog earlier this year, criticising children’s services in the borough.

Ofsted inspectors said some children remained “at risk or in situations of harm” for longer than they should have due to delays within the department.

They identified five areas of improvement for “front door processes” including working in partnership with police to ensure child protection is prioritised.

The letter, received in February, before lockdown, specifically states that the council must be told of domestic violence incidents where children are present as soon as possible.

It also recommends cutting social workers’ caseloads and auditing their work.

Since then, a shake-up of senior leadership at the town hall has taken place.

Sharon Barber, council director who currently leads children’s social care, explained how a backlog of cases which came from Greater Manchester Police in September created a “melting pot” for some serious challenges.

She said: “We changed our thresholds in September last year which created the significant influx and increase in referrals and demand across the services.

“Greater Manchester Police decided to review their data systems at the same time and it absolutely created a huge amount of pressure in our services.

“The backlog of reports from the police are now under control. They’ve sorted them all out and we are working very closely together to ensure that there are no repeats of this situation.”

In January, the average caseload for each social worker was 30, with some staff members responsible for more than 40 children’s cases at a time.

The average caseload is now 24.5 – but council bosses fear this position is not sustainable with more referrals expected as schools return after the summer.

Barber added: “We have to check out the quality of the work we’re doing and we’re wobbling a little bit at the moment because we’re anticipating the schools, so there’s going to be an increase in referrals from September.

“We have maintained a stable, constant flow of referrals coming through throughout Covid. So we’ve done well, but we’ve not done well enough.”

The council’s newly-appointed director of children’s services, Colette Dutton, said Ofsted took a “fair view” following the focused visits to Wigan in January.

She said: “The data was there. There was a lot of unallocated work at the time.

“We had the focus visit the year before and the change of the threshold without maybe some of the planning behind that was probably a pretty critical tipping point.”

Conservative group leader Michael Winstanley described Ofsted’s findings as “devastating” and questioned the new council chief at a children and young people scrutiny committee meeting held via video conference.

He said: “I appreciate Colette that you’re new in place and obviously one of the reasons you are here is that we needed a new director following this particular visit.

“For me it’s about making sure we’ve got a robust plan going forward. Yes, we’ve identified some of the things, but for me, member engagement and scrutiny is going to be crucial to make sure this is a success going forward.”