Tameside Council confirms children’s services changes and defends replacement process

TAMESIDE Council has admitted three of its bosses at its under-fire children’s services department have left.

And it has defended the way replacements were quickly brought in after eyebrows were raised among councillors.

As The Correspondent revealed, director Alison Stathers-Tracey and assistants Tony Decrop and Paula Sumner departed the authority at the end of August.

Allison Parkinson, Alison Montgomery and Vicky Lawson have already agreed to step in.

And another imminent Ofsted inspection after a focused visit to that department in April last year led to damning findings meant it had to act quickly.

However, the authority has also spelled out the challenges the department faces, with levels of children in care being among the highest in the country per head of population.

In a statement to The Correspondent, Tameside Council said: “The council has been on an improvement journey for a number of years and is working hard to ensure we safeguard children and support children and families to achieve their best.

“An enormous amount of work has gone in to turning the service around since the last inspection in May 2019 when our Children’s services were rated ‘requires improvement to be good.’

“Tameside was the first local authority in Greater Manchester to successfully launch Family Hubs, social care caseloads have reduced, early help cases are increasing, the number of children in care is safely reducing and we have improved partnership working.

“However, that said we have some of the highest levels of children in care in the country for the size of the population, twice the number of children of neighbouring councils, reflecting the fact that our communities face significant changes, which in turn creates significant demand for the Council and its partners to address.”

In its report from its last focused visit to that department, Ofsted inspectors said: “During the previous focused visit, in May 2021, council leaders agreed to provide immediate additional investment to address a lack of capacity across several parts of the service which was causing delay for children in having risks identified and their needs met.

“However, this has not been implemented at pace. Since that time, the local authority has continued to experience capacity issues across all levels of the service, and the response to some children at immediate risk of harm has deteriorated.

“Too many children experience delay in having their needs for help and protection promptly assessed and met.”

The response of ‘political, corporate and operational leaders’ to changes in the system was also highlighted.

Politically, Cllr Bill Fairfoull remains Tameside Council’s executive member for children and families after this report and a damning Ofsted and Care Quality Assessment of its SEND provision.

That report, published in June 2022, adds: “Despite these recent changes, political, corporate and operational leaders do not know their services and the impact for children well enough.”

And Tameside Council added the forthcoming inspection played a role in both the trio’s decision to leave and the speedy replacements.

It continued: “We are currently preparing for an imminent Ofsted inspection and in consideration of this, the director of children’s services and two assistant directors have decided that they have taken us as far as they can on our improvement journey and wished to move on to allow the council to appoint a new leadership team.

“We thank them for their contribution and wish them all the best and every success in their new endeavours.

“Given these roles are crucial for the council, considerable efforts have been made to ensure that we have continuity and stability of leadership for the service by prioritising a proper and swift appointment process.

“We are therefore pleased to have been able to secure a new director of children’s services, an assistant director of children’s social care and an assistant director of quality and improvement.

“This will ensure children’s services have the necessary leadership and direction in place to prepare for our imminent Ofsted inspection and their wealth of experience and success in other authorities will help provide a clear focus for our continued improvement journey.

“These appointments have been fully shared with Ofsted.”