OFSTED has returned to Devon to assess whether the county council’s children’s services can be lifted out of special measures.

The education regulator rated the department inadequate in 2020 because of “serious failures” in the service.

It added that until that inspection, “senior leaders did not know about the extent of the failures to protect some of the most vulnerable children and young people from harm”.

The authority’s chief executive Donna Manson, who joined the council in February last year, recently said she wants a good rating in three years’ time.

Ofsted, which besides monitoring schools also oversees council departments that look after children in care, is now reviewing the authority’s progress.

News of the visit emerged in Devon’s audit committee where Stuart Collins, director of children and young people’s futures, said the watchdog would be at the council for the next two weeks.

“We should be graded on October 11, so that is a key date for us,” he said.

He added one report could be published before the month is out, with a final published report due in November.

Ofsted ratings go from inadequate, to requires improvement, to good and then outstanding. The government announced recently that these would no longer be applied to schools.

In March this year, Ofsted visited for its seventh monitoring visit, and found no decisions “had left children at unassessed risk of significant harm”, but that “substantial improvements still need to be made to build on these foundations”.

It said senior leaders had a “credible plan” and additional resources to deliver on it.

Mr Collins noted that 27 newly qualified social workers had recently begun work, something that represented a “good cultural change” rather than the heavy reliance on agency workers it had post-covid.

The number of children in care of the council is now 843, the lowest in the past year.

The council is opening its own children’s homes to help reduce reliance on expensive private sector placements.

Bradley Gerrard