Council safeguarding training praised by Ofsted inspectors

During an unannounced inspection, the watchdog found that staff in Hartlepool’s children’s services "benefit significantly" from training and development and concluded that "good multi-agency services are in place which support children subject to child protection plans".

Inspectors said: "Effective leadership and management are demonstrated at all levels challenging casework decision-making, providing clear direction and driving improvements to service quality.

"Multi-agency preventative work provides very good child-centred and co-ordinated services supporting children and families from their first point of contact with universal services."

While no areas for priority action were identified, Ofsted found a number of areas for development. Inspectors said the number of qualified social workers on the duty team is "insufficient to manage the volume of work effectively" and caseloads for social workers in the children with disabilities team are too high, "making it difficult to effectively monitor children's progress".

Cath Hill, the lead member for children’s services, said: "It is very reassuring that following their unannounced inspection, Ofsted found no areas for priority action.  This is testament to the great team we have working with children and I would like to thank all of the staff for their hard work."

Nicola Bailey, director of child and adult services, added: "The inspectors highlighted several areas requiring development, but we had already identified these and work is on-going to address them."