Ofsted has been urged to carry out an in-depth inspection of Swindon Borough Council’s children’s services department.

Labour’s Coun Carol Shelley says the department needs to be revisited by the education watchdog as soon as possible after it found failures which were putting vulnerable children at risk.

Ofsted inspectors compiled a damning report of the department after a two-day visit last month.

They concluded that council social workers were consistently failing to identify children at risk of harm.

Now, Coun Shelley, shadow lead for children’s services, has written to Ofsted requesting that it revisits the department as a matter of urgency.

She wrote: “Your inspectors mentioned that the quality of the council’s decision-making when children are first referred for help or protection has declined since the last inspection, where the it received a “requires improvement” judgement.

“I was particularly alarmed to read that your inspectors believed that some children had been at risk of harm as a result of delays in decision-making.

“You will probably be aware that since your last inspection, the council took the radical decision to close its children’s centres, including in Swindon’s most deprived communities.

“To my knowledge, Swindon is the only large town or city not to have a single children’s centre.

“Since then the number of children judged to be at risk of neglect has dramatically increased.

“More children have come in to the care of the local authority and Swindon has the highest childhood obesity levels in the region.

“Given the serious conclusions you found from your visit, the council administration’s refusal in public to give due account of the gravity of your findings and the NSPCC’s observations that the council has been making too slow progress since your inspectors’ visit, I would urge you to inspect the children’s services department as soon as possible.”

But the authority’s leader Coun David Renard said: “It is clearly a matter for Ofsted when it chooses to do a formal inspection and the timing of that should be free from political interference.

“In the interim, the council will work hard to put the necessary improvements in to place so that when Ofsted does return, we can demonstrate satisfactory improvements in our services.

“We welcome Ofsted’s role in helping us ensure that Swindon’s children and young people are kept as safe as possible.

“Prior to its recent two-day inspection, we had already identified some issues which needed addressing and we have been getting on with making those improvements.

“Ofsted’s letter has been helpful in detailing the processes which need improving, that cases need to be dealt with more quickly and that we need to recruit more permanent social workers which is challenging given the national shortage.”