Children's protection head leaves Devon

Rory McCalllum, the head of children and adult protection at Devon County Council has left his £95,000 job.

The departure comes after an unannounced inspection by Ofsted found the county’ children’s protection services were “inadequate”.

Children’s protection, safeguards some of the most vulnerable of the County’s 141,000 children and young people (0-17 years old).

However the Ofsted report stated that: “There are systemic weaknesses in managerial oversight and quality assurance that enable inconsistent and ineffective practice to go unchallenged and as a consequence some children and young people are exposed to unnecessary risk of significant harm.”

In response the council established an independent panel to improve how the council provides this service.

The panel recommended that the authority run larger teams of social workers based within local communities and work more closely with schools, police and the NHS to improve early intervention.