Children’s commissioner departure ‘welcomed’ by campaign group

A campaign group demanding reform of Herefordshire Council children’s services has welcomed the departure of children’s commissioner Eleanor Brazil from her role overseeing improvements at the department.

“Eleanor Brazil failed to engage meaningfully with parents with poor experiences of children’s services,” Families Alliance for Change (Herefordshire) said in a statement.

It claimed her reports to the government “have lacked analysis of the real risks in the system” and that she “repeatedly set vague targets and spared the leadership of Herefordshire Council from any serious criticism”.

Ms Brazil was appointed by the Department for Education when it intervened in the county in late 2022 following a damning Ofsted report into standards at the service.

But FAC said that two years on, “the service continues to be unsafe and lacking in self-awareness”, while parents and the public who raise complaints about poor practice “are still silenced and harassed”.

The group came into being following an election hustings in Hereford last summer at which families, politicians and academics raised concerns at the slow pace of change at Herefordshire children’s services, and the ongoing impact of this.

Attempts were made to contact Ms Brazil for comment on its claims.

Confirming her departure, the council’s chief executive Paul Walker said of her final report on the department, published before Christmas: “We acknowledge there is much more to do, however this is a positive sign that we are now making the progress needed.”

Meanwhile an 11-page anonymous submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the state of children’s social care in England claims that in Herefordshire in particular there are still “very high” rates of children in care.

Yet such children “are traumatised if separated from their families”, and according to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, “have below-average outcomes across a range of measures”.

Care is also far more costly than early intervention with families, in which “too little is invested”, the contributor writes, noting that Herefordshire children’s services overspent by £11.7 million in the last financial year.

As Ofsted lacks any powers to regulate local authorities or to investigate any individual complaints in relation to them, they suggest to the committee that a new organisation be set up “which both inspects and regulates children’s social care”.