Councillors at today’s Sefton Council Cabinet meeting have approved more than £2 million to fund new roles in its Children’s Social Care Department.
This investment in staff is in addition to an extra £7 million, Sefton Council committed to children’s social care in its budget earlier this year.
Cllr Mhairi Doyle MBE, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, said: “We are currently facing levels of demand for our children’s social care services and this has been intensified by the effects of COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit some parts of Sefton particularly hard.
“Today’s agreement of an extra £2 million of additional investment in new roles over the coming two years will be key to enabling us to make further improvements to children’s social care in Sefton and represents the latest step in our improvement journey following an OFSTED visit earlier in 2021.”
Since March this year, Sefton Council has appointed a number of additional staff to its Children’s Social Care service have been recruited and has established a transformation team support by the Department for Education (DfE).
Cllr Mhairi Doyle added: “We acknowledged the issues and challenges raised through the OFSTED inspection and immediately started work to make the improvements needed to address them.
“We have already put in place a new interim Executive Director of Children’s Social Care and Education to ensure the service’s management is focused and to drive the development work.
“Our Children’s Social Care staff are committed and skilled but are facing levels of demand unlike anything we’ve known before. We are working to support them in providing the high-quality, responsive service that families, children and young people across Sefton have every right to expect and which we are committed to delivering.”
“I am confident that recruitment these new posts agreed today combined with the valuable support being provided by the Department of Education, will enable us to achieve that commitment.”
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