A report providing the Committee with context and information about the inspection of Children’s Social Care Services which resulted in a positive ‘requires improvement to be good’ judgement.

The Director of Children’s Services, Brighter Futures for Children, submitted a report that provided the Committee with the context and information about the inspection of Children’s Social Care Services that had resulted in a positive ‘requires improvement to be good’ judgement.  A copy of the Ofsted Inspection of Children’s Social Care Services Report was attached to the report at Appendix 1.

The report explained that there were four judgements used by Ofsted when making judgements: ‘inadequate’, ‘requires improvement to be good’, ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’, there were four judgement areas as follows:

·         The impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families;

·         The experiences and progress of children who needed help and protection;

·         The experiences and progress of children in care and care leavers;

·         Overall effectiveness.

The judgements had been ‘requires improvement to be good’ across all four areas, which was a significant achievement.

The report explained that since December 2018, services for children had been delivered by Brighter Futures for Children and Ofsted had stated that ‘the company and Council were working collaboratively, and appropriate arrangements for scrutiny and challenge were in place’.  There had been evidence of improvement in most areas of practice since the inspection that had taken place in June 2016, with recent practice being stronger although variable.  It had been noted that senior leaders had rightly focused on strengthening the recruitment and retention of staff, caseloads were reducing and there had been an increase in management capacity.  Early Help Services had continued to strengthen with well-targeted interventions and the establishment of the multi-agency hubs had contributed to a reduction in the number of referrals to children’s statutory services.  There had been seven areas identified for improvement in the Ofsted report and in order to address these an Ofsted Action Plan had been developed which was reviewed at the Children’s Services Improvement Board.

Resolved –    That the contents of the Ofsted Inspection Report of Children’s Social Care Services in September 2019 be noted.