Ofsted issued Kent County Council with a damning report two years ago

Kent County Council is expected to learn early next year if its safeguarding services for the county's most vulnerable children are up to scratch.

A team of Ofsted inspectors will complete a 10-day unannounced inspection of the authority this week - two years after a damning report found services were inadequate in virtually every area.

The inspection has focused on whether or not safeguarding services are improving against the areas of concern flagged up by Ofsted in 2010.

The damning report led to a public apology by Kent County Council leader Paul Carter (pictured left) and health chiefs.

Since the disastrous inspection two years ago, which later led to the revelation that at the peak of the crisis some 2,700 children were without a social worker, KCC has ploughed more than £20million into efforts to turn the department round.

Much of that has been spent on recruiting additional social workers and specialist teams to work through the backlog of files.

An interim monitoring report published in 2011 found KCC had made some improvements, particularly in reducing unallocated cases and recruiting more staff.

At the start of this year, it emerged Kent had spent £11million on temporary social workers as part of its drive to improve.

The council also introduced "golden hellos" of £2,000 to newly qualified social workers.

KCC is due to receive verbal feedback on the inspection this week before it is issued with a draft report by Ofsted.

Full publication of the inspection report is due in early January.