Ofsted praises improvements at children's services mutual

Sunderland's children's services was rated "inadequate" by Ofsted in July 2015 and was taken over by community interest company Together for Children (TfC) earlier this year.

Following its fifth monitoring visit, which took place last month, the inspectorate found that the mutual has made particular progress in improving services for children in need of help and protection.

They praised timely decision making on referrals and improved quality of management oversight.

Inspectors also noted improvements in children's social worker recruitment and support of staff. All members of the integrated contact and referral team are now permanent and 75 new starters have joined since April, they found.

"Staff receive supervision on a regular basis. Case discussion is, in the main, detailed. There are opportunities to discuss personal development and human resource issues," states Ofsted in a letter to Sue Carty, the operational lead for TfC.

The letter adds: "TfC is making sustained progress in improving services for children in need of help and protection.

"There is evidence of progress in many areas, including the timeliness of decision making on contacts and referrals, improved management oversight and better staff stability in some teams. Clear strategies are being developed to support practice and address staff recruitment."

Despite the praise, inspectors are concerned about the high number of re-referrals and the timeliness of assessments. They also noted that the use of agency staff within the assessment team is still high, at 50 per cent.

"There are still significant areas of performance and practice that need to improve, especially in respect of the high number of re-referrals, the timeliness of assessments and management oversight of the quality of practice," Ofsted's letter to TfC adds.

"TfC now needs to strengthen its focus on the quality of social work practice, especially in improving assessments and planning to ensure that the life experiences and outcomes for vulnerable children improve."

TfC has been running children's services in Sunderland in shadow form since September, prior to officially launching in April.

"It is encouraging that the progress we have made since becoming operational as a new company in April has been recognised by Ofsted," said TfC chair Deborah Jenkins.

"The ongoing efforts of staff from across the company are ensuring that the organisation is taking steady strides in the right direction. I'm pleased to see our progress to date and confident that the company will continue on this upward trajectory."

Meanwhile, Ofsted has also published its findings from their October monitoring visit to Dudley children's services, which was rated "inadequate" in April 2016.

Inspectors found that the council was making "positive progress" in improving the quality of support for children and reducing the staff turnover rate.

However, they remain concerned that just under a third of children's social workers are agency staff. Dudley is also struggling to recruit and retain team managers, inspectors found.

"This means that in a small number of children's cases management oversight and decision making are not consistently effective or timely. As a result, planning for these children is not as robust as it needs to be," states Ofsted in a letter to the council.