Ofsted praises care leaver service improvements at 'inadequate' council

Wandsworth Council's children's services department was handed the inspectorate's lowest rating in February 2016 after inspectors found a "serious decline" in leadership, management and governance and that social work practice was "unsafe" for many vulnerable children.

But following a sixth monitoring visit, which took place in December last year, Ofsted said there has been a significant turnaround in the local authority's care leavers service, which had been externally commissioned but was brought in house in September last year.

Improvements since being run directly by the council include an increase in the number of full-time equivalent personal advisers from 11 to 13 and a boost in the number of full-time equivalent education and training advisers from one to three.

"As a result there has been a reduction in caseload numbers and this is leading to a better quality of engagement and direct work with young people," a letter to the council outlining the findings states.

The letter adds: "The local authority has recently made purposeful and well-targeted progress in improving services for its care leavers.

"However, it took the local authority some time to end the contractual arrangements with the previous provider of the care leavers service and this has limited the pace of improvement."

Other improvements to the care leavers service include better management oversight of cases, 97 per cent of which were found to be supervised on time.

There has also been an increase in the proportion of care leavers in education, employment and training, rising from 44 per cent in December 2015 to 61 per cent in October 2017.

However, concerns remain over the "variable" quality of case recording, which is "not detailed or specific enough", Ofsted's letter states.

Inspectors also said they want to see preparations for independence started far earlier in looked-after children's lives.

Additional concerns are raised at the low uptake of "Staying Put" arrangements, whereby looked-after children in foster care can stay in their placement until they are 21.

"Staying Put is not sufficiently promoted by professionals, and care leavers who spoke to inspectors were confused about the availability of, and opportunities offered by, these arrangements," the letter states.

However, Ofsted did note that the council is looking to develop an action plan to address the concerns.

During a monitoring visit last year Ofsted welcomed improvements across other areas of children's services. Inspectors found that children are safer thanks to better identification of risks and more timely action by managers.

Wandsworth Council has been contacted for comment.