Ofsted praises work to keep children at home but warns of danger of 'naive' practice
Neil Puffett and Joe Lepper
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
An initiative that is set to be expanded to other local authorities as part of an £84m drive to reduce the number of children in care is working well to keep families safely together, but some children are being left in "potentially damaging situations", Ofsted has warned.
A full inspection of children's services in Hertfordshire rated provision as "good" overall. Inspectors noted that the council's Family Safeguarding initiative, one of three programmes set to be rolled out across 20 councils with "high or rising" numbers of children in care as part of an £84m drive announced by Chancellor Philip Hammond in last month's Budget, has resulted in the help and protection that most children receive improving.
But they have warned that in some cases social workers involved in the initiative, which brings together children and adult social workers to support families, are displaying "naivety" and "over-optimism" and are not effectively challenging families.
"Inspectors saw good examples of specialist adult workers who are embedded in the family safeguarding teams using their expertise in domestic abuse, substance misuse and mental health to challenge children's social work colleagues about the impact on children of parents' risky behaviour," the Ofsted inspection report states.
"This strengthens practice. However, it is also apparent that in a very small number of cases, managers have failed to provide the right level of challenge."
Ofsted said Hertfordshire's approach involves motivating families to change behaviours that place their children at risk, while avoiding the need for over-intrusive interventions in order to keep families together safely.
But it warned that some managers and social workers "may have taken this shift in emphasis too far", and, by focusing on the minimum necessary intervention, have failed to get the right balance.
"On occasions, the collective commitment to engage, motivate and work with families has been accompanied by a degree of naivety and/or over-optimism," the report states.
"This is potentially damaging for children and young people," the report states.
However, inspectors did say that senior leaders have recognised the potential danger in the approach, and are taking action to strengthen existing checks and balances to make sure that risks are always addressed effectively.
The Family Safeguarding initiative was developed with £4.1m of government funding through the Department for Education's Social Care Innovation Programme funding. Hertfordshire has already helped Peterborough, Luton, Bracknell Forest and West Berkshire councils replicate its approach, through a further £11.6m innovation grant.
It is one of three projects set to be extended to other councils alongside the Family Valued initiative developed in Leeds, and North Yorkshire's No Wrong Door programme.
An evaluation published last year found that Family Safeguarding had helped cut the number of child protection and child in need cases and reduce the number of days children spend in care.
Despite concerns, inspectors praised the way children and adult social workers worked together as part of the initiative, sharing specialist skills and knowledge in areas such as domestic violence.
"The quality of partnership working, particularly in the multi-disciplinary family safeguarding teams, is a real strength," states the report.
"The presence in these teams of adult workers with a range of specialist skills, knowledge and experience provides plenty of opportunities for joint working.
"It also encourages and facilitates creative solutions to long-standing and/or deeply entrenched problems, including those associated with parental substance misuse, mental ill-health and/or domestic violence."
Inspectors were particularly impressed with leadership of children's services at the local authority, giving it an individual rating of "outstanding".
Hertfordshire's lead member for children, young people and families Teresa Heritage said: "I am delighted that Ofsted has recognised the outstanding work of our staff to improve the lives and outcomes of children, young people and their families.
"We also recognise that our journey of improvement is an ongoing one and appreciate there is always further work to be done."
