COUNCIL services designed to protect and support at-risk children have failed to meet 75 per cent of the targets set after a damning report.

The children’s services department were set targets by the council and the government after they were rated as ‘inadequate’ - the worst possible rating - by Ofsted.

In a recent report it was revealed that by June of this year the department failed to hit six out of eight targets which need to be achieved by December.

However Councillor John Warmisham, lead member for children and young people, has said the figures have improved since then although they are yet to be published.

In the report by the children’s services department, it shows the target of increasing the number of initial assessments to a monthly average of 126 was missed at 110. They also missed the target to increase the percentage of referrals leading to an initial assessment, the target to increase the number of initial assessments completed within seven days was also missed.

The target to increase the number of core assessments to 31 was missed at 25; the target to increase the number of children with a child protection plan to 167 was missed at 107 and the target to decrease the percentage of children subject to repeat child protection plans or re-registration to 10 per cent was missed at 19.78 per cent.

The department hit its targets for increasing the number of referrals to 197 by achieving 221 and hit the target of increasing the number of core assessment completed within 35 days to 85 per cent by achieving 91 per cent. The targets were set after the Annual Performance Assessment last year which led to the government threatening to take over the department if it hadn’t improved by December.

Ofsted inspectors will be visiting the council next month to carry out this year’s assessment.

Cllr Warmisham said: "We had a meeting this week and the figures have improved a lot since last June.

"We’ve already done a lot of intense work and we’ve had three interim managers with a lot of experience who have been helping us.

"We changed the way we do things and did what we had to do to hit targets.

"I’m confident we’ve done a lot of work so the government will accept that and see the changes we’ve made.

"I’m confident we can get a better report this year."

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