Ofsted highlights progress at two 'inadequate' councils

In Worcestershire, inspectors reported rising morale among social workers handling referrals. A separate visit to Barnet found faster and more effective decision making within the council's multi-agency safeguarding hub (Mash).

A letter outlining progress in Worcestershire, which was rated inadequate in 2017, said there had been "a positive shift in the morale and culture of the workforce".

"Social workers are growing in confidence, and this is starting to result in creative, thoughtful and resourceful work with children," the letter states.

"Children's case files demonstrate that an improved level of professional curiosity, including the identification and response to risk, is more evident in social workers' practice."

The introduction of a new performance management framework was welcomed but inspectors said more work is needed to ensure the data it relies on is accurate.

Ofsted also had concerns about some children receiving social work assessments when their circumstances meant a strategy meeting was more appropriate.

Inspectors found the rate of strategy meetings held in Worcestershire has halved since November 2017 and said the wait between strategy meetings and initial child protection conferences is "too long".

The council's partner agencies are also not contributing enough to strategy meetings, added Ofsted: "This means that the authority cannot be assured that all children are receiving a comprehensive multi-agency consideration of their needs at the earliest opportunity when they may be at risk of significant harm."

Andy Roberts, lead member for children and families in Worcestershire, said: "Our staff are working very hard to deliver the improvements that we need to deliver. There is a lot more that we have to do and to support these ongoing improvements we are investing an extra £10.5m into children's social care from April."

Despite these problems Worcestershire's auditing of its social work practice was found to be accurate, aiding quality assurance. Ofsted reported similar progress in Barnet where "improved quality assurance processes" had helped senior leaders better monitor the recent progress being made by the borough.

The Barnet monitoring visit also found that additional resources had helped its Mash progress cases faster and the introduction of daily meetings had helped ensure less variation in the way thresholds are applied.

Morale was found to be good and staff turnover was stabilising, leading to more continuity for children and families, beginning to result in better practice.

However inspectors found that the quality of most assessments in Barnet remain weak.

"Assessments lack a thorough understanding of family relationships and parental capacity and do not always include a thorough analysis of the risk to children," a letter from Ofsted outlining the findings states.

It added that more work must be done to seek the views of fathers, consider children's "lived experience" and pay attention to "family heritage".

Reuben Thompstone, chair of Barnet's children, education, libraries and safeguarding committee, said: "We are pleased that Ofsted has recognised that we are continuing to progress and consolidate the recent improvements we have made, but we fully acknowledge we still have a long way to go to bring services up to the standards expected."

Barnet received an inadequate rating from Ofsted in July 2017 and in January this year the Department for Education ordered the council to let its improvement adviser, Essex County Council, lead and direct its efforts to change.