Welcome to another week.

Think tank, The Social Market Foundation (SMF) examined inspection data from Ofsted, and discovered that almost 50,000 vulnerable children were being cared for in areas where council services were failing them. 

SMF offers the key stats below, inside their press release:

•  63% of Local Authorities in England were providing services for vulnerable children which either “required improvement” or were “inadequate.”;
• 47,085 children – 65% of all looked-after children – are looked after in Local Authorities that are deemed to be falling short of a good standard;
• Of those children, 13,790 are receiving care services judged as “inadequate”, which is the worst possible grade. 

SMF produced a report with all their findings, which they’ve entitled, “Looked-after children: the Silent Crisis.”

The think tank is calling on the government to address the findings:

“It is remarkable that the fact that nearly two thirds of Local Authorities being judged in need of improvement or inadequate over looked-after children is scarcely discussed at Westminster. This would not be the case if such levels of failure were found in our school system, where 78% (secondary) and 90% (primary) are judged to be either good or outstanding.. 

This issue clearly needs to receive more attention from politicians and policymakers, and with improvements in the data available, we now have the ability to see where we are going wrong, and how we might improve the situation of looked after children.”

Today, Ofsted launched a beta site where members of the public can search for and access inspection reports for a wide range of bodies and child welfare practices.

Our question this week then, is this: why do you think the government continues to overlook the quality of care councils offer vulnerable children?