OFSTED inspectors have told Warrington Borough Council children's services they need to make improvements.

A report published on Tuesday said while no children in the town were found to be 'unsafe', work in areas including 'children who need help and protection' and 'leadership, management and governance' needed to improve.

Inspectors added: "A lack of decisive action in a significant number of cases has led to emergency intervention by the police at a point of crisis.

"During the inspection six cases were brought to the attention of senior managers, who took further action to strengthen intervention."

The report added assessments and decision-making over children who needed help to keep safe were not always good resulting in a small number not getting the help they needed quickly enough.

Ofsted found Warrington to be 'good' in adoption performance and the 'experiences and progress of care leavers'.

Council chiefs have stressed the ruling does not mean that any children are at risk and bosses have already begun to develop improvement plans.

Audrey Williamson, independent chair of Warrington Safeguarding Children Board, which was also judged to 'require improvement', said: “While there are areas for improvement, the review also emphasises the strong partnership in Warrington that operates effectively to deliver on all our responsibilities.

"We recognise there is more to do and in the coming months we will work hard to continue to strengthen our work in safeguarding vulnerable children and young people.

“Good arrangements are in place for considering the protection of children who live in households where there is significant risk of domestic abuse and the local authority and safeguarding board have provided extensive training to social workers, schools and other children’s practitioners in relation to child sexual exploitation."

The latest report follows the council being judged as 'inadequate' in November 2009 before 'adequate progress' was found to have been made during a re-inspection in February 2011.

Steve Reddy, director of children’s services at the council, described the overall judgement as 'misleading'.

He added: “The language used...does not adequately reflect the expertise and commitment of council staff and colleagues across Warrington, who work hard every day to protect children, and improve their outcomes.

“Given the importance of the work we do, we welcome scrutiny to raise standards.

"I firmly believe the bar should be set high on what is required to be ‘good’, however, I do question a regime where it seems 90 per cent of those inspected ‘require improvement’.

“Having said that, Warrington is not complacent - Ofsted has identified areas where we need to improve and we have already started to take action. The protection and safeguarding of children and young people is a top priority.”