Ofsted praises children's services improvements in North East Lincolnshire
Tristan Donovan
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
North East Lincolnshire Council's children's services department has made significant progress and is now "good" despite some shortcomings in its child protection work, Ofsted has concluded.
An Ofsted inspection of services at the local authority, the first to be conducted since 2012, found that "outcomes for children in care are positive" and that care leavers have access to a good range of support.
The authority was also praised for its success in reducing staff turnover by more than half in the past two years and for improving the stability of placements for looked-after children, which increased from 63 per cent in 2015/16 to 73 per cent in 2017/18.
Inspectors also approved of how the council used performance information and "robust quality assurance" to identify its strengths and weaknesses.
"Despite cumbersome IT systems, key performance data is successfully extracted," Ofsted's inspection report states.
"This allows trends and themes in practice to be seen, including those areas which require improvement."
However, Ofsted found that the data did not always lead to improvement, noting how the timeliness of single assessments remained poor despite the availability of performance data.
Other issues identified by inspectors included the lack of take-up within the council and other agencies of the authority's preferred neglect assessment tool and the variable quality of child permanence reports.
The local authority's council for children in care, meanwhile, was deemed to be underdeveloped.
"The vast majority of children and young people in care do not participate in formal groups that are intended to have influence and to pass information between senior officers and members, and this is a shortfall," the inspection report states.
Ofsted also said the local safeguarding children board requires improvement, noting how it does not collect the performance information it needs and how board members are not routinely reviewing the performance information they do have.
"This hampers its ability to scrutinise partner agencies and hold each to account," warned Ofsted.
Ros Jones, lead member for children and young people in North East Lincolnshire Council, said Ofsted's good rating was a landmark for the authority.
"We are pleased with the outcome of the report, and that Ofsted have recognised the huge amount of work the authority has progressed in the last few years," said Jones.
"The service has changed significantly with a more stable workforce and good relationships with those in our care. There is always more to be done, but we've made significant steps in the right direction."
In 2012 Ofsted rated North East Lincolnshire "adequate" for safeguarding and good for services for looked-after children.
