Years of austerity and financial hardship has put families around the UK under pressure.
Councils around the country have faced having 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 town hall is trying to help growing numbers of people living in poverty and facing homelessness.
Children are at the frontline of this hardship, with around a third of all children in the borough living in poverty, a figure which is expected to get worse.
The council’s children’s services team is a vital lifeline for many of these young people, offering help and support to give them the best chance of succeeding in life.
But in 2010 the service was slammed by Ofsted, with the town hall reprimanded for ‘significant weaknesses’ in safeguarding children, and an inspection describing the service as ‘performing poorly.’
Since then, the authority has turned things around by connecting with the communities it serves, and adopting an uncompromising attitude to 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 issues, and drug misuse – or sometimes all of these things at once.
Sayma Khan started working at the council shortly after it was given a poor rating, and from being a frontline social worker she’s climbed the ladder to become director of children’s social care at the town hall.
She’s been part of a transformation which is helping to improve lives in what is the UK’s 18th most deprived local authority, and now she’s leading the charge to make things better still.
Photo: Melissa Caslake and Sayma Khan are part of the leadership team at Salford council’s children’s services
‘The whole approach has shifted’
