Nothing to see
Nothing to see
Unitary councils hold back publication of children’s trust annual report due to upcoming Ofsted inspection
By Sarah Ward
A report detailing how Northamptonshire’s most vulnerable children are being cared for is being kept under wraps.
The independent Northamptonshire Children’s Trust has produced its first annual report, giving an overview of how it has been performing and how well thousands of children across Northamptonshire are being safeguarded and cared for, but the two unitary councils, which have ultimate responsibility for the welfare of children have decided not to publish it yet.
The reasons, being given in a report to a joint council committee tomorrow, state that the report will not be published due to an imminent Ofsted inspection and because of potential changes to the contractual agreement between the councils and the trust. However there is no guarantee when the inspection will be and there are concerns as to why the report is being held back.
At a meeting of North Northamptonshire Council’s audit committee held yesterday at which the children’s trust shared its internal audits there were questions from the chair Andrew Wetherill about why the annual report, which is ready for publication, is not being shared. So far it has only been seen by senior officers within the two councils and the two cabinet members for children’s services in the North and West, Cllr Scott Edwards and Cllr Fiona Baker.
At the audit meeting yesterday the director of children’s services in the North Anne Marie Dodds said the report would go before the North full council in October, which was confirmed to NN Journal by Cllr Scott Edwards. However it is unclear whether the Ofsted inspection will have taken place by then and tomorrow’s report of the joint committee does not recommend to agree to this, instead it recommends that future annual reports go to the full council.
The decision not to publish is highly unusual - other children’s trusts (there are ten across the country) have produced their reports.
NN Journal asked Cllr Fiona Baker whether it was acceptable that a long awaited report ready for publication was being held back from other councillors and the public. She declined to comment.
Labour councillor Jean Addison, who was involved in yesterday’s audit committee said:
“If it is done now, let’s have it now. What does it do to not have it? It should at least come to September’s full council. There is no logical reason for it not to.”
Budget overspend
The trust, which is led by chief executive Colin Foster, is currently running over its £137m budget and had an overspend of £3.7m last year about, which was offset by Covid funding and reserves.
But the budget is set to be an issue again this coming year.
Last week the West unitary council put out a statement ahead of financial reports due later this month to say that it was predicting an overspend of as much as £10m and pointing in part to children’s services and the North unitary is expecting a £4m overspend again largely due to the high costs of placing children in private care homes.
Outside of being placed with foster families, many of the children who are in care in Northants are placed in expensive privately run care homes. The trust only had a handful of its own homes.
Northamptonshire’s children's services has been marred by tragedy over the past few years, with reviews finding that it and other local public services such as health and police, could have done more to prevent harm coming to children.
Dylan Tiffin-Brown and Evelyn Rose Muggleton were both murdered while known to social services, their deaths bringing national attention to what was happening within children’s services in Northamptonshire.