A SHOCKING new report has branded council children's services as 'inadequate.'

The Ofsted report published found "serious and widespread failures for children in need of help and protection" in Gloucestershire County Council's children's services.

The report also had "serious concerns about the integrity of the current senior leadership team" with the leadership, management and governance rated 'inadequate.'

It claimed that the quality of services for children had 'deteriorated significantly' since the last inspection in 2011 when the services were also judged 'inadequate.'

The report said staff feel 'vulnerable' and 'unsupported by senior managers and fearful of challenging or exposing poor practice.'

An 'unprecedented' number of whistleblower concerns were heard by Ofsted and despite the report adding 'there is

evidence of recent financial and political will to improve services' these were not implemented quickly enough.

Work to make sure children are looked after and achieving permanence also required improvement as did experiences and progress of care leavers.

The council's adoption services were rated 'good' by inspectors, with Ofsted inspectors stating 'stable managers in the fostering and adoption teams continue to support and develop strong practice.'

Pete Bungard, chief executive of Gloucestershire County Council said: "I am sorry that we have not supported our children and their families as quickly as we should have done.

"The Ofsted report states that we have been taking too long to make decisions and don’t have the right procedures to highlight delays.

"Immediate action has been taken.

"We have changed the leadership of our children’s services and are making fundamental changes to the way it works.

"We have brought in some of the country’s top social work specialists to lead our 500 dedication, passionate and committed social care and support staff.

"We will continue to work very closely with the Department for Education, Ofsted and the Local Government Association.

"With them we have produced an improvement plan.

"There are some areas of good practice that have been recognised: our record on adoption and fostering, the commitment of individual social workers to their children, our young ambassadors programme and our work with homeless young people.

"We must build on our track record in these areas to ensure all of the support we provide to children and young people is the best it can be.

"Ofsted is also positive about the leadership that has come from senior councillors, and have acknowledged the £9.2million investment the council is putting into this area of work."

Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Gloucestershire County Council, Cllr. Paul Hodgkinson said: "This is an utterly damning report on the state of local children’s services in Gloucestershire. It is a story of failure.

"This is a truly awful and deeply concerning report. The council’s leadership now need to consider their own positions.

"We have written to the chair of the council calling for a special meeting of elected members to discuss the findings of this report in detail and to hear Ofsted's recommendations to tackle the serious failings that have been identified in this report.

"The council’s leaders need to explain how this has happened under their watch."

The county council have accepted that the responsibility for the failures lies with the leadership team.

Their improvement plan seeks to use money where it is needed most, putting stronger management in at all levels and listening to professional social workers before making changes.

The plan aims to cut delays and red tape, build a team of front line social workers and to deal with failure faster.

Since the Ofsted inspection and ahead of its report a new interim director of children’s services has been brought in and an interim improvement director for the children’s safeguarding service.

The inspection took place in February and March with the report published on Tuesday.