'Significant' improvement has been made by Croydon Council's children’s services but some aspects still remain 'inadequate'.

A monitoring visit was carried out in March, six months after Ofsted found there were "widespread and serious failures," in council's children's services.

Following the visit, Ofsted inspectors praised the work carried out by the council in such a short period of time.

"Senior leaders and managers in Croydon are progressing well in implementing their improvement plan and they have quickly responded to issues identified in the first monitoring visit," the Ofsted report said.

"The local authority has invested a significant amount of additional resources to improve the quality of children’s services."

Leader of the council, Tony Newman, was pleased to see improvements recognised.

"I and the rest of the council’s leadership have made this a top priority and it’s good to hear that the action we've taken is already working to make things better," he said.

“However, we're by no means complacent.

"We're still at a very early stage in our improvement journey and there's much to be done to ensure we offer every child and young person the high-quality service we're determined they'll have.

"We'll maintain our focus, putting the children and families we serve at the heart of everything we do."

This visit was the second of eight that children’s services will receive over a two-year-span and focused on the council's work with vulnerable adolescents.

Ofsted inspectors noted there was still work to be done in this area.

"Despite it being early in their improvement journey, senior managers showed an openness to considering their practice and the quality of services offered to this particularly complex group of children," the report said.

"Inspectors found that the quality of practice for vulnerable adolescents continues to be highly variable and, in some cases, remains inadequate."

Since the initial report came out, Camden Council has been tasked with helping Croydon improve its children's care.

This week, Croydon Council's plan on how to best work in partnership was approved.

Under the terms of the agreement, senior managers from Camden Council’s children’s social care service will provide peer mentoring support to their counterparts at Croydon throughout the two years.