Cabinet has received an update on the Council’s Children’s Services improvement plan, following Ofsted’s “inadequate” judgement last year.
A “whole Council” and whole system response approach was immediately adopted to ensure sustainable improvements can be made so that children can grow up happy, healthy and safe from harm in their homes and communities with people who love, cherish and nurture them.
A comprehensive improvement plan is being progressed and Ofsted has carried out their first monitoring visit in September 2025, with positive feedback received around the progress made to date.
The first Ofsted monitoring visit took place in September and focussed on Early Help, Contacts, Referrals, Strategy discussions and Section 47 enquiries (formal investigation to determine if a child is, or at risk of, suffering significant harm), Child in Need Assessments, children subject to Private Fostering arrangements and the emergency management of concerns for children outside of normal office hours.
The feedback, which was positive, included:-
- The Interim Executive Director (Children’s Services) has implemented structures and frameworks to improve the conditions for good social work practice and is sighted on the significant issues that still remain – this is a leadership strength.
- Robust governance arrangements are now in place to support oversight.
- Political and corporate support is strong.
- There is strengthened capacity in senior and frontline levels.
- Quality Assurance improvements are evident and systems and forums are in place to monitor and challenge performance.
- Practice based improvements were evident in terms of thresholds, assessments, referrals, demonstrating children and family views.
- Ofsted confirmed that they recognised that the pace of change and progress is starting to have an impact on practice and they recognise the ongoing focus of improvement.
There are some areas that still need improvement – around domestic abuse, private fostering, safety planning and supervision – and these areas are being prioritised.
Cllr David Lonergan, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, said “The Council is committed to delivering sustainable improvements at pace and has made progress in doing so.
“We know that it will take time to make the improvements for them to be completely sustainable and embedded, but I’m incredibly proud of the progress that we have made to date.”