Kingston Council has spent £1.4m turning around its troubled child protection teams, according to the body which scrutinises and oversees safeguarding in the borough.

A report overseen by the Kingston Local Safeguarding Children Board chairman Deborah Lightfoot contains updates on the authority's progress since it's children's services were rated inadequate by Ofsted for a second time this year.

It said: "The quality of practice is still variable and management capacity and supervision is inconsistent so that we cannot be assured that in every case vulnerable children receive the help and support they need to keep them safe."

The report said that Kingston Council had reviewed 819 individual children’s records, between July and December 2012 after the first shock inspection, re-opening more than 125 cases for further action.

Kingston LSCB has also published attendance of key figures at joint board meetings, revealing half of members failed to show at the last meeting of the 2012/13 financial year on March 12.

The report said: "We also need to ensure the board has full representation and attendance from all relevant agencies at an appropriate level of seniority and that its work is supported by sufficient resources."

To read the report in full click here http://moderngov.kingston.gov.uk/documents/s49019/4_LSCB%20Report.pdf