Ofsted judges Southampton children's services in need of improvement

The south coast council’s services for children in need of help and protection, looked-after children and care leavers were judged overall to “require improvement” following the inspection in July.

The rating reflects progress for the council. Although safeguarding and looked-after children’s services were judged “adequate” at their most recent inspection in 2012, Ofsted says the council’s April 2013 self-assessment of safeguarding services found children “were not safe or properly protected from significant harm and looked-after children received a service not consistently good enough”.

Southampton is the 17th out of the 33 authorities to receive the “requires improvement” judgment under Ofsted’s new inspection framework.

The inspection found that in the three main judgment areas of children who need help and protection, looked-after children, and leadership, Southampton children’s services were assessed as requiring improvement. Adoption performance was also judged as requiring improvement, but progress made by care leavers was assessed as inadequate.

Ofsted said it found weaknesses across services for looked-after children including inadequate care planning, poor quality life story work and case recording not sufficiently detailed.

Inspectors reported that around one-third of care leavers were either not in touch with services or living in unsuitable accommodation. In addition, too many were not in education, employment or training, while only three are currently in higher education.

Significant problems were also identified with leadership across the council, from elected members through to middle managers. Ofsted said politicians were failing to meet their corporate parenting responsibilities to champion looked-after children, supervision of social workers does not promote reflective practice, and performance management arrangements are not focused enough on improving practice.

Meanwhile, adoption is not achieved quickly enough for 17 per cent of children in care.