THE new chief executive of Swindon Borough Council expects the new Ofsted report into the council’s children’s services to be rated inadequate.

That is worse than the last full review which said the services required improvement.

And when political leader of the authority, David Renard asked how many of the council’s staff who lived in the town thought they got value for money for their council tax, he was told by at least some that they didn’t.

A council officer, who did not want to be named but was present at one of a dozen briefings made by Susie Kemp, who took the top job at the borough council in July, said she was clear in her assessment of the children’s services department.

Afterwards the chief executive did not deny her downbeat forecast.

She said: “I am always open and honest with staff and the briefings in the summer were an opportunity to discuss some of the very serious challenges facing the local authority.

“The demand on our children’s services department has never been higher and this has been reflected across the country.

"As such, we know there is a lot of work to be done to improve how we deliver services and manage that demand.

“We have a robust improvement plan in place, which was recognised by Ofsted during the two-day focused visit of the multi agency safeguarding hub earlier this year," she said.

"But that will take time to embed and if Ofsted came in today and did a full inspection of the department, we know they would identify several areas which require improvement.

“We have to work with our elected members and our staff to deliver the very best services for our vulnerable children, but we are determined to get it right.”

On the question of value for money, Coun Renard said: “Some of the attendees at the staff briefings, who also live in Swindon, were of the opinion that they did not receive value for money as tax payers.

"I asked them to give examples of why they felt that way and their responses were noted so that the issues can be tackled.

“If officers feel that some of their colleagues are not delivering value for money, then this is an issue which must be addressed for the benefit of all residents and tax payers.”

The leader of the opposition Labour group, Jim Grant, said: “This is a welcome piece of candour from the council’s chief executive and I congratulate her for that.

"One of the big criticisms I have made of the council’s Conservative administration is that they are delusional to the problems this council faces.

“In fairness, many of the senior officers on the council are new and so cannot be held accountable for the problems with the council.

“However, this Tory administration has been in charge for 15 years and the outcome of that time appears to be an inadequate children’s services department and a council not delivering value for money for its residents," he said.

"No wonder people say they keep paying more and more for services and are getting less and less.”

In 2014, the last full Ofsted inspection of the council’s children’s services found it needed improvement.

In April this year a focused visit was made to the department, and a damning report concluded social workers were consistently failing to identify children at risk of being harmed.

The letter from Ofsted said: “Since then, the quality of decision-making when children are first referred for help or protection has declined, and there are significant weaknesses in the responses that children receive.”