THE Government has threatened to step in to protect vulnerable children unless Waltham Forest Council makes significant improvements.

Children’s minister Tim Loughton has moved to impose close scrutiny of the authority after damning reports into aspects of children’s services.

Last year Ofsted found children in care were being put at risk due to a number of failings.

Months later the Government said the authority was one of the worst in the country at finding adopted parents.

The council had devised an improvement plan to address the problems, but has now had further targets imposed by Mr Loughton.

These included tight deadlines on proving standards of care are acceptable, with a formal review in six months.

Long-term planning for children in care and adoption processes must also be improved.

It also called for the employment of permanent staff to lead the children’s services department and for councillors to be reminded of their responsibilities to scrutinise the council’s work.

Representatives for the Department for Education are now attending regular progress meetings with officers responsible for the council’s improvement plan.

The latest report claimed the authority is meeting the majority of its improvement targets, but concerns remained with some aspects of performance.

Only 15 per cent of child protection conferences were held within 15 days of an investigation into a child’s safety being launched, compared to a national average of 69 per cent.

The report states that performance in this area has been poor for “a number of years” and conferences were held after 45 days on average in October last year.

It also found in November only two-thirds of children on a children protection plan were visited by a social worker in the previous six weeks and only one in five managers carried out the required number of case file audits in September.

The previous cabinet member for children, Cllr Saima Mahmud, was removed from he post and replaced by Cllr Marie Pye.

She said: “The council responded swiftly to acknowledge and address issues highlighted in the unannounced inspection that took place in the summer.

"The findings of the inspection that took place just three months later acknowledge that even in that short period of time we managed to make a difference and we have since continued to build on that.

“The appointment of a new chair to the Safeguarding Board is just one of a number of changes to management that are being made, and we are continuing to work hard to address the other areas highlighted by the inspections. We are confident that we can raise standards of practice and provide a greatly improved service to residents in the future.

“There is nothing more important than safeguarding our young people and providing services to children in our care. It is down to us to work with local health professionals, schools, families and the whole community, to make sure we are providing the very best service possible.”