By Belinda Ryan, local democracy reporter.
Cheshire East Council has agreed to create a new director’s post in children’s services to oversee its safeguarding practices.
The post had to be agreed at full council as the salary could be in excess of £100,000.
Dear Editor,
At the last Council meeting, the Labour Leader of Cheshire East Council resigned just before he was due to face a vote of no confidence.
Sam Corcoran stated that he had to take responsibility after a report highlighted bankruptcy fears.
The executive director of Cheshire East’s crisis-hit children’s services team is stepping down, it emerged today.
Deborah Woodcock, executive director of a department facing huge debts, has handed in her resignation.
By Belinda Ryan, local democracy reporter
Cheshire East Council’s “inadequate” Ofsted rating for its children’s services could cost the council up to £15 million to put right and not the £2m it has budgeted for, Conservatives claim.
The service was judged to be “inadequate” overall after inspectors found the experiences and progress of care leavers to be inadequate.
By Belinda Ryan, local democracy reporter
Cheshire East Council had to abandon a key committee meeting on proposals to improve its “inadequate” children’s services because it didn’t publish the papers in time..
According to government legislation, all councils must publish agendas and papers for public meetings at least five working days before the date of the meeting.
By Belinda Ryan, local democracy reporter
Cheshire East will have to stump up nearly £2m to fund an improvement plan to bring its children’s services up to standard, according to a council report.
The council’s children’s services was recently judged to be inadequate by Ofsted, which said too many young people are leaving local authority care without the correct help and support.
Dear Editor,
On Tuesday 18th June, the Cared for Children and Care Leavers Committee met, whose remit is to hold the council to account, ensuring the best possible care and support is provided for our most vulnerable children and young adults.
By Belinda Ryan, local democracy reporter
The head of Cheshire East’s children’s services has said she should have known “things were not as good as they needed to be” in response to the “inadequate” rating by Ofsted.
Deborah Woodcock, executive director of children’s services, was speaking as councillors fired question after question at her in a children and families committee meeting.
A damning Ofsted report has rated Cheshire East Council’s children’s services “inadequate” and “requiring improvement” across a range of problems.
The report follows an inspection carried out between February 26 and March 8 this year.
Dear Editor,
In 2019, Children’s Services had a £1.6 million surplus.
However, the Labour-Independent administration has since accrued Special Needs debts of £90 million, which if not addressed will rise to £1.2billion by 2031.
By Belinda Ryan, local democracy reporter
Cheshire East Council’s children’s services department has overspent its budget for the fourth year in a row and the problem has been exacerbated by safeguarding issues because of Covid.
The council as a whole underspent by £1.2m last year, mainly because projects could not be completed because of the pandemic.
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