Agenda item

The Panel will consider the overview of the Osfted inspection of Children’s Services.

Contact:        Vicky Metheringham, Service Director

The Panel considered the overview of the Ofsted Inspection of Children’s Services presented by Vicky Metheringham, Service Director for Family Support and Child Protection, advised the Panel that the inspection had taken place over a three week period, and was the first full inspection since 2019 when Children’s Services had been judged as ‘Requires Improvement’. The outcome of the inspection was that Children’s Services were now judged to be ‘Good’.

Vicky Metheringham highlighted the most important issues raised within the Ofsted report –

• Areas for development - identified by Ofsted had already been identified by the Service and plans for improvement were already in place and being addressed.
• Leadership Team and staff - The report noted that the leadership team were established and confident and staff were committed. Improvement was said to have been driven by strong corporate and political support. A range of effective bespoke services were meeting local need and making a tangible difference to children’s experiences.
• Areas judged to be good were:

-       the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families; the experiences and progress of children who need help and protection; the experiences and progress of children in care; and

-       overall Effectiveness

• The experiences and progress of care leavers was judged to be ‘requires improvement to be good’, and this was an area the Service had been focussing on for the last year to make the necessary improvements.
• Areas of strength identified were that –

-       children were seen quickly and listened to, and kept within the family network where possible;

-       children at risk of exploitation were helped by a strong multi-agency response;

-       disabled children received comprehensive packages of support;

-       the Virtual School provided a focus on the academic and developmental needs of children;

-       social workers knew their children and families well;

-       stable foster placements were meeting children’s needs;

-       care leavers spoke with warmth about their relationships with personal advisors;

-       there was a strong offer to newly qualified social workers; and

-       staff morale was high and staff felt valued.

• Areas for improvement – there were three areas for improvement, which the Service were already aware of - 

-       to provide more choice and availability of homes for children and care leavers;

-       to improve the quality of written records, plans and minutes for the minority of children in care and care leavers where these documents were weak; and

-       to improve the effectiveness of practice with every child experiencing harm from neglect and/or domestic abuse.

• The National Director for Regulation of Social Care, Yvette Stanley, had written to the Director of Children’s Services to personally congratulate the Service on the outcome of the inspection, recognising the significance of the achievement.
• Kirklees Parenting Strategy had been relaunched to improve services to care leavers, and the Care Leaver’s Forum had co-authored and were co-delivering Kirklees Parenting Training to support this. Suitable accommodation continued to be a pressure within the authority and was a key priority of the Kirklees Parenting Strategy; work was taking place to build a broader collaboration with social housing providers.
• After the inspection, children in care and young care leavers had been written to with a summary of the key strands of the report’s findings in a child-friendly language.

Questions and comments were invited from Panel Members, with the following issues being covered:

• A question was asked around the plan to improve the effectiveness of the practice of children experiencing harm from domestic abuse and whether it contained anything to focus on the preventative measures around engaging with children who had been affected, Vicky Metheringham advised the Panel that there was a plan that had been formulated with Ofsted based on detailed conversations with them throughout the inspection, and this included a focus on prevention of domestic abuse and early intervention.
• A question was asked regarding children and care leaves regarding sufficiency of homes and how long it would take to provide the accommodation that was needed, Vicky Metheringham advised that work was ongoing to recruit additional foster carers, and that this issue was on the agenda for consideration by the Panel in January. Nationally, local authorities, including Kirklees, were having to house children in semi-supported accommodation for emergency foster care as there were not always places available in foster homes. The Panel were advised that this accommodation was registered, and suitable staff were in place.

RESOLVED:

(1)         That the report be noted and Officers be thanked for their contributions.

(2)         The Panel agreed that the Ofsted report was very positive and that it was encouraging to see the significant improvements that had been made since the last Ofsted report in 2019. The Panel asked that their thanks and congratulations be passed onto the Teams within Children’s Services for their hard work and commitment to improving the delivery of services and support to children and young people in Kirklees.