Dudley Council’s children’s services has been hit with a damning report after its latest Ofsted inspection.
Watchdogs examined the authority in July 2026 and pulled no punches in handing down inadequate findings for how the council handles children who need help, children in care and the progress of care leavers.
The impact of leaders on social work with families was also inadequate while Ofsted found services had deteriorated since their last inspection in 2022.
The report, from inspector Teresa Godfrey, said: “This inspection found that, for too many children, ineffective and, for some children, unsafe practice and an absence of effective management oversight have resulted in them living in circumstances of risk for too long.
“Significant improvements in the quality of core social work practice, including assessments and planning for children, and the management oversight of practice, are required.”
Dudley Council says it accepts the findings, has already identified problems, is putting new structures in place and improvements are already happening.
Councillor Wayne Little, cabinet member for children and young people, said: “The report is clear that too many children, young people and families in Dudley have not consistently received the quality of help, protection and care they should expect and deserve.
“The safety and wellbeing of children must always come first and, where services have not been good enough, we must be honest about that and act with urgency.
“The challenge is not whether we know what needs to change. We do.
“The challenge is ensuring the changes now underway deliver the consistent impact that children, families and residents rightly expect to see.”
The report highlights the lack of stable leadership over the last five years along with reductions in staffing as ‘barriers to progress’.
Senior council officers say improving finances at the council means more investment including the recruitment of 22 social workers and higher pay for senior managers to improve recruitment and retention.
Top officers believe a restructure of the directorate, recruitment of a permanent director of children’s services and the creation of an improvement board is already delivering results but the inspection was too soon for better performance to be identified by Ofsted.
Dudley Council chief executive, Balvinder Heran, said: “The findings from Ofsted were not a surprise, we had been doing a lot of work since November to do a complete review of our children’s services.
“Our new director of children and young people requested a review of all domains.
“That led us to identifying that we needed a new senior structure, a new permanent approach to our workforce, all of that, along with the investment, was immediately agreed.”
Ms Heran says she had hoped the Ofsted inspection would reach the same conclusions as council’s own review.
She added: “I’m pleased to say that was their findings; although I would like to apologise for the fact that this is a very hard read.
“I would give my assurance we are determined and committed to delivering improvements for children.”
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