Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that vulnerable children in Somerset are identified and protected from harm.

Ofsted inspected Somerset County Council’s arrangements for the protection of children between 24 June 2013 and 03 July 2013 and published their findings on 05 August 2013. Ofsted judged the authority’s performance as ‘inadequate’.

I take any failure to provide children and young people with the services they deserve very seriously and issued the Council with an Improvement Notice in November 2013. The Improvement Notice requires the Council to institute an Improvement Board headed by an independent chair to drive improvement and hold partners to account.

I am currently considering next steps in relation to this intervention and will inform Somerset County Council of my decision shortly.