CYP Now - Local Spotlight: Surrey County Council

Affluent South East council has had to navigate difficult times in its work to improve children’s services after "inadequate" rating.

Surrey County Council has had an impressive turnaround in children’s services since an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating in 2018. Picture: William/Adobe Stock

After an “inadequate” Ofsted judgment in May 2018, Surrey County Council set about putting in place the building blocks for recovery.

To address failings in leadership, child protection services and staff turnover, the council brought in the highly regarded Dave Hill from Essex County Council as director of children’s services (DCS), increased spending on children’s social care and reduced caseloads to help retain staff.

Substantial progress

By the time of the last monitoring visit before the pandemic struck (December 2019), the work was starting to pay dividends: inspectors remarked on the “substantial progress” and “overall, improvements in the quality of social work, management oversight and supervision are gathering momentum”.

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