Audit, Inspection and Safety

Council fined thousands after pleading guilty to ‘catastrophic’ disease outbreak

07.12.18: Tendring District Council has been fined £27,000 after the local authority pleaded guilty to a health and safety breach when an outbreak of Legionnaires disease left a man fighting for his life. The district council was fined by Colch...

High Court slams Herefordshire council for ‘woeful’ children’s care after failing children ‘on a serious and serial basis’

07.12.18: Herefordshire council has apologised for failing children in two separate cases through its “woeful” children’s services after a High Court judge said he was “appalled” by errors made by the authority’s social...

Brexit ‘chaos’ has held back the north as government has ‘deprioritised’ the Northern Powerhouse

05.12.18: The Northern Powerhouse has been “deprioritised” by government, with Brexit “chaos” preventing the north of England from realising its full potential, a think tank has warned. The Institute of Public Policy Research...

‘Don’t throw out the rule book’ in the face of budget pressures warns ombudsman

04.12.18: The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) has challenged councils not to “throw out the rule book” as they redesign their services in the face of widespread budget cuts and service pressures. The new report from the...

Councils to have ‘full backing’ as government announces ban on Grenfell-style cladding

30.11.18: The government has banned combustible materials such as those used on Grenfell Tower on new high-rise homes and buildings and given councils the power to strip unsafe cladding from residential buildings. James Brokenshire said local authori...

New children’s services commissioner takes over at Northamptonshire

30.11.18: The government has appointed a children’s services commissioner for Northamptonshire and issued a statutory direction to the county council requiring immediate improvement. The direction follows a damning report from Ofsted which said...

Rotherham abuse victim reveals council offered convicted sex offender access to her child

28.11.18: Rotherham Council has come under fierce criticism after a convicted sex offender was offered access to the child of one of the victims of the town’s sexual exploitation scandal. Arshid Hussain was jailed for 35 years in 2016 after he...

Ombudsman ‘increasingly concerned’ over councils’ systematic problems with social care

28.11.18: The ombudsman for local government and social care has said it is becoming “increasingly concerned” with how some councils are handling increasing adult social care issues after a review found issues with systems, policies and proced...

Councils could lose £16bn from LOBO loans as McDonnell calls for government investigation

27.11.18: Controversial LOBO loans could cost councils as much as £16bn, according to new research, which has prompted the shadow chancellor John McDonnell to call for a government investigation into the high-interest and risky loans. Analysis...

Ofsted gives damning report on Northants’ children’s services amidst financial uncertainty

13.11.18: Ofsted has written to Northamptonshire County Council after an inspection found that its children’s services had declined “significantly” in the last two years “against a backdrop of recent financial uncertainty.” ...

Oxfordshire council spends £1.7m on audit for work carried out by Carillion

09.11.18: Oxfordshire County Council has spent £1.7m on an audit report on the work carried out by Carillion, finding “a range of issues” and “major elements unsuitably executed.” The report shows that the county council...

Ofsted finds ‘inadequate’ Bradford children’s services have ‘rapidly deteriorated’

30.10.18: Bradford council’s children services have been rated ‘inadequate’ after leaving children “at serious risk of harm,” Ofsted has found. Its report found that services for children in Bradford had “rapidly d...

Council-run children’s home for most vulnerable found to have 'serious and widespread failures'

25.10.18: A children’s home run by Suffolk County Council was found to have “serious and widespread failures,” meaning vulnerable children were not protected, an Ofsted report has found. An inspection on the children’s home &n...

Former Westminster council pensions boss found guilty of £1m fraud

16.10.18: A former employee of Westminster City Council has been found guilty of stealing nearly £1m from the council pension fund. Ian Woodall, the former interim head of pensions and investments at the council, was yesterday convicted of one...

State of Care: ‘The tipping point has already been reached’

11.10.18: This year’s CQC State of Care report has found that most people in England receive a good quality of care, but that, much like the situation last year, quality remains inconsistent and access to care is very much dependent on where you liv...