MPs and senior sector figures have hit back after Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw blamed chief executives for failing children's services.
The inspectorate has stamped a quarter of children's services as inadequate, which the chief inspector suggested was a ‘leadership issue'.
Sir Michael told the Education Committee last week that failure had nothing to do with money and charged both directors of children's services and chief executives with ‘going away on too many conferences'.
He said: ‘It is the responsibility of chief executives to say [children's services] are one of the most important services of the council.'
Society of Local Authority Chief Executives director, Graeme McDonald, said Sir Michael was ‘not living in the real world' and pointed out the ‘contradictory' nature of his comments.
He added: ‘Sir Michael talked about senior leaders going to conferences and then in the same breath went on to talk about the need for training, development and leadership. This is conflicting and counterproductive.
‘Of course, it is not all about money either, but you cannot ignore the fact that we are going through tough financial times.'
Committee member Ian Austin MP said: ‘There is a national crisis in the recruitment of social workers, huge pressures on staff, huge workloads, blame culture when things go wrong, salaries frozen and capped for years and massive numbers of vacancies. That is the problem, isn't it?'
Professor of social work Ray Jones described Sir Michael's remarks as ‘outrageous' and claimed they were further evidence Ofsted was becoming ‘more and more destructive'.
He said: ‘It is important for directors of children's services to network with each other as part of learning, sharing experiences and taking a collective view on national policy development.'
Ofsted's national director for social care, Eleanor Schooling, criticised local authorities for ‘failure to invest in preventative and early intervention services'.
However, Prof Jones said: ‘Authorities cannot maintain the sharp end of child protection and safeguarding and at the same time have money available to invest in early help. That just does not stack up.'
