Ofsted calls for improvements at Bristol and Rochdale children's services
Neil Puffett
Friday, December 5, 2014
Bristol and Rochdale have been told to improve the quality of services for children and young people following inspections by Ofsted.
The "requires improvement" grading represents an upturn for Rochdale, which was previously labelled "inadequate" in 2012, but it is a backward step for Bristol, which in 2010 was rated as "good".
Inspectors in Rochdale found that the senior leadership team, combined with strong partnership working through the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB), had driven improvements across children’s services from "a very low starting point".
The report said the local authority had improved its strategic work with partner agencies to tackle child sexual exploitation (CSE), resulting in increased awareness of the issue and earlier identification and intervention for young people at risk.
The multi-agency Sunrise team was found to complete robust and sensitive assessments of children at risk of CSE, offering a “wide range of effective support to young people and their families”.
Meanwhile, the newly established Multi-Agency Screening Service, which is co-located with the Sunrise team, was found to be resulting in timely decision-making to reduce risks for children, including those at risk of CSE.
But a number of weaknesses were also apparent, according to the report.
Inspectors found that the local authority is not in contact with seven care leavers over the age of 19 years, so cannot be sure that these young people are safe.
Meanwhile, timescales for adoption had not improved significantly, and permanency is achieved too slowly for some looked-after children.
The report also reveals that the educational progress of looked-after children in secondary schools is unsatisfactory, while too many in secondary and special schools are subject to temporary exclusions.
And, although the authority was found to have good measures in place to tackle CSE, inspectors noted that not all children who go missing have an opportunity to speak to an independent person on their return, and information from return interviews is not used well enough to analyse patterns and trends.
In Bristol, the inspection report reveals that too many looked-after children do not achieve well in school, while outcomes for care leavers are poor, with half of them not in education, employment or training.
The quality of social work practice was found to be inconsistent, with insufficient priority given to children in need, and social work visits to some children subject to a protection plan not taking place often enough.
In terms of strengths, early help services for children and families were found to be well targeted and co-ordinated.
And the authority's troubled families project had effectively engaged and helped families involved with the service.
John Readman, director for people at Bristol City Council, said that while there are “considerable strengths” within children’s services at the authority, it is not delivering good services “consistently”.
“In particular, we recognise that we are not doing well enough for our care leavers and we are determined to improve their prospects as they move into work and adulthood,” he said.
“The inspectors acknowledged that we have good plans in place to improve and we will continue to strive to deliver the best possible services for all vulnerable children and young people in Bristol.”
Gail Hopper, director of children’s services at Rochdale Borough Council, said her authority's grading marks "significant" progress from a "very low point two years ago".
"Ofsted acknowledged that our partnership working in tackling child sexual exploitation is particularly effective, and that we are committed to improving our service at every level," she said.
"The report recognises that we now have the minimum requirements in place for making sure children are safeguarded and their welfare is promoted, but our ambitions stretch well beyond this.
"We are already addressing many of the points raised in this report, particularly with regards to support offered to care leavers, and we will not be satisfied until we deliver an outstanding service to every child and young person in the borough.”