CHILDCARE chiefs have blasted Wokingham Borough Council's children's services department following inconsistent levels of performance.

Ofsted has told the council to make changes after its latest report labelled the provision as 'requires improvement'.

The report slammed the department's management and said bosses were working too slow, social workers didn't know their obligations and children felt staff weren't keeping their word.

But the group's lead member says the report comes as no surprise and plans are in place to improve the service.

The report says: "Managers do not always make decisions quickly enough or pay attention to the progress or what needs to happen next for all children.

"This means that some social workers are not sure what they have to do and some children wait too long for support."

The education and social care watchdog found the quality of reports submitted to child protection conferences is not always high enough and interviews with children who had gone missing are rarely carried out fast enough.

Between July and September 2015, 14 children out of 22 referred to the council for going missing declined an interview.

The report continues: "Some children looked after and care leavers seen by inspectors reported poor experiences with their social workers.

"Overall, they did not feel that social workers respected or listened to their views. They felt that social workers often did not keep their word or keep appointments made with them."

Ofsted highlights the quality of assessments varies greatly, with particular weaknesses in reviews of unborn or younger children.

Councillor Charlotte Haitham Taylor, executive member for children's services, said: "There are no surprises in this report and it reaffirms our own self-assessment of services. Plans are already in place to improve further; our development programme was acknowledged positively by Ofsted during the inspection in November. We know what we have to do to become ‘good’ and are already on the right path to making further improvements.

“Social work is a difficult job. We’ve worked hard during the past year to recruit and, more importantly, retain social workers within our Borough. Having a stable workforce, and relying less on agency workers, is so important to us. We’ve been able to achieve this by making innovative decisions as a council to ensure we provide the best possible services for children and young people in the borough.”

Across the four categories, children who need help and protection, leadership, management and governance, the experiences and progress of care leavers and, adoption performance, only the final category was rated 'good.'

The report was penned by an Ofsted inspection team headed by Linda Steele, following a 24-day inspection carried out in October and November last year and was published yesterday, January 5.

It praised the authority's adoption performance which quickly helps children in need and supports them after the adoption.

The report states the majority of children and young people in need of help and protection receive an effective and prompt response from the team.

Ofsted praised good partnership working, improvements to recruitment and staff retention, which had been a problem for the service during its last inspection.