Children in this corner of Greater Manchester face an unimaginable struggle. But there is still hope

Years of austerity and financial hardship have put British families under pressure.

Councils across the country have faced the need to cut key services as budgets become tighter, often leaving residents paying more in council tax.

In Salford, the situation has reached a critical level – the city’s population is growing, and the city hall is trying to help a growing number of people living in poverty and experiencing homelessness.

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Children are at the forefront of this hardship, with about a third of all children in the neighborhood living in poverty, a figure that is expected to worsen.

The council’s children’s services team is a lifeline for many of these young people, providing help and support to give them the best chance of success in life.

But in 2010 the service was criticized by Ofsted, with the town hall reprimanded for “significant weaknesses” in safeguarding children and an inspection describing the service as “underperforming”.

Since then, the authority has turned things around by connecting with the communities it serves and taking an uncompromising stance on standards.

In January it was rated ‘good’ overall and was praised by Ofsted inspectors in a number of areas, but particularly for its work with care leavers.

The problems faced by those referred to children’s services in Salford are varied and include domestic abuse, mental health problems and drug misuse – or sometimes all of these at the same time.

Sayma Khan started working at the council shortly after she was given a poor rating and rose from being a frontline social worker to become director of children’s social work at the town hall.

She has been part of a transformation that is helping to improve life in what is the UK’s 18th most deprived local authority, and now she is leading the charge to make things even better.

“The whole approach has changed”

Building trust with people has been key to the change and that includes Salford born and bred staff who really know each neighborhood and the communities that live there.

Ms Khan told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “It’s about understanding the diversity of Salford, once you have that it’s much easier to get the best for the children.

“Instead of doing things to families, we’re doing things with families, asking them what they think they need support with – the whole approach has changed.”

The latest Ofsted inspection found that children’s services in Salford have a “strong” leadership team with a “relentless focus” on improvement.

The report added that children are supported by “skilled and dedicated workers” and that corporate and policy leaders at the council are “listening carefully to children, care leavers and staff”.

Melissa Caslake is not a Salfordian but has been part of the council’s leadership team in children’s services for the past 12 months, taking a “no compromise” attitude to keeping standards high.

The chief executive said the team received £114m in the council’s last budget, a figure it needs to spend creatively to ensure all areas of the service are supported.

She said one of the biggest challenges facing children’s services was the cost of implementing out-of-home placements for children in care, which had “went through the roof” due to inflation.

This, combined with the needs of young people becoming “increasingly complicated” after the pandemic and mental health pressures on children, has meant the service is spending “significantly more” than it has in the past.

The average cost of a residential placement for a child in Salford is £6,000 a week, Ms Caslake said, but some can be as much as £15,000 a week.

With 50 children in residential care in Salford, this means a significant bill for “a small number of children”.

A housing and homelessness crisis

National issues also affect Salford’s children.

The city has declared a housing and homelessness crisis this year, and families without a place to call home are coming to the council asking for help.

When they cannot find a place to live on their own, they can be offered a place in temporary accommodation.

There are a “significant number” of children in this situation in Salford, Ms Caslake said, and this has “increased a lot in the last couple of years”.

This can cause many problems – lack of space to play and do homework, lack of cooking facilities and the long distance from school, which means children and parents have to wake up earlier and spend more time travelling.

These problems create long-standing problems on the streets of Salford and its communities, which are far from the Palace of Westminster in London, where some say these matters should demand more attention.

Despite the challenges, Salford’s children’s services have continued to invest, with £1.6m pumped into its foster care system, which has seen an increase in people coming forward to be assessed and help young people.

The volume of the management team and the hard work of staff on the ground ultimately saved a failing service which is now in a better position to give Salford’s children a helping hand when they need it most need.

It led to examples such as a teenager who arrived in the UK unaccompanied at the age of 15 and was helped by children’s services in Salford, who learned English and is now studying at university to become a doctor.

We always ask ourselves more what can we do?

But it is clear that the work did not stop there.

Leaders of Salford’s children’s services team said the ‘good’ still left room for improvement.

And while the council has been forced to make significant savings in its budget this year, amounting to £5.9 million, they are confident they can continue to change lives despite the financial pressures.

Ms Caslake said: “We are constantly setting expectations around ambition, always asking what can we do more?

“If something was good, how do we make it even better? Creating that culture at every level of the organization is what we want.

“It’s like a stick of rock, it goes through the middle and it’s not all coming from us, everyone is thinking about it and thinking what else can we do.

“That’s what makes you stand out—and that’s what we aim for.”