MONMOUTHSHIRE council’s leader admitted it has taken time for the authority to recover after its children and young people’s department was placed in special measures.

It remains in that category after an inspection in November 2012. A letter from the inspectorate seen by cabinet members from July found there had been progress made but that improvement was still required.

Inspectors said senior council leaders were initially “unwilling to accept the findings of the 2012 inspection” and that it took about a year for staff to appreciate the gap in what the authority needed to achieve.

The council’s leader, Cllr Peter Fox, told a cabinet meeting last Wednesday: “It was one of the most difficult days of my life when I was living through the feedback of that Estyn inspection and it did take a while to get to grips with it, to accept some of that... but I am certainly not complacent anymore.”

“There are issues (the council’s performance in the letter) and there will always be issues when you’re constantly driving for continuous improvement, there will always be things you can improve on.

“I think it’s a positive step on the journey of recovery we will continue to make over the coming months.”

Estyn said there had been a “significant change” in the mindset across the authority in two years, although it is still producing reports of an inconsistent quality which are sometimes produced too late for councillors to influence outcomes.

The council’s chief executive, Paul Matthews, said of the 2012 report: “It was a blow to the organisation and to the wider community and the decision to look at a fundamental rebuild was the right decision although not necessarily the quickest decision. What we wanted to do was to rebuild a service that was sustainable.”

He said he was pleased to find out that Estyn had found a “step change” in the department

The children and young people’s department chief officer Sarah McGuinness told the meeting: “We are in a much stronger, more confident position.

“We are working very hard.”