TAMESIDE Council has admitted children ‘have been poorly served by children’s services for many years if not decades.’
And it has set out how it will improve practice in the year to March 2026.
After Ofsted again rated the department as inadequate, Government-appointed commissioner Andy Couldrick was brought in, along with initial strategic partners in the neighbouring Stockport authority.
But an improvement and impact plan, to be presented to the Children’s Services Scrutiny Panel on Wednesday, July 16, set out where things have gone wrong and become ‘hard baked.’
Constant chopping and changing, both politically and non-politically, has had an effect and it admits funding was not targeted at what families see.
The document also says a ‘highly sceptical and distrustful’ relationship, as well as an over-reliance on temporary staff, must be turned around.
It states: “The children’s workforce in Tameside is undeniably one of its most precious resources. However, it has been characterised by instability, change, uncertainty, fear and impermanence.
“The leadership team in children’s services has changed three times since the 2023 inspection and there is now a new chief executive and lead member and cabinet arrangements.
“Additional funding was secured by the previous chief executive for improvement posts in 2024. However, unfortunately these did not realise the required actions or necessary improvements and were at arm’s length to the operational delivery.
“Children in Tameside have been poorly served by children’s services for many years if not decades.
“Families’ experience of this has led to highly sceptical and distrustful relationships with the local authority, and a combative and oppositional response to attempts to meet need.
“This has also been seen in relationships with partners and external agencies. The workforce must overcome this by engaging meaningfully with families to achieve sustainable and lasting change for children.
“This is complex and skilled work in the best of circumstances but an uphill struggle for a workforce who are confronted with this negative narrative from the families, partners, and other agencies.
“This is compounded by a largely impermanent workforce where children and families are not enabled to build trusting relationships to achieve change.
“To address the well-documented failings within children’s services requires a fundamental and systemic over hall of the way we do things round here.
“The poor performance, inconsistent leadership, and cultural issues are hard baked into the operating environment.”
Tameside Council insists it is working to improve its children’s services department and the appointment of Jill Colbert as director is already said to have brought positive changes, mainly in the working environment – once described as ‘bullying’ and ‘toxic.’
But the action plan sets out what it wants to see by the end of March 2026.
Points include a revised children’s workforce strategy, a revised service structure for the cared for and care leaver services, a strong and effective social work academy and consistent quality care, support and guidance.
The document adds: “Some of the actions have already started but we cannot be satisfied until we are able to demonstrate tangible impact for children and families.
“More pace is required to drive the plan and show that improvements are embedded.
“The recent changes in permanent leadership posts and some evidence of green shoots of doing things differently are encouraging.
“Feedback received from staff reflects a positive feeling about the engagement opportunities now in place with senior leaders. Union colleagues have reported a positive improvement in morale and mood in the teams they are engaged in.
“Staff are ‘welcoming the opportunity to have reflective discussions with reviewers’ and are ‘benefitting from the opportunity to self-assess and have a protected safe space for rich learning and thinking’
“Feedback from teams in the recent performance, quality and impact meeting is that the messaging about working for Tameside is changing to a much more positive picture.”