DEVON County Council is challenging a report drafted by Ofsted after its latest visit, Crediton councillor Frank Letch has claimed.

The education watchdog, which is known for school inspection reports but also assesses children’s services departments in councils, visited County Hall in October, but still hasn’t published its findings.

The council has remained silent on the delay publicly, but one councillor now claims Ofsted’s report into the children’s services department has not been published because Devon is contesting it.

Cllr Frank Letch (Liberal Democrat, Crediton), said: “It is being challenged by the council, and has not been finalised,” he said.

“It hasn’t been published and accepted by Devon County Council’s children’s services department.”

Cllr Letch said he did not know exactly why the watchdog’s report is being contested, or who is leading the challenge to it.

“All I do know is that it is being questioned,” he added.

Cllr Letch, who chairs Mid Devon District Council, also told members there that the report is being challenged.

Speaking at Mid Devon’s full council meeting, he told councillors the report is “being challenged and so was not yet publishable”.

“When that process is finished, it will be published, but it has been kicked into the long grass,” he told the Mid Devon meeting.

“We’re hoping something will happen in the new year but no date has been given.”

Devon’s children’s services department has been in so-called “special measures” since 2020 when it was rated inadequate.

In a monitoring visit in March, Ofsted said it did not find any decisions that had “left children at unassessed risk of significant harm”, but noted “substantial improvements still need to be made to build on these foundations”.

Devon County Council did not respond to a request for comment.

Bradley Gerrard