Children's social care services in Cornwall have been formally freed from central government intervention – bringing to an end possibly the longest period a council service has been deemed unfit.
The children's minister, Edward Timpson, confirmed this week that the Department for Education no longer considered the intervention necessary, four years after children's social care services was investigated and three years after the council's child protection unit was placed in a form of special measures.
The decision was based on a positive Ofsted report, published last month, which judged the service adequate, highlighting significant improvements in the quality and effectiveness of the authority's social work.
In a letter to the council this week, Mr Timspon wrote: "The council has made good progress in addressing the issues raised in Ofsted's 2009 and 2011 inspections. This represents a significant improvement in child protection social work practice and I want to acknowledge the hard work of council staff and those in partner organisations in bringing this about."
The council's interim chief executive Paul Masters said the intervention was a major milestone but there was still work to be done.
He said: "The official removal of the direction does not mark an end to this hard work. We know that we still have more work to do and I am pleased to see the positive comments from the minister expressing confidence in the council's ability and commitment to achieve these further improvements."
Children's Services director Trevor Doughty said: "I am delighted that the council has received such a positive letter from the minister. As I said when the inspection report was published, this is a tremendous testament to the work of front-line staff and their immediate supervisors.
"All of us involved in working with vulnerable children in Cornwall are determined to build on this achievement and improve further."
Ofsted's findings were made alongside positive reports from the independent chairman of Cornwall's children's services improvement board, Lucy de Groot.
She said: "I am very impressed with the progress Cornwall has made. It should not be underestimated just how serious the deficiencies were in 2009 and the report at the time was rightly damning. The improvement, as the Ofsted inspectors said, has been huge.
"As chair of the improvement board I know what a challenging task it is to get out of intervention and the amount of work still involved.
"We now need to go on from here to build an outstanding service for children working across all agencies. I know there is the ambition and drive in Cornwall to achieve this."
