INSPECTORS have slammed the standard of care given to some of Dorset's most vulnerable children.

Children's services in the Dorset County Council area "require improvement to be good" according to Ofsted inspectors who examined the services between February 22 and March 17.

And the Dorset Safeguarding Children Board (DSCB), set up to monitor the effectiveness of the help being provided to children, has been graded Inadequate.

In a report just published inspectors said: "Children and young people in Dorset do not receive a consistently good enough service. Referrals about children's welfare are not always dealt with quickly or well enough."

They said specialist assessments for children at risk of sexual exploitation or living in homes where there is domestic abuse are not completed often enough.

And they said work with children at risk of going missing or of sexual exploitation is "weak."

The report examines the services provided for children in need of help and protection and children in care and leaving care.

There are a total of 77,000 under 18s living in the area with 2,439 of them in need of a specialist children's service.

At the end of January this year there were 466 children being looked after by the local authority.

Inspectors said the Director of Children's Services, Sara Tough, and her senior team provide strong leadership and said they are taking steps to address areas of concern. Adoption services were rated as Good.

But they said many improvement measures are not yet in place or have been implemented too recently to have yet made a difference.

Cllr Rebecca Knox, the county council’s Cabinet member for Children’s Safeguarding said: "I am pleased the report recognises the considerable progress that has been made since the leadership team was appointed.

"The impact of a lot of the improvement work cannot yet be seen as it has not been in place long enough to have made a difference. As part of our work to improve, we have launched a new recruitment programme to attract more social workers into Dorset and put additional training in place to support our current workforce. We are also working more closely with communities and partner agencies to help families at an earlier stage.

"But clearly, there are still improvements that need to be made. Vigorous plans have already been implemented to ensure we continue on our improvement journey and I remain, as do children’s services staff, committed to ensuring all children in Dorset receive the best possible service."

Interim chair of the DSCB, Rob Hutchinson said: "While we are disappointed that our efforts to improve have not been in place long enough to reassure the inspectors of the progress we are making, we are committed to working through the recommendations made in the report to ensure the safety of children at risk of harm in Dorset.

"We know that we need to improve the way we monitor the effectiveness of our services and we have already made a number of improvements to the work of the Board."