Powys County Council’s children’s services is a “safe service” an expert has said following a review which came several years after a scathing Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) report in 2017 which revealed missed opportunities to safeguard children, poor risk assessment and serious performance issues with front line services.

At a meeting of the council’s Health and Care scrutiny committee on 30 July councillors received an assurance report that had been conducted into children’s services earlier this year.

The work was commissioned by the council’s chief executive Emma Palmer and was carried out by Stephen Walker the director of relational children’s social work services at Leeds City Council.

The report contained 18 recommendations for improvements.

Mr Walker said: “The key headlines for me was that the arrangements for children’s services are safe.

“You have an experienced and stable leadership team that have a good understanding of the area and the needs of children here.

“They know what they are doing and hopefully that’s reassuring.”

He added that there are “strong governance arrangements” in place.

Mr Walker continued: “What I found was a service that knows itself well, there is a good understanding of the challenges facing children in Powys and a commitment to improve and innovate.

“It’s an improving service that will continue to improve.

“But there were some opportunities for improvement which I covered in my recommendations.

“A key thing for me is that there is no need for reactive action.

“I didn’t come across anything that I felt didn’t make sense or was unsafe.”

Committee chairwoman Cllr Amanda Jenner said: “For those of us who were here since 2017 it’s really pleasing to hear the comments; the service is vastly different.”

Vice-chairman Cllr Gareth E Jones said: “Saying that it’s a safe service gives us the reassurance that we wanted to see.”