A damning new report has exposed critical failures within Dudley's children's services, citing severe staffing problems and a lack of effective collaboration between agencies as the primary causes.
Report Highlights Systemic Failings
The document, presented to Dudley Council's Social Care and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee on November 10, comes from the borough's Safeguarding Children Partnership Group. While it acknowledged some successes, such as positive feedback for frontline staff and the work of family hubs, the report was overwhelmingly critical of systemic issues.
It stated that staffing challenges were prevalent across all partner agencies, a situation worsened by widespread organisational restructuring. This combination has significantly delayed the partnership's work and stalled progress on key priorities.
"What Good Would Look Like"
During the committee meeting, Councillor Kathy Bayton pressed the report's author, independent scrutineer Vicky Buchanan, on what an effective service would entail. Ms Buchanan responded that success would mean hearing directly from children and families about their experiences and having a robust multi-agency data set to track improvements.
She emphasised a critical gap, noting the partnership currently operates without a data analyst and a true multi-agency dashboard, which severely limits its ability to understand the scale of issues affecting children in the borough. "There is a willingness as a partnership to come together and improve," she admitted, "but we don't work as collaboratively as we could do."
Emotional Plea for Robust Checks
The meeting heard an emotional account from Councillor Alex Dale, who shared a harrowing example of why robust monitoring of carers is essential. He described a case where a young person was placed with carers who locked themselves in an attic, leaving the child to fend for themselves.
When the carers eventually asked for the child to be removed, they made false claims of disruption and property damage. Cllr Dale refuted these claims, stating it was "not this child at all." He argued passionately for improvement, declaring, "Our care service is not adequate and we need to improve. These placements are still out there and these people are still getting paid."
The report and the subsequent committee discussion confirm that vulnerable children in Dudley are being let down by a system struggling with capacity and coordination, demanding immediate and decisive action from the council and its partners.
