YOUNGSTERS in Essex are not getting the protection they need from the county council, a critical report has revealed.

The authority’s children’s services attempts to keep children and young people safe have been labelled inadequate by Ofsted inspectors.

The rating is shared with only Haringey, recently heavily criticised over the death of Baby P – and six other councils out of 147.

As a result, Ed Balls, secretary of state for children, schools and families, yesterday revealed “intervention experts” were in discussion with the council to decide what actions or support is required to improve safeguarding children.

While Essex was praised for its anti-bullying strategy and for improving care for looked-after children, inspectors found too many youngsters are the victims of crime and said the recruitment and vetting of staff who work with children are “not sufficiently robust”.

The report, by Juliet Winstanley, states: “There are inadequacies in safeguarding.

“The proportion of young people who continue learning beyond the school leaving age is high.

“While there have been significant improvements, the proportion of teenage parents in employment, education or training is still too low.”

Overall, the county council’s children and young person’s service was rated as “adequate”, although the report stated the service had deteriorated in two areas on last year – safeguarding and children’s health – which dropped from good to adequate.

An Essex County Council spokesman said the authority was committed to ensuring every child in Essex has a safe childhood, and added that all concerns raised on the inspection were being dealt with.

“Essex County Council acknowledges all the points and comments in the Ofsted report and, as recognised in the report, significant progress has been and is continuing to be made in rectifying previous areas of weakness,” she said.

“Indeed, in the last year, Essex County Council has assessed every single part of its children’s service and has made significant changes to strengthen its procedures, including investment of £22.6 million a year to improve our frontline services, appointing an independent chair of our Child Safeguarding Board and appointing two independent assessors.”