More social workers recruited by council

The council has been the subject of damning reports into its standard of care to children after a string of high-profile cruelty cases.

Now chiefs have increased the number of social workers as it fights to step up its service to protect the borough's children.

Funding was made available in February for an extra 10 posts and nine of these have now been filled.

A further 14 social workers have been appointed over the past four months after an intense recruitment drive to reduce the need for agency workers.

Coun Olwen Jennings, cabinet member for children and young people, said: "We are always striving to be provide an excellent service and in certain areas of care that has always been the case but in others we needed improvements.

"I'm delighted the recruitment has been successful. There are still improvements to make but I feel confident we are going in the right direction."

Earlier this year an Ofsted report rated Calderdale Council's safeguarding and looked after children's services as "inadequate" and an independent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers raised "serious concerns".

The reports were triggered after cases including the neglect of a six-week-old girl in Hebden Bridge last year, which went unchecked by care workers, and the deaths of two babies in 2007.

Several council care workers were suspended and the chairman of Calderdale Safeguarding Children Board, Mike Stow, quit in April this year.

Coun Jennings said the council was already seeing results in departments which had been criticised."I feel confident we will get out of the Ofsted inadequate rating," he said.