Dukes Ward councillor, Mike Prendergast, is calling on Sefton Council to make the process of improving Children’s Social Services more transparent.
Since the last damning OFSTED report in May last year, Sefton Council set up an Improvement Board to improve performance at the struggling department. However, very little information is publicly available about what is discussed and recommended.
Councillor Prendergast said, “It’s now almost a year since a highly critical report was delivered by the inspectorate. Members of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee at Sefton Council, of which I am one, receive minimal information on the workings of this board; minutes are not available and quite frankly, the decisions taken by the board are not subject to scrutiny.
As far as I’m aware no member of the Overview & Scrutiny has ever been to one of these meetings.
The most vulnerable children in the borough need a working department and the people of Sefton need to know what is going on. I would urge Sefton Council to simply upload the minutes of Improvement Board meetings to their website and end the secrecy.”
