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<p>The Department for Education intervenes in all local authorities that receive an
inadequate Ofsted rating for children’s services.</p><p>In the most serious cases,
improvement may require statutory intervention, whereby, under the Education Act 1996,
the Secretary of State is able to direct a local authority to take whatever action
is deemed necessary to secure improvement. In the last few years, Ministers have directed
the setting up of new governance structures, including partnering with another local
authority (e.g. Isle of Wight), bringing in extra improvement support (e.g. Somerset),
or establishing a Children’s Services Trust (e.g. Doncaster).</p><p>In other cases
the department takes non-statutory steps, issuing an ‘improvement notice’ detailing
what actions a local authority is expected to take to improve its services and closely
monitoring progress. We deploy government improvement advisers who are appointed to
support and challenge these authorities to make rapid progress.</p>
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