SANDWELL’S children’s care services are bracing themselves for a “good” Ofsted inspection, which started today, to lift them out of their “inadequate” grade.

Council leader Councillor Darren Cooper said “vast improvements” had been made in the way the children’s services work with families and children since previous damning reports.

Ofsted found safeguarding and looked after children was inadequate in 2010, as was child protection in March 2013 and looked after children in August 2013.

They found a catalogue of failures including social workers and police not working together when finding out whether children were safe and social workers not understanding children’s needs.

Inspectors said they needed to get better at talking to vulnerable children and needed to visit children at risk of harm more often and ensure they saw them on their own.

Sharing information needed improving and social services bosses needed to improve their instructions to social workers about how to keep children safe.

Councillor Simon Hackett took over from ousted Councillor Bob Badham as cabinet member for children’s services after the inadequate report of March 2013.

He said: “We have radically overhauled the way we work with children and families in Sandwell to keep them safe.

“We believe our systems now are much improved. We are keen to demonstrate these improvements to Ofsted and, hopefully, showcase the progress we believe we are making.

“There is still work to do but we think we are on the right track.”

Improvements have included the setting up of seven community hubs throughout Sandwell where families can be helped to prevent the need for formal intervention from social workers.

The number of agency staff employed is now down to 10 per cent of the workforce, ensuring a more consistent approach for children and families and a multi-agency service hub has been introduced where social workers work with different agencies such as police and health visitors.

Cllr Cooper added: “Along with these agencies we are confident the right decisions are being made which has resulted in fewer cases progressing through the system.

“At the heart of all the improvements we make is the voice of young people. We have listened to their experiences and made improvements accordingly.”