FINGERS are being crossed that an external inspection into Powys County Council's (PCC) Children's Services, to be published in the new year, will see the green shoots of recovery.

Council Leader Cllr Rosemarie Harris and Acting Chief Executive, Dr Mohammed Mehmet, are hopeful that the recent inspection by the Care Inspectorate Wales will have something positive to say.

The Powys leadership met the Local Democracy Service for a wide ranging discussion on the issues facing the authority which needs to make £41 million worth of savings during the next three years.

While good work has been done in many departments, one issue has dominated Powys County Council during the last year, the crisis in Children's Services.

In October 2017, the Care and Social Services inspectorate Wales (CSSIW), now known as the Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW), produced a damning inspection report into Children's Services, which revealed missed opportunities to safeguard children, poor risk assessment and serious performance issues with front line services.

Following last year's report £6 million was pumped into the department to turn things around.

Another £6 million has been added to that.

Earlier this year both Adult Services and Children's Services departments were given over £6 million each to stabilise.

But while Adult Services have received praise for being able to turn the corner, Children's Services continues to need extra funding, which sees it £6 million over budget already for this financial year.

Cllr Harris, said: "We are spending money and deliberately so, we agreed to invest, it's not a secret.

"We had to bring in staff, agency staff and we are over compliment and having to pay for those.

"We are trying to reduce them and we'll get to that stage, we did agree from the beginning that we would invest what was needed in the service.

"There have been recruitment problems, to get a full complement of social workers."

One of the problems that the Local Democracy Service understands is that agency staff are being used as Social Workers don't want to work for the department as "staff" due to the dark cloud over the department.

Dr Mehmet replied: "Adult services has had stable leadership, whereas in Children's Services it hasn't been. If you are a social worker you want stability.

"We have a new permanent head of children's services and six months ago a permanent director was appointed. That was an extremely important appointment.

"There has been another external inspection and we are waiting for the report, probably in the new year. Having strong and stable leadership and an external report that shows we are making progress will be turning points."

Dr Mehmet added: "That's what will give people confidence that Powys is a place that they want to come to. We're not expecting them to say everything is fine now, but acknowledge improvement."

"And that will bring about an improvement in recruitment which is crucial for the financial situation"

A spokeswoman for the Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) confirmed that the report will be published in the New Year.