Ofsted praises ‘transformation’ of children’s services at Lancashire County Council
Nicole Weinstein
Monday, February 13, 2023
Ofsted has praised the “transformation” of Lancashire County Council's children’s services, lifting its rating from “requires improvement” to “good”.
Inspectors found that the service areas targeted for improvement since its last inspection in 2018 have been “transformed” and additional financial investment and focus on children is “evident”.
The service, now ranked “good” across the board, was praised for its “consistent journey of sustained improvement” by senior leaders who are “clearly sighted on areas of strategic priority”.
Early help services have been “successfully restructured” with partner agencies, resulting in an “impressive range” of support for families, and the “effective” implementation of the local authority’s chosen practice model has led to some “positive changes” for children and families, the report states.
Most children in care and care leavers live in stable homes that meet their needs and opportunities for children to participate, be included and receive advocacy are “positive and increasing”.
Relationship-based practice is embedded across all services and is “at the heart of” achieving positive outcomes for children, inspectors say.
The provision of information to care leavers about their health histories is one area marked for improvement.
The report states: “Too many care leavers do not have their full health histories, and so are not able to refer to and reflect on their health information when needed. The local authority is working with health partners to ensure that they provide this information, and to make clear to all professionals how they can support care leavers to access this information.”
Commenting on the report, which was published by Ofsted last month following the inspection in November and December 2022, Jacqui Old, executive director of education and children's services at Lancashire County Council, said: "Our children's services teams have been striving for continuous improvement and I am pleased to say that Ofsted has recognised this commitment.
"It is down to the passion and dedication of our workforce that we have received a 'good' rating, but we will not be complacent. There are areas we must improve on, and we will take on the findings from the report to continue to ensure positive outcomes for children, young people and families in our county.”
County Councillor Cosima Towneley, cabinet member for children and families, said: "It is excellent to see early help services, our child-focused approach and the Family Safeguarding model receiving the recognition they deserve."
