Council's children's services move out of 'inadequate'

Northamptonshire County Council was previously rated “inadequate” for child protection by Ofsted in March 2013, and “inadequate” for services for looked-after children in August 2013, around three months prior to the launch of the single inspection framework.

A report published by Ofsted today following a five-week inspection that began in February gives an overall rating of “requires improvement”.

Inspectors found that, “starting from a very low base”, there had been progress in improving services across all areas, although "most of the progress has yet to be fully embedded".

"Over the last three years, there has been much focused work to improve services, with some success," the report states.

"On this inspection, inspectors saw no children at risk of immediate harm and this is a substantial improvement from the last inspections.

"There has been much work to improve the initial response to safeguarding concerns with: a robust multi-agency safeguarding hub that responds to new referrals; a first response team that conducts child protection investigations; and the response to incidents of sexual exploitation team, which focuses on children and young people who go missing or who are at risk of child sexual exploitation."

Inspectors also said that multi-agency work around early help support has shown some improvements, although more needs to be done to ensure the participation of all partner agencies.

Heather Smith, Northamptonshire County Council's deputy leader and lead member for children’s services, said: “We were fully aware of the challenge we faced three years ago when Ofsted last inspected our children’s services and since then we have all worked incredibly hard to improve the service and make sure children and young people in Northamptonshire are safe and well looked after.

“We know there is still work to do to achieve the level we are aspiring to, but I am pleased that Ofsted has recognised our progress and the important changes we are introducing to address their earlier concerns."

Northamptonshire County Council is planning to launch an independent trust to run its children’s services later this year.

Smith said this step will play an important part in addressing issues the department faces in recruiting and retaining permanent staff, reducing the reliance on more expensive agency staff.

Alex Hopkins, director for children, families and education at the local authority, said: “Improving children’s services in Northamptonshire has been the highest priority of the council for the past three years. We are proud to have a high-performing youth offending service and all four children’s homes in Northamptonshire are rated good or outstanding.

“I want to thank our dedicated staff for everything they have done to improve the lives of children in this county.

“This new rating from Ofsted, while an important milestone, does not mark the end of our improvement journey and our hard work will continue to improve and deliver services for children and young people that we can all be proud of.”