Croydon LBC has failed to improve children's services quickly enough, according to a damning report from Ofsted.

The watchdog has rated the council's children's services as inadequate and warned ‘widespread and serious failures' were putting some children at risk of significant harm.

A report by Ofsted read: ‘Inspectors identified a legacy of poor practice characterised by drift and delay in the provision of key services.

‘Weak managerial oversight at all levels has not ensured that basic social work practice is of a good enough standard.

‘Children do not receive robust and timely responses to ensure that risk is reduced and their needs are met.'

The Government has appointed Eleanor Brazil as a commissioner to oversee children's services at the council.

A statutory direction from the Department of Education said it was 'satisfied the the council is failing to perform to an adequate standard' in some or all of its functions.

The council said it had already taken immediate action to improve services, such as recruiting more social workers, appointing a new social care director and forming an improvement board.

The council's executive director of people, Barbara Peacock, said: ‘We accept the findings of this report and are committed to making sure that we provide better support for our children and young people.

‘I'm sorry that our services have not been good enough.

‘We identified the need for improvements last year but, despite working extremely hard to make these necessary changes, they have not delivered the impact we wanted.

‘The report has shown the extent of work that is needed.

‘Much of this work is already under way but we recognise there is a lot more to do and we are working with Ofsted to create an improvement plan to drive through those changes.'