A government advisor will be brought in after a damning report on a council's children's services department.

Inspectors visited Medway Council last month and, in a report released this morning, found the service to be Inadequate in three out of four sectors.

Vulnerable children in Medway at risk according to Ofsted

As a result, the deputy of the department has resigned from her post.

The Department for Education has today appointed a commissioner to identify improvements and recommend any additional support required.

They will monitor the progress of the department over the course of three months and produce a review into their findings at the end.

The Council have implemented an action plan, overseen by an independently-chaired improvement board.

Deputy director for children and adults services Ann Domeney resigned from her post in response to the report.

Children's services look after youngsters in care and those potentially at risk.

Of 64,000 children living in the Towns, around 400 are under the care of the council.

A further 350-380 children are subject to child protection orders where there may be concern for their welfare.

The areas that inspectors found to be inadequate during their inspection which took place between July 15 and 26 were: the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families; the experiences and progress of children who need help and protection and overall effectiveness.

In terms of the experiences and progress of children in care and care leavers, Ofsted has told the council it requires improvement to be good.

Among 10 areas Ofsted has told Medway to improve are the following: senior managers’ oversight and understanding about vulnerable children’s experiences; staffing capacity across children’s social care, early help hubs and leaving care teams; the response to risk for children who have experienced neglect, those exposed to parental domestic abuse and young people in danger of exploitation.

The report reads: "Many vulnerable children who have experienced long-term neglect, and those at risk of exploitation and who go missing from home or care, live in situations of actual harm or are at risk of harm for too long."

While the referrals of children at risk were found to be managed promptly by MASH (multi-agency safeguarding hub), which deals with concerns raised by members of the public, the report found there was "delays in visiting children."

The department's ability to deal with children who go missing or were at risk of sexual exploitation was described as "weak" and a multi-agency panel used to review such cases was branded "ineffective".

Concerns were raised on the caseloads of social workers being 'exceptionally high'; some social workers had as many as 55 children under their care.

"We were lead to believe we were in a different place"- Medway Council leader Alan Jarrett

The working conditions of these social workers were also scrutinised, with inspectors finding that they were regularly working during the evening and weekends.

The council have addressed these concerns by taking on eight new social workers who are due to start next month.

Around 150 social workers work in various capacities within the department, a number which the council is hoping to increase with a recruitment drive.

The report also found that there had been "unreliable audit findings and an over-optimistic self-assessment", saying: "Senior leaders and politicians have failed to evaluate and understand children’s lived experiences across the wider service.

"These are serious shortcomings, as senior leaders did not know about the extent of the failures to help and protect children until this inspection."

Reacting to the news, council leader Cllr Alan Jarrett (Con) said: "We were lead to believe we were in a different place and still in 'requires improvement' which isn't great, but better than where we are now.

"We embarked on some extra work in preparation for Ofsted, we were lead to believe throughout that things were much better than they actually are.

"That lead me to believe that certain senior management of the service were not self-aware of what was happening, they weren't aware of the service as much as they should have been and therefore the messages they were giving the politicians were the wrong messages.

"We are not dealing with things as well as we'd have liked, and it's up to us to put that right.

"Elected members will be looking seriously at that, we will be challenging the advice we have been given more than we have done in the past - and we have always challenged advice we have been given in the past anyway - ensuring that we can put the right systems and the right management in place to improve things."

"There's a good opportunity potentially for children's services to be taken away from Medway."- Cllr Vince Maple, leader of the Labour Group, Medway Council

Cllr Josie Iles (Con), portfolio holder for children's services said: "We have to focus on how it affects the child.

"It is important and that's where Ofsted is bringing up the improvements that we have to make."

Director of children's services Ian Sutherland said: "What we need to do is rapidly and quickly make changes that bring about the improvements that Ofsted have identified that we need to make.

"If anyone has any worry about the welfare of a child in Medway, it's really important that they feel confident that if they refer it to children's services in Medway we will act promptly.

"That's why it was encouraging to see that the report comments favourably on the multi-agency safeguarding hub and that its effective in identifying that early stage of risk for a child."

Cllr Vince Maple, leader of the Labour group, said: "The Ofsted report that's come out today is arguably one of the worst we have ever seen in Medway; completely unacceptable for some of the most vulnerable young people.

"To say that the leadership of Medway wasn't aware of some of the serious issues going on is damning and frankly we are on the eleventh hour now; there's a good opportunity potentially for children's services to be taken away from Medway.

"We don't want to see that, we want this situation fixed but I'm particularly concerned that in such a short time scale as three months that's going to be challenging for the administration to be able to bring forward."

Cllr Clive Johnson (Lab), the party's spokesman for children and young people, said: "Against the background of austerity-inspired cuts to public services and increasing pressures on families and children as a result of poorer working conditions and increased cost of living, Medway’s children’s services have a vital role to play in supporting our most vulnerable young people.

"That’s what makes this report so shocking, that despite the hard work of our social workers, they have not been given the tools or the leadership support to do their jobs."

Medway was issued with improvement notices in 2013 and 2014, with the leader of the department leaving the £121,000-a-year role, which she had held since 2012, in 2016.

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