A Freedom of Information request by the Wandsworth Times found that between 2011 and 2015, 455 staff across ten departments were made redundant.
A further 155 jobs have been axed since Wandsworth and Richmond Councils entered into a shared staffing arrangement in which people are jointly employed by both local authorities.
The department which suffered the most was children's services, where 141 people have been let go in the eight-plus years. The FOI revealed that in the four years prior to this inspection, 118 staff from that department alone had been let go. This accounted for more than a quarter of all redundancies made in that time.
Then in 2018, when the most recent Ofsted inspection for children's services took place, the council was once again told it needed "significant improvement."
Particular shortcomings the inspectors identified included delays in finding adoptive and permanent carers for children; ineffective oversight of private fostering; and slow progress in identifying health needs of children in care.
Source: https://www.wandsworthguardian.co.uk/ne ... rdest-hit/