DfE appoints adviser to help turn around children's services in East Riding
Nina Jacobs
Friday, July 24, 2020
The Department for Education has appointed an adviser to work with a council rated "inadequate" by Ofsted despite previously being identified as a beacon of best practice for improving children’s services.
The DfE issued an improvement notice to East Riding Council outlining the steps it needs to take to improve overall outcomes for its children’s services provision.
The order comes just months after the authority was handed the lowest rating by Ofsted following a short inspection in December 2019.
In 2018, the council was announced as one of eight new “partners in practice”, part of a government peer-support programme that saw leading children’s services departments work with other authorities to improve standards.
Two years earlier, East Riding received a "good" rating from the inspectorate but its services were downgraded after inspectors found “widespread weaknesses in practice and management oversight” for vulnerable children in need of help and protection.
The notice said the council was required to draw up an improvement plan, covering areas identified in Ofsted’s report of its latest inspection, as well as recommendations made by the adviser.
The plan should aim to deliver “appropriate and sustainable” improvement and its content and progress kept up to date, the department said.
The council was also instructed to ensure an improvement board, headed by an independent chair, was in place to oversee implementation of the plan and to report back to the department.
Any reports to the improvement board should include data, analysis and recommendations supported by evidence of impact of improvement on the quality of services for children in need of help and protection.
The DfE said its advisers would undertake reviews of progress against the council’s improvement agenda at least every six months and more regularly if needed.
Eoin Rush, the council’s director of children’s services, said following a short inspection by Ofsted in December, the council had implemented an immediate programme of work to address issues identified as needing improvement.
“The inspection also identified many strengths and these gave confidence that rapid and sustained improvement could be achieved without the need for intensive intervention by the Department for Education.
“Instead an adviser has been appointed to work alongside senior leaders to support the work needed in order to respond to the Ofsted recommendations,” he said.
Rush said due to the increased demand for services faced by the council it had been spurred to undertake a more fundamental review of its systems and service offer following the December inspection.
“Improvements and development plans are now in place and significant work has been carried out in recent months to make great strides forward.
“An extra £1millon of funding was committed in this year’s council budget to support this work and to ensure that there are sufficient frontline staff in place to meet the growing demand.
“Our main priority is, and always has been, meeting the needs of children in the East Riding and our dedicated staff are focussed on providing the best standard of care and support for them and their families,” he said.
A spokesman for the council said the additional £1m funding was being spent on increasing capacity and supporting best practice on the frontline.
This would also include recruiting new staff as well as enhancing the council’s systems and training, he said.
