Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Corporate Director of Children and Young Peoples Services and a presentation from C Ring, Strategic Manager, Safeguarding and Professional Practice (for copies see file of minutes) which provided an overview of the activity and strategic planning that had been undertaken since the ILACS inspection of Children and Young Peoples Services in October 2019.

Members were advised that Ofsted had informed the service that there were areas of good practice and there were firm foundations in place to drive improvement but there were also inconsistencies. 

The Committee learned there were two strategic priorities of improving the quality and consistency of care planning and reflective discussions that are targeted at improving outcomes for children and making a difference to them.

Members learned that the service was committed to encouraging the participation and engagement of children and young people and had recently appointed a member of staff to ensure this remained a priority and that the voice of children and young people is heard throughout all CYPS work.

Councillor Jewell described the judgement as disappointing and asked if the Management Team were expecting it.  The Head of Children’s Social Care confirmed that Ofsted had visited in January 2019 and several issues had been highlighted as needing a quick response.  The visit nine months later had shown that significant progress had been made, however there was more to do to receive a good judgement overall although the services for Children looked after and care leavers was good, but she was confident that they would for the next inspection.

The Head of Children’s Social Care added that the framework is wide ranging and within each area of the framework there are a large number of indicators that are assessed to inform the overall judgement meaning that there can be a significant number of strengths within an area but the judgement still be requires improvement.

Verbal feedback from inspectors had confirmed that those areas were sitting at the top end of the requires improvement judgment.  There would be focused visits before the next Ofsted inspection in three years.  Ofsted had changed their approach in that they had more regular contact and worked alongside to offer constructive feedback to support improvement.

Councillor Crute asked if there would be a particular area in focus at the next inspection, and whether there was a particular function which required improvement.  The Head of Children’s Social Care confirmed that the focused visits between now and the next full inspection would be over two days and Ofsted chose an area of the service to carry out a shorter assessment.  They had access to a lot of intelligence and data which may lead them to focus on specific areas of practice, but no assumptions could be made on which of the themes they would choose.

There was evidence of good practice in all parts of the service, but consistency was needed to ensure that each individual child was receiving the best outcome possible.

In response to a question from Councillor Kennedy, the Strategic Manager confirmed that Ofsted were focused on the quality of social work practice and one of the things that was most important was  whether Social Workers could demonstrate that what they were  doing was making a difference and changing the lives of children.

Resolved:

That the report and presentation be noted.