Southport MP calls for resignations at Sefton Council as Ofsted calls services “inadequate”

Southport MP Damien Moore is calling for Cllr Ian Maher, Labour Leader of Sefton Council, and Cllr Mhairi Doyle, Labour Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care, to resign following a damning inspection by Ofsted of Sefton Council’s children’s services.

Ofsted has categorised the Council’s Children’s Social Care department as “Inadequate” overall and in all sub-judgements, the lowest grades attainable. Furthermore, the Minister for Children and Families has labelled the quality of services “unacceptable”. This follows a previous full inspection by Ofsted in 2016, which categorised the Council as “Requires Improvement” in all areas.

In their damning report, published yesterday after the conclusion of local elections, Ofsted state that “since the last inspection in 2016, there has been a significant deterioration in services”, and that “over a long period, the [Council’s] political and executive leadership has not secured the structures, systems, and processes to keep effective…oversight of children’s services”.
Ofsted further state that “Council and senior leaders have not demonstrated sufficient understanding of the scale and depth of the inadequacies”. A focused visit from Ofsted in 2021 led to the then-Executive Director for Children’s Social Care and Education leaving the Council, and an Improvement Notice being issued.

Given the severity of Ofsted’s fresh criticisms, the Minister for Children and Families, Will Quince MP, yesterday announced that a Commissioner for Children’s Services will be appointed to Sefton to carry out review on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education. 

This review will seek to decide whether Sefton Council has the “capacity and capability to secure rapid and sustainable improvements”, or whether the Department should be taken out of Sefton Council’s control.

Minister Quince stated in a letter to Cllr Maher, sent yesterday, that “this deterioration in services has occurred despite Ofsted having previously identified areas for priority action in May 2021, which was followed by the Department issuing an Improvement Notice”. The Minister continued that it is “particularly concerning that Ofsted found ineffective oversight from political and executive leadership”.

Dwayne Johnson, Sefton Council’s current Chief Executive, was previously the council’s Director of Social Care and Health between 2014 and 2019, the period covering the previous inspection.

Just 19 of 152 local authorities are currently judged to be Inadequate nationally, making Labour-led Sefton one of the worst areas in the country to be a child who needs additional support.

Damien Moore, MP for Southport, said:

“It is wholly unacceptable that the Labour-led Sefton Council have completely and utterly failed our young people for the past decade. Taxpayers should rightly be asking what on earth the Council have been doing with their money as the quality of children’s services continues to deteriorate while Council taxes rise.

“You only get one childhood, and my younger constituents deserve the strongest support throughout their formative years. There is no excuse for this Labour-led disgrace of a Council being specifically singled out as utterly inadequate across the board. They seem incapable of bringing about the required change, which is why they need to go.

“I am calling call on Cllr Ian Maher, Leader of Sefton Council through now two terrible Ofsted reports, to resign, in addition to Cllr Mhairi Doyle, Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Services, who was directly responsible for overseeing change but has instead presided over this shocking failure.

“This harmful situation is nothing short of a scandal, and it is Southport’s young people who are paying the price.”