Ofsted tells two further authorities to improve children's services
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Two more English authorities have been told by Ofsted that their children's services are not up to scratch.
Both Halton Borough Council, in the north west, and Hull City Council, in East Yorkshire, were given a “requires improvement” grading after being inspected in November.
The results further enforce the trend for authorities failing to do enough to warrant “good” or “outstanding” ratings under the current framework, which was introduced in November 2013.
Just last month CYP Now reported that three quarters of children’s services departments assessed under Ofsted’s single inspection framework have been rated in the bottom two grades, with nearly half inspected so far seeing a fall in their judgment compared with previous performance.
Including Halton and Hull, which were previously rated as “good” and “adequate” respectively, a total of 44 authorities have now been inspected as part of the three-year programme which is due to be completed by November 2016.
In Halton, inspectors said that although early intervention is increasingly effective in supporting children and families, the quality of plans, including child in need, child protection, and care, pathway, and personal education plans are not consistently good enough.
In Hull, inspectors praised services for families who experience domestic abuse, which they found helped improve the lives of children.
But concerns were raised about management oversight of children's cases, delays in some cases, and long waits for children to receive child and adolescent mental health services.
Mil Vasic, director for children and family services at Hull Council, said that while “there is still much to do”, the inspectors found that there are some strong and improving areas of work, in particular the council’s direct work with families. “This is particularly gratifying given the new and more demanding inspection framework,” he said.
“The report validates the commitment and efforts of frontline staff to support local families and improve the lives of young people. It also recognises much of the recent change that has been made, focusing more on working with children and families earlier.
“The safeguarding of children across our city is an absolute priority for us and we are confident that we can improve and take the service forward to obtain a good rating at a future inspection.”
