Ofsted praises council for outstanding work with children in care

A report into the quality of children's services at Suffolk County Council gave the local authority an overall "good" rating.

Ofsted had previously rated Suffolk "adequate" for child protection services in July 2013, and adequate for looked-after children services in December 2010.

Inspectors said that services for looked-after children are now particularly strong for younger children and in securing permanence, with some aspects showing "outstanding performance".

"Suffolk County Council is led by dynamic and capable leaders and managers and is delivering a good service overall to children and their families," the report, which followed an inspection in November and December last year, states.

"Leaders have a comprehensive understanding of what needs to be achieved and have made sustained progress since the inspections of services for children looked after in 2010 and child protection in 2013, which were both judged to be adequate."

However services for children in need of help and protection were deemed to require improvement.

"While some aspects of these services have considerable strengths and many have improved, outcomes are not consistently good," the report states.

"Improvement is required to ensure that children in need and children on a child protection plan benefit from consistently good assessment and planning, and that this is evident in case records.

"Services for care leavers require improvement to ensure that they are all in suitable and stable accommodation and have clear plans for their futures."

Gordon Jones, lead member for children’s services at Suffolk County Council, praised the work and commitment of staff at the authority.

“The inspection team’s feedback demonstrates that we are listening to the children and families we work for and their views and experiences are positively shaping the way we do things," he said.

“This is confirmation that we are on the right path and in the areas where we have recommendations for improvement, Ofsted acknowledges that we already have plans in place to deliver success in the future.

"We are not at all complacent in light of this rating, the team will want to demonstrate further success the next time we welcome Ofsted to Suffolk.”