SOCIAL CARE

A focus on social workers

After inspectors rated Somerset’s children’s services ‘inadequate’, the county council focused its attentions on retaining and supporting staff. Chris Squire explains the county’s journey.

The overall judgement of Ofsted's inspection of Somerset's children's services in 2015 was that our services and arrangements to safeguard children were ‘inadequate'. This followed a previous ‘inadequate' rating in 2013.

For a number of years Somerset CC saw a gradual loss of experienced social workers, with Ofsted highlighting the potential risks of a high number of locum staff used to cover managerial and social work posts.

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