Three years ago, Ofsted's inspectors left Kingston Council with few positives to report.
They had found "significant failings" in its child protection work, inconsistent decision making by professionals, "unacceptable drift" of cases, and team managers who lacked even basic performance management data. The inspectors deemed the south west London council's children's services "inadequate" and gave it the same verdict a year later after revisiting it.
Such fundamental flaws can take years to fully resolve, but when Ofsted reinspected the council this summer it found a children's service that was "transformed", rating the department "good". Nick Whitfield, Kingston's director of children's services, gives part of the credit for the rapid turnaround to the creation of Achieving for Children, the community interest company founded by Kingston and Richmond councils to jointly run their children's services area-wide.
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